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Eric Schweig

June 13, 1999

Columbia, SC

When I first met Eric Schweig he was making the movie "Follow the River". I was still really little and he was my hero. This past summer I had the chance to see him again.

He was in Columbia, SC at a conference called "Calling All Colors" at the American Indian Center of South Carolina He went to talk to kids about Turning Anger into Art. Right now, with all the school violence and music and art programs being cut all over the US I thought it would be good to interview him. I wondered what he would have to say about how important art and music are to young people. And I wondered what he meant by turning anger into art.

We met at his hotel. I was surprised that he remembered me. I was too big for him to put on his shoulders this time so we sat down and just talked. While the videotape rolled Eric told me about himself, what carving means to him and what he thought about kids and the arts.

"What do you like about carving?" was my first question. I wondered how an actor became a carver.

"Its just a good time, to whittle away the hours and think, slow down. Because you get right into it, you know, uh um everything else kinda weird, when you are doin it for a few hours and uh you wake up and uh look around and its ah cause you’re so into it and thinkin about everything …you forget everything else except that and you can escape for a few hours."

"What did you want to be when you grew up?"

After a long pause Eric said "What did I want to be…uh… um, older so I could leave…" He laughed but I think this really shows how unhappy his childhood was.

"Did you ever think carving would be such an important part of your life?"

"No, I never thought that. It was always just something to do." He seemed surprised that his carving had become so important and that so many people liked it.

"How does your art help you now?"

"Well, it pays my rent and um and um probably the same thing it did when I was a kid. I just had fun doin it and the guy I carve with Vern Ers…. is a good friend of mine. He’s good company and uh um yeah it’s the same thing its just good its good fun and it pays my rent and I can buy all kinds of guitars and stuff like that, that I like." He made it sound practical but I got the feeling it is more to him than just a paycheck.

"Do you think you will ever go back to acting?" I almost held my breath. I think he is a good actor and I really hope he makes more movies.

"Uh, one of these days. I don’t know when, could be this summer, may be, I don’t know. Its up to them." He didn’t seem too interested in acting right then. But I hope he does make more movies.

"You travel to a lot of places to talk to young people about adoption, art and anger. Why?" What would make a man travel all over to talk to kids. On this trip he lost his luggage had to go through jet lag and time changes. What could make it worth it to him?

Eric laughed very hard at this question. He coughed and finally answered.

"Um because I think it’s a good idea to share my experience with them. So they don’t feel as lonely as they do because uh um or I can talk about art to give people options, so they won’t feel so stuck, because um when you are raised the way I was, you get stuck and you don’t know what to do. You don’t have any options because nobody taught you anything about options, so if I can go to different reservations or places like this or anywhere and tell people about their options, whether they are young or they are old, that they have that they might not have before, then it’s a good thing and if um who knows I mean anybody can carve, anybody can pick up a knife and sit down with somebody and get taught how to do it its not a big thing just depends on how bad you want to do something and not just carving..painting, ya know just whatever, sculpting, pottery just whatever."

I got the impression it is very important to him to help kids whom might be having hard times. He seems to care a lot about people, especially children.

Now we were getting to the important part of my interview.

"During the past couple of years many schools in the United States have cut their sports, music and art programs. What kind of an impact do you think this will have on young people?"

Eric didn’t answer right away. He looked really shocked. It never occurred to me he wasn’t aware of the changes in many school systems.

"Um, not a good one. Cause, um, you have the stuff…I didn’t even know that. They cut funding on what? Music?"

I nodded and waited for him to continue.

"That’s not good because…Sports is one thing but music and art are the backbone of the country. It freaks me out that they would do that because that’s what uh that’s gonna be one go the only things that um that have left to hang onto is uh our musicians and our artists, that’s gonna have a really bad impact. I can’t even …that freaks me out…I can’t even think about what’s gonna happen what would happen if we didn’t have them but uh they’ll find out. I’m sure…pretty fast."

It was pretty obvious that he is very concerned about this issue. If art and music got him through the hard times in his life where would he have been without it? And what future artists, musicians and actors might be missing these things now because so many schools don’t think these things are important. It is important to have computers and activities. And it is nice to have good school buildings. But art and music and theater are important too.

"With all the school violence and the shootings in the news recently, how do you feel that a return to the art world would give kids an outlet for their anger?"

He got very excited about this.

"That would be awesome. I went to a school in Denver in 93. It was an alternative High School and uh it was funny because all of the kids…I wanted to see the art work because these were all troubled teens and usually you got pretty cool paintings and I knew it as soon as I walked into their art room there they were just uh you know stuff, uh Conan Comics and you ever read Heavy Metal magazine? You know the art work in there? They had stuff like that all over the walls Really good stuff. And they had started a um a multi cultural program and uh they designed tee shirts and um stuff like that, and uh the same schools that uh kicked em out were phoning them back up and asking about the multicultural program and ‘could we have some tee shirts?’ . But um that would make a huge difference if they cut funding to all these to music and art There’s gonna be a lot more uh situations like Columbine popping up. They are cornering all these kids, they are painting them into a corner and they are gonna come out swingin!"

"How do you turn anger into art?"

He didn’t have to think about this. He seemed to know exactly what he wanted to say.

"Uh it’s real easy. Instead of lashing out at other people, you just you channel all that energy through your hands and right into a piece of wood and whatever appeals to whatever you think is cool to carve or paint or whatever its that simple just comes out on paper or canvas or comes out of a piece of wood. There’s something about whacking away at a piece of wood too that with an adze or a chainsaw or a chisel or um a straight knife that um that’s good too. If you ... it’s even better if you have to work hard to get what you want to get the results that you want."

"What would you say to young people who are abused at home or picked on at school? What advice would you give them?"

This was Eric’s chance to share his thoughts. Maybe this ids what he wished would have happened in his life.

"Uh it would depend on the situation, how uh how bad it is because some kids lives are threatened it’s that bad. Um ya got of course ya gotta talk about it tell an adult who is not in the home. If you an um, I realize that sometimes they are threatened when you are beat up at home or whatever is going on there a lot of parents that think like that or act like that will tell their kids ‘don’t tell anybody or you’ll get a worse beating but um, but if they can even go to ah local authorities go to the police and uh tell them what’s happening because that’s assault and um there’s no excuse for it from anybody and uh at school if you gotta ya have to defend yourself if somebody is gonna beat you."

It is nice to see someone who has had bad experiences but still thinks about others. Eric cares about all people, especially children, and I think he does a lot to try and help them. By sharing his past he shows them that no matter how bad things are you can succeed.

He shook my hand and thanked me for the interview. The thing I liked best was that he treated me like an adult. By respecting me, he encouraged me to respect him.

Eric is not just a great carver and actor. Eric is a great human being. I am proud to call him my friend.

Thanks Eric! You ROCK!


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