Eric Hopkins

Atmospheres is filmmaker Dale Schierholt’s portrait of artist Eric Hopkins. Hopkins, who began his artistic journey at the Rhode Island School of Design and an early apprenticeship with the renowned glass artist Dale Chihuly, landed back home on the Island of North Haven, Maine where he established himself as an original artistic voice in the celebrated MidCoast Maine art scene. 

“It's kind of funny to say, but I’m not that interested in art,” Hopkins says in the film, “what I’m really interested in is the world”. Atmospheres follows Hopkins as he explores his passion for the natural world, in particular the sky, through his art. Influenced by the American space program of the sixties and seventies, the artist has been studying the sky and “collecting clouds” with the goal of interpreting those atmospheres through painting, relief sculptures and now a return to his original artistic medium - glass. 

More than a story about art and the artistic process, the film captures the atmosphere of being with a man who hasn’t allowed his life’s tragedies to stop him from choosing happiness and focusing on the “good stuff” the world has to offer.