- Aerick Burton combines origami and taxidermy to create his trauma-free art form of taxigami.

We dive into Aerick's love of origami and his passion of sharing the art form with others.

Well, today I am talking with Aerick Burton, who is a visual artist, he's a photographer.

What else are you?

You do so many different things.

- Oh yeah, I do graphic design, a lot of paper arts, fiber arts.

I would just say an artist.

I try not to box myself in too much.

- Yeah, you do do so many different things.

And the thing that caught my eye was I was reading about you, and I saw something called taxigami, and it sounded so interesting to me.

You gave it that name, describe that, what is taxigami?

- Yeah, so taxigami is basically the merging of origami and taxidermy.

I call it Trauma-Free Taxidermy.

- You know, I discovered origami.

My brother came back from Japan and brought me a paper folding origami kit.

- Oh Yeah.

- And I was hooked.

For me it was really, as a kid, it was really, really relaxing, so what does origami do for you?

- It definitely didn't start off as relaxing as it is now, but it was more of, I got one of those origami kits for either my birthday or for Christmas one year and just decided to give it a try.

I had trouble sleeping in high school, and so I would go out to a local coffee shop and just sit.

And so I took my origami kit one day and just fell in love.

I was there for hours, just folding and folding and folding, and just got hooked that way, yeah.

- And you merged, I saw something that you displayed.

It was in 2018 at ArtPrize, right?

- [Aerick] Oh yes.

- [Kim] Was it a bonsai?

- [Aerick] Yeah, yep.

- [Kim] Oh my gosh.

What went into that?

How did that whole concept, it's so beautiful, but how did that whole concept even happen?

- Yeah, thank you, so that was a very big project that I don't even know where it came from really.

It was a lot going on.

We were in the process of moving, and we had a daughter on the way, and this was gonna be my first ArtPrize, so I was trying to think of something big, and I taught my wife how to fold these butterflies.

And so we would sit in bed and fold butterflies.

We just got to this point where we had this massive amount, and what to do with it, and I've always noticed those little wire trees with the rocks on them and wanted to do one of those large-scale.

- It was my favorite piece.

And then the second favorite piece was I think you somehow merged that with graphic art.

I saw this beautiful scene.

How did you do that?

- Yeah, so that, like taxigami, I coined that as digigami, 'cause I have a pretty big background in photography as well.

So what I would do is I would create these origami pieces and then photograph them and then put them into digitally created backgrounds.

- Yeah, it looks like a scene that you're ready to just step into.

- Yeah.

- I think you displayed, if I'm not mistaken, I saw something also in 2021.

It was like a three-dimensional thing.

It just showed your love and respect for animals again.

Can you talk a little bit about that?

- [Aerick] Yeah, so that was the next ArtPrize that I did.

For that one, I did a 10-piece series of taxigami pieces, focusing a lot on endangered species and just our role as humans and how we can help.

- [Kim] And you always had a love for elephants too, as I.

- Oh yeah, that's my main animal.

That's probably my favorite origami thing to fold as well.

- What do you love about elephants?

- Oh, man, just everything, just they're massive, just this gentle giant kind of feeling, the strength and just the way that a lot of origami designs aren't as realistic.

And I found an elephant design that I really like, and I was able to tweak a bit to really give a more realistic shape to.

And so it's just one of my favorites to fold and to see afterwards as well.

And that's how I started the taxigami.

Also, it was the first heads that I did were elephant heads.

- Oh wow, you can hang those on the wall, and feel good about it, right?

- Oh yeah.

(chuckles) - When did you realize, I have a gift that everybody else doesn't have.

- I started getting involved with local galleries.

They pushed me to show something different, and I was like, "Well, I guess I can.

"I do a little bit of origami."

From there, I was able to develop my own voice with the origami and how I showcase my work.

I try to put more of the message inside of it where you have to dig for the message versus it just being right there.

I try to make it so that my art is accessible to all ages, especially kids.

And when you get too brash, it can alienate people or push people away.

Ultimately, the biggest message in my work is love and peace, and I think that even just that in itself can really heal a lot of the problems per se, that are plaguing us, yeah.

- You seem like a zen kind of guy too.

But then I read that you're a break dancer.

- Yes.

- I'm from Detroit.

So it used to break out on the street, right?

- Oh yeah.

- Are you still a break dancer?

- I am, so I took a hiatus for a while, but now that me and my wife recently opened up a studio where she does dance and yoga Pilates, and then we also host different art shows and such.

But since we've had that space, it's been a lot easier to get back into dancing and break dancing.

- What would you say art means to you?

When you look over your life, and you see that the effects that it has from when you first discovered it to where it's taken you now, what does it mean, what does it do for you?

- Yeah, art is pretty much everything.

It's my peace, my solitude.

It's how I see the world, how I feel the world sees me.

It's pretty much a part of every aspect of my life, not to say that my art is going to change everything, but hopefully at least, it'll get people thinking about it a little bit more.

- That's the thing is it opens minds.

And if you can open the minds of little kids, right?

- [Aerick] Oh yes.

- I think that's where the magic lies.

You know, Aerick, it's been so much fun learning about you and talking to you today.

I just wanted to thank you so much for giving me some of your time.

I know you're a busy guy, so I appreciate that.

- Yeah, definitely, thank you, it's been a pleasure.

(audience clapping) - [Announcer] Support for Kalamazoo Lively Arts is provided by the Irving S. Gilmore Foundation, helping to build and enrich the cultural life