Born with a gift for art that rapidly developed over the years, Erica Arndts is making a difference with meaningful murals and striking paintings.
"I've always loved drawing as a kid. I think we flock to things that we're good at and I was always really good at drawing. I would look at Disney movie covers back in the VHS days and I would sit there and just draw the cover and my mom thought I was tracing it and she'd say, 'Well, show me how you did that.' And I'd sit there and draw it. And she was like, 'Okay, she's got a talent here.' So, my parents were always really encouraging. I had coloring books and just basic coloring tools, nothing fancy at all. And I always loved art class growing up in middle school, high school. I really learned about painting and I found that painting is so much more forgiving than drawing because if I messed up in a drawing, I would erase and erase and erase till there were holes in the paper."
Erica's practice and patience have led her to a successful career as she creates colorful outdoor murals and paintings, some featuring patriotism, nature, family, and Christ. (Rather listen?)
For years, Erica worked in the corporate world, "Was working a full-time job, corporate life, did not like it. I knew that this is not the end all for me. It can't be because I just cannot do this for the rest of my life. And so I was always painting on the side. I would wake up super early in the morning, 5:00 a.m. - paint after work, paint. And I would sell paintings to friends and anybody who would buy them. And then when social media came out, that really elevated my audience to get my work out there to more people. And in 2015, I was able to quit my job and just paint full-time."
A New Faith Factor, Moving Away From Darkness
(Richard) Some of your creations involve Jesus and faith and nature. Do you ever sense God is sort of inspiring or nudging or guiding you towards something?
(Erica) "I do. And my walk to faith is very recent. To be honest, I would say I was into the occult type practices and I didn't even realize it, but I was into the darker things, the darker things that the Bible says do not do - where I would seek out psychics, I would do tarot cards, all kinds of things that now I have learned are really bad. So, I feel like, I mean, it could have even been more like demonic oppression, which I truly believe in that and I think we can open ourselves up to things that we do not realize are demonic and evil and the minute you open yourself up to that realm, you are at there, you're like a ragdoll to these forces.
So I feel like I had seen breadcrumbs being laid out that God was nudging me.
I believe he was like ... I came across some podcasts and they were talking about some things going on during COVID and it was making me think of things in a different way and they would always relate it back to the Bible.
I would think, 'Why are they talking about the Bible?' And it bothered me a little bit because I wasn't into that. But the more they kept talking about things in relation to the Bible, I thought, 'Well, I mean, you can't deny that. That's historical. That's fact and I love history. I am a natural truth seeker. I will dig in research to find the truth of things.' And so, I started digging and my mind was just blown!
I became obsessed with learning as much as I could because it was just so different from what I always thought. I think I had an aversion to anything Christian, Catholic, Jesus related. I wanted nothing to do with it. I was into praying to the universe and the universe will guide you, not God. I believed that Jesus existed, but I didn't think he was anything better than Buddha and all of these other gods and false gods and everything.
I was very led astray for a long time, but the more I learned - and I think the more God was nudging me and laying these breadcrumbs - I think God must have known 'She loves to research things. I'm just going to drop this breadcrumb and she's going to go berserk and it's going to open up everything.' And that is exactly what happened. And the next thing I know, I'm doing paintings of Jesus. I had a mural. Someone reached out to (me to) paint a mural of Jesus and I just thought, 'What is going on? How have I been painting for 10 years? No one's ever asked me to do a Christian style painting, a Jesus painting until now when I am just now learning about this and questioning things.' So I don't believe in coincidences everything was just falling perfectly into place. I thank God for that because I have no idea where I would be right now."
In our complete podcast interview just below, Erica shares with Richard her fascination with art, how she becomes inspired, and how she enjoys companionship with her 'best buddy,' George.
