A professional artist for 35 years, Eric Segel earned his Master of Fine Arts Degree from California State University, Fullerton. He has exhibited in numerous national galleries and professional showings, including the prestigious "Festival of the Arts" in Laguna Beach California where he currently maintains his studio. Eric has created artwork for such distinguished institutions as Disney, and the Irvine Company, numerous private collectors, and has created a "signature" line of Aloha Shirts for the venerable Hawaiian shirt company Kahala.

Whether his ideas end up as dynamic ceramic sculpture, vivid pastel paintings, or as part of his signature collection of aloha shirts. Eric Segel's style is as unmistakable as it is refreshing. With a connoisseur's eye and unbridled creativity Segel presents an endless variety of compellingly creative visual adventures that spark the imagination and delight in the excitement of perpetual youth.

He began with clay. While most artists spin pots with it, Segel took a different approach. Working by hand he would mold the clay into wonderful whimsical sculptures of people and animals, as well as his now signature sloe eyed fish. He also creates erratic and sensually shaped slab pots that he decorates with carved stylized images and abstract shapes. Inspired by the rugged and dramatic landscape of the west, to which he moved from Boston in 1985, he began working in a looser more aggressive style. Ripping and tearing the clay and imbedding it with nails and pieces of metal he created works with a unique unconventional beauty. Segel's ability to balance the whimsical, the rough, the stylized, and the refined is a testimonial to this prolific artists versatility and creativity.

Segel's work on paper reflects the same innovative approach but features images that resonate with joy and celebration. They are of fine wine, cigars with bottles of cognac; martini clubs and sushi bars; a wine chugging Bacchus and a pizza tossing chef; woody wagons with surfboards on the roof and beach front taco stands; tropical landscapes and scenes of festive island life. The images 

convey Segel's enthusiasm for good things and good times, and were a logical choice when Kahala, the Hawaii based maker of Aloha shirts wanted to create a signature collection of wearable art.

Segel believes that process is art. For Eric a finished work accumulates layers of beauty with each stage of the creative process, and every touch of the artist's hand. Each piece, he feels, should recall instead of hide the process in and of its creation. Working intuitively and with the freedom of abandoned control Segel's work displays a continuous dynamic, natural action where nothing seems forced or contrived. Always present is the interplay between clay, drawing and painting, line, stroke and surface.

Like his oft-depicted beloved Chinese meals Segel's work presents a savory collection of exotic ingredients and delicacies bold and striking, rich in color flavor, style and texture. Segel's unique, romantic vision and his simple sophistication have earned him places in prominent collections worldwide. Whether displayed on a pedestal or hung on the wall, Segel's expressive and playful images are always vivid and pleasing centerpieces of attention and conversation starters.