{"id":56453,"date":"2021-02-02T11:37:42","date_gmt":"2021-02-02T17:37:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=56453"},"modified":"2021-02-05T10:37:26","modified_gmt":"2021-02-05T16:37:26","slug":"david-ericson-is-moving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/david-ericson-is-moving\/","title":{"rendered":"David Ericson is Moving After Twenty Years Downtown"},"content":{"rendered":"

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My late grandfather always asked two questions when house hunting: \u201cIs the school paid for?\u201d and \u201cHow far is the nearest liquor store?\u201d So why is David Ericson, whose gallery is in an 1800s red brick 2-story charmer smack next to the downtown DABC, moving to the Avenues after 20 years?<\/h4>\n

<\/h4>\n

\u201cI had the opportunity to sell the building at what I think is a very fair price,\u201d Ericson says. \u201cBy selling it to the owner of the property next door I guaranteed my retirement whenever I want. I\u2019m not ready to retire yet. But I was afraid that if I waited 10 or 20 years, because I have this narrow little piece of property that\u2019s 33 feet wide, I might not be able to sell it when I needed or wanted to. So, I took the opportunity to sell it now and put the money into a different piece of property.\u201d<\/h4>\n
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David Ericson Fine Art has been located in this 19th-century home for almost 20 years.<\/p><\/div>\n

And does he care to tell us why he\u2019s\u00a0really<\/em> leaving downtown? If that answer were, perhaps, to help others in a similar situation?<\/h4>\n

<\/h4>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a homeless encampment in the backyard next door,\u201d Ericson replies. \u201cI am disappointed in the city that they haven\u2019t taken better care of that. I probably have as good an experience with the homeless in downtown Salt Lake City as anybody because my business for 20 years tried to improve the quality of the area around their \u2018candy store.\u2019\u201d<\/h4>\n

<\/h4>\n

He points out that the DABC is where many people \u201cget their calories and their self-medication\u201d and says he has observed over time \u201cthat not 10% of the people on the street are local Utah people. . . and \u00a0I think 99% of them are collateral damage from the Vietnam War, either veterans themselves or children of veterans or people who were influenced by that era. They have social and emotional problems that we need to help them with, but we make it too easy for them to survive without helping themselves,\u201d Ericson states.<\/h4>\n

<\/h4>\n
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David Ericson in his current space, surrounded by paintings he hopes to sell so he won’t have to transport them to the new space.<\/p><\/div>\n

His downtown location is safe for his customers, he says, and he has valued their loyalty. \u201cI bet I had no more than half a dozen seriously intoxicated people in the gallery in 20 years. That\u2019s not much. \u00a0I had one yesterday and it was the first in five years.\u201d There is a pause . . . \u201cMy wife just said from across the room, \u2018That\u2019s because you let him in.\u2019 And I did.\u201d The art dealer adds that he hopes he made a difference being next to the liquor store for that length of time.<\/h4>\n

Ericson closes on the new place on Feb. 8, but with 500 paintings hanging on the walls of his present location and a remodeling job ahead of him at the new locale, figures it will be April before he moves. And, as he\u2019ll only have room for 500 artworks in the new place if he hangs them floor to ceiling, everything is reduced (by appointment) starting March 1\u00a0st<\/sup>. (Some items are on sale now, so it pays to check in.) \u201cWith all the running around I\u2019m doing, the best way to reach me is on my cell: 801-300-0546,\u201d Ericson says. \u201cI can get down to 200 South in 15 minutes from home at any time.”<\/h4>\n

\u201cIn the old house I could hang a 30-piece show and not change a nail. The new space will be different. It will take a while to get used to how to manage it.\u201d<\/h4>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/h4>\n

The new space is located across from Lowell School on the lower Avenues at 140 North E Street. \u201cIt\u2019s a 1960 commercial building,\u201d says Ericson. \u201cIt had a preschool in it for the last 20 years that I remember. It was originally built by an electrician who had an electrical company and I remember seeing light fixtures hanging down in the windows.\u201d He learned about the available location from his good friend of 50 years, Werner Weixler, who owns the building next door and made needed introductions.<\/h4>\n

<\/h4>\n

\u201cThe neighborhood has traditionally had artists,\u201d says Ericson, who knows these things. He lists Mahonri Young, A.B. Wright, Lee Greene Richards, and Cornelius Salisbury, adding that C.R. Savage lived on 3\u00a0rd<\/sup> Avenue and A Street. \u201cThe lower Avenues were the first middle-class, what we would call a “subdivision” area, outside of downtown to develop in Salt Lake City,\u201d he explains.<\/h4>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a mid-century modern building and I\u2019m going in that direction with it. It will lend itself very much to living artists; I\u2019ll have to figure out a way to present the deceased people interestingly, if that makes sense \u2013 I\u2019m confident that it will be fun. It\u2019s the artists who make it interesting, who make people think and react and participate.\u201d He plans to do all the work himself. \u201cI have a hard time paying somebody to do something I can\u2019t do myself,\u201d he says with a laugh. \u201cI\u2019ve worked on lots of things over my life.”<\/h4>\n
\"\"<\/a>

The gallery is full of close to 500 paintings which Ericson has discounted while he is still in the location.<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/h4>\n

<\/h4>\n

\u201cThe central downtown has just become so expensive,\u201d says Ericson, who had done some scouting around. \u201cArt galleries are very glamorous to people on the outside but it\u2019s not very profitable. For me, the biggest profit came from buying a piece of property and selling it.\u201d He adds, \u201cWe\u2019re excited to move to the Avenues.\u201d<\/h4>\n

<\/h4>\n

This writer noted that we had delayed our interview by a day because Ericson had been busy selling a whopping 25 paintings, which would appear to be lucrative. \u201cI discounted them, so my profit margin isn\u2019t the same as normal,\u201d he replies. \u00a0\u201cThe hardest thing for me is that I have to maintain the value of the artists\u2019 things and then I can discount the things that I own or that I\u2019ve acquired from some other source and what I sell it for is based on what I\u2019m willing to sell it for and not what I have to guarantee the artist back,\u201d says Ericson.<\/h4>\n

<\/h4>\n

\u201cMy policy has always been that I\u2019ll take back anything for what you paid for it towards anything else in the store. I get back 20 paintings a year. And, after 40 years you have a lot of extra paintings. It helps me. It means that I\u2019m selling things that I\u2019m willing to take back if there\u2019s any question or issue and I\u2019ve had people return them after 20 or 30 years. They\u2019re tired of them and they turn them back in and I pass them along to somebody else. But it also keeps me honest. In the art business, that\u2019s the most important thing that you can do. Most people don\u2019t understand some of the sacrifices you make to help the artist. Because that\u2019s all we\u2019re really trying to do, is support our friends.\u201d<\/h4>\n

<\/h4>\n

And should he find he misses his old hood, the Avenues liquor store is just a few short blocks away.<\/h4>\n
<\/div>\n
David Ericson Fine Art<\/a> is currently located at 418 South 200 West, Salt Lake City, where the current inventory has been discounted.\u00a0 The new gallery will not be operational in its new location for several weeks.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My late grandfather always asked two questions when house hunting: \u201cIs the school paid for?\u201d and \u201cHow far is the nearest liquor store?\u201d So why is David Ericson, whose gallery is in an 1800s red brick 2-story charmer smack next to the downtown DABC, moving to the Avenues […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":844,"featured_media":56628,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_piecal_is_event":false,"_piecal_start_date":"","_piecal_end_date":"","_piecal_is_allday":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,14],"tags":[1055],"class_list":["post-56453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gallery_spotlights","category-visual_arts","tag-david-ericson-fine-art"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Screen-Shot-2021-02-02-at-1.45.35-PM.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-29 07:36:59","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/844"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56453"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56453\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56664,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56453\/revisions\/56664"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}