Artist Profile: Erikas Chesonis
OCTOBER 20, 2023
Erikas Chesonis is a Texas-based illustrator. Inspired by mid-century design and folk art, he uses simple color palettes and shapes to distill nature into its basic forms and portray it in a unique and colorful way.
Erikas Chesonis
Austin, TX (originally Rochester, NY)
Favorite bird?
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher
With a lot of my animal art I just hope it helps people appreciate them a bit more, and maybe think about our role in their livelihoods. Even if it’s just to think, “hey, that’s pretty cool.” Maybe next time you can see a bird, you wonder how it got that really long tail.
How has nature been a source of inspiration for you?
Looking at my recent posts, it would seem animals are all I draw lately. With birds in particular, they come in such a diverse range of shapes and sizes, but all have this beautiful geometry to them that just makes me want to draw them, find new ones, draw them, again and again. I mean they’re basically just dinosaurs living around us people!
Tell us about your most memorable bird experience.
I don’t think I can pick one, but I really love the moments you can have daily (like hearing our red-bellied woodpecker friend Marty knock on our house, or visit Flipper the green heron at the neighborhood pond) just as much as the thrill of hearing a new call in a tree and playing detective to find out what it is (the other day it was a summer tanager).
