How this Began
100 Shores Background
One Hundred Shores began with a wanderlust. A desire to know more than the few creeks and rivers which become our routine stomping grounds in the Chesapeake. From that wanderlust, came the idea to create something out of the journey, something that connects us to the water and to each other. Over the course of 2022, the One Hundred Shores journey took the artist Eric Jackson to 100 different shorelines from Pennsylvania to Virginia Beach. Supported by grants from the state and other regional groups, water was collected from the shore. Each water sample was used to create one of 100 different shirts, each marked with the GPS coordinates of that shore.
Now, One Hundred Shores is a small but mighty team of conversation minded artisans. Each shirt is still handmade using water from the Chesapeake watershed, with many special editions throughout the year supporting organizations and non-profits in the area.
About Eric
Most of my work is a contemporary interpretation of wildlife from the mid-Atlantic and Chesapeake Bay region. I think of the majority of my paintings as traditional wildlife illustration- fish, sea life, waterfowl, birds and the landscapes they inhabit, but with a modern and unique vibe.
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While an artist and art educator by trade, I originally went to school to study biology and marine science. Since a young age, I have had a deep interest in water quality and aquatic life, especially in and around the Chesapeake region where I grew up. Now as an artist, I am very interested in exploring our relationship to the water- and to nature as a whole- from different perspectives.
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This includes connections based on emotion or memories, but also wider connections based on conservation or ecology. I’ve also become fascinated with the idea of using the water itself as part of the content of an artwork conceptually. As an avid outdoorsmen, I began collecting small samples of water in water bottles when I would be out on the river. I bring those water samples back to use in mixing dyes that I then use to render my images.
