Wreckless Eric's first art show opens tonight in Decatur

Although there are seemingly few firsts that a legitimate punk icon can achieve in 2013, the debut solo art show by Eric Goulden, better known as Wreckless Eric, will be unveiled tonight (Fri., Nov. 1) at Upstairs and to the Left, an art space inside Decatur's Brick Store Pub. The show, titled Paintings by an Antique Pop Musician, is curated by local art dealer, collector, and agent Shawn Vinson (Vinson Art). Tonight's opening will include a live solo performance by Goulden at the New Street Studio.

According to Goulden, Atlanta musician, former Wreckess Eric collaborator, and art collector Clay Harper first suggested the show, and encouraged Goulden and Vinson to become Facebook friends. Working with musicians is nothing new for Vinson, who had already curated an art show locally for Billy Childish. For Goulden, art is an old passion that has been rekindled through his D.I.Y. approach to music. Like numerous others from U.K. punk's "Class of 1977," Goulden was an art school student who put painting on the back burner when he rose to pop stardom, alongside fellow Stiff Records originals like Elvis Costello and Ian Dury.

After his opinion on the music industry soured in 1980, Goulden began a run as an independent musician that continues to this day. When Goulden and his wife and musical collaborator Amy Rigby wanted to release the album A Working Museum in 2012, they turned to Kickstarter. Top-dollar donors got original pieces of art by Goulden. Both creating and selling art reignited his interest in painting. "The more I sold, the more I kind of liked it, so now I've got myself back into it," Goulden says.

Like his pop songwriting, Goulden's art reflects his interests: Music, guitar playing, and every day observations. "I can spend hours staring at the front of an amplifier, a transistor radio, a camera, a cassette player, or a guitar," he says. "They are what I know about, so that's what I tend to gravitate toward."

Goulden also has a penchant for painting traffic signs. "There are signs everywhere we look. But we almost don't see them," he says. "They are orders to do things that sometimes don't make much sense. I figured if I paint them, they will make less sense."

Another common theme in the exhibit is guitar chords, an interest that began when, as a child, Goulden stole the back page of his sister's folk songbook, which had diagrams of chords, two of which make up the signature Wreckless Eric tune, "Whole Wide World."

Having a creative outlet to celebrate, and sometimes mock, mundane things makes art fun for Goulden: "That's the good thing about art. You can make whatever sense you want it to make or not to make."

Whether or not there are more art shows in the future is up in the air, but Goulden expects to do more solo performances. That's because Fire Records is slated to re-release Wreckless Eric's back catalog, except for the early Stiff Records material, which Goulden said is "a bone of contention at the moment."

Painting will be on display at the Brick Store through Nov. 30.