Ezra Dickinson. Renaissance Man Of The Pacific North West

Ezra Dickinson - he’s a choreographer, activist, performer, sculptor, painter, animator, filmmaker, and street artist - a true renaissance man.

Ezra features in the short film Sodo Express (2021).

I won’t limit you with too many specifics, but give us a bit of the background spiel…

I’ve grown up an artist, my path has never much wavered from creativity. As I grow older, I find new connections and relationships between art forms. These connections fuel my need to incorporate new mediums into my vision and understanding. My mother put me in ballet at the age of 4. My father encouraged me to explore drawing/painting and walking. My learning expanded into bronze casting classes and ceramics. Soon after my first ceramics classes, my mother found me an apprenticeship at a pottery studio in our hometown.  Ballet, pottery, drawing, and baseball were my main creative outlets until my later teens when it became apparent that I would need to make some sort of decision. I was at an advanced level of ballet at this point and my choice was between auditioning to join a ballet company somewhere in the world or investigating my interest in choreography and other forms of art through college.

I chose college, and from this new path, my understanding of modern/experimental dance forms grew, and my interaction with artists practicing in a wide range of mediums filled my perspective. In my later teens, I found inspiration in graffiti artists, and with time I became one myself.

Soon ceramics came back into my life. A few years into college I had joined a handful of modern/experimental performance groups and was happy touring around the country performing constantly. In my own creative pursuits, I started to blend forms, bringing sculpture into performance in the form of masks, and costume construction, street art started to inform how I thought of what a performance location could be.

This talk was given at a local TEDx event. Ezra Dickinson shares his experience as the son of a schizophrenic mother, encouraging deeper conversations about mental health and how it impacts our families and society.

My main question was ” how could I create a message that could be heard and understood?’

I wanted to find new avenues that performance had not yet investigated. I would say this pursuit is a huge focus in my practice nowadays and has been for close to ten years. In my current form, I have been learning how to build houses from a general contractor for the last three years. I aim to build my own home in the near future. I’m performing for five dance/performance artists (when Covid is not running amuck). I have a robust choreographic practice of my own, that focuses on creating gifts for my schizophrenic mother. Along with painting murals, creating ceramic works, and always looking for the next new medium to learn about. I have heavily positioned my graffiti/street art practice towards activism, speaking directly to issues at hand in my region, homelessness, rent control, police violence, and general advocacy for those less fortunate.

There are some great pieces about Ezra online, do check out the Seattle Times piece ‘What Can’t He Do’ and I especially enjoy his illustrations from Sketchbook Porn. You can also check out Ezra’s site here.