Meet Erik_
Humble. Grateful. Obsessive about the work.
Erik has been married to Yvette for twenty years, and he'll tell you she's the reason he's still an artist. When she had a nightmare years ago, he sketched it like a police artist while she described every detail. It still hangs in his studio.
A 1994 graduate of the Ringling School of Art and Design who founded CygnusArts, Inc. in 1997, he believes training and persistence beat natural talent, and versatility beats specialization.
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Read Erik's full story
Erik Pflueger has been married to his wife Yvette for twenty years. She is the reason he is still an artist. He would tell you that himself — that being married to a creative is not easy, that she has sat through a lot of his noise, that he would be nowhere without her.
True story: when she had a nightmare years ago, he pulled out a pad and sketched it out like a police sketch artist, asking her to describe every detail, adding his own here and there. She loved it. It still hangs in his studio.
He is the kind of person who stays on the phone with a client twice a week, sometimes three times, going over every detail of a drawing until the client is certain it is right. He is the kind of person who sends updates at every stage because he believes the client deserves to see the work evolve.
He is a reader of history, a student of the great artists who have gone before, and a believer in education, repetition, and persistence as the foundation of any craft. He will tell you that natural ability means nothing without training and practice. He believes in versatility over specialization. He believes his job is to create things that do not exist, act as if they do, and make them tangible enough for other people to perceive them as real.
He is humble. He is grateful. He is obsessive about the work in a way that makes everyone around him better.
Born in 1972, Erik Pflueger overcame an early diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder and went on to graduate from the Ringling School of Art and Design in 1994. He established his design and illustration company CygnusArts, Inc. in 1997, and for that company he has created hundreds of architectural renderings, scores of caricatures, several children's books, and four album covers for local bands.
Beginning in 2018, he began doing art for celebrated film director Kevin Smith (Clerks, Dogma), producing three comic book covers and two coloring books, and more recently has had the honor to see his design for the BaphoMoob statue, co-designed with Kevin himself, made into an actual action figure produced by the great people at Major Bendies!
Erik was also commissioned in 2019 by The Grateful Veteran, a charitable organization that advocates for veterans, to create a series of twelve poster illustrations devoted to each of the services, both military and first responders, along with some more lighthearted and humorous pieces. The results have both impressed and brought joy to countless viewers since!
Erik and his wife Yvette live in Naples, Florida, and have two children, three grandchildren, and four cats.