About the Artist
About Erick
I’ve had an active imagination and a love for creativity since childhood. I found a certain kind of solace in allowing my mind to wander, creating different characters and worlds. That imagination found its way into working with clay, painting, and eventually storytelling.
My grandfather was the first person to introduce me to story structure, although in a rather unusual way. He collected stamps and wrote fairy tales in his spare time, combining the two for his own enjoyment. Later in life, he would read his stories to children at a local library.
Using the imagery on stamps, he showed me how a visual story could unfold through progression, with one image leading naturally into another.
By middle school, I was writing short stories accompanied by my own pencil illustrations. In high school, art became a more prominent part of my life as I explored drawing self-portraits, landscapes, everyday objects, and cartoon characters.
After high school, my interest expanded into film, and I pursued studies in screenwriting. Learning the craft of cinematic storytelling opened another dimension of creativity for me, bringing together imagery, imagination, and narrative.
Of course, art and writing weren’t my only interests.
Along the way, I explored Qigong, meditation, and Muay Thai. These practices sometimes took me in directions away from my creative pursuits, but they also introduced different ways of understanding movement, awareness, and stillness.
And I’ve found that what captures our imagination early in life has a way of returning.
Today, living in Sedona, Arizona, I’ve found an environment where that creative spirit can flourish again. The quieter pace of a smaller community, the surrounding landscape, and the opportunity to walk and explore nature regularly have renewed my imagination.
Sometimes inspiration comes from a walk among the red rocks. Other times, it arrives while looking out the window beside my desk, or on a simple scenic drive.
All of these experiences have gradually led to Wild Roots Society.
Wild Roots Society wasn’t built around a business plan. It emerged slowly through years of experience, curiosity, and the simple enjoyment of creating.
Through art, storytelling, observation, and stillness, I’ve found an invitation to look more deeply—not only at the world around me, but also within myself.
To slow down, pay attention, and discover what naturally resonates.
— Erick Rook
My Studio
My creative journey began with traditional media—paint, pencil, paper, ink, and clay. But in 2023, I discovered an unexpected new passion: 3D art.
I had never imagined that creating art digitally would become such an important part of my creative life.
My first exploration was learning Unreal Engine by building a Star Wars hangar bay, complete with stormtroopers, spacecraft, and the surrounding environment. At first, the process felt overwhelming. But as the scene gradually came together, so did a new sense of creative possibility.
Finishing that project opened the door to an entirely different way of bringing imagined worlds to life.
Since then, my digital studio has expanded to include Blender, Houdini, Gaea, Affinity, Rebelle, and DaVinci Resolve Studio.
Today, I enjoy moving between traditional illustration, digital painting, 3D environments, and cinematic storytelling. Each medium offers a different way to explore an idea, and often the most interesting discoveries happen when they come together.
Observation is the bridge—but the destination belongs to the observer.