erikatastrophe

I learn by making.

 

My artmaking process is a ritual of physical labor and understanding materials. My professional background of jewelry fabrication and production informs my work and my ability to intuit the capabilities of the materials I work with.  My work is physically taxing, it is interesting to me how physical labor can be exhausting or exhilarating, depending what the labor is, but more importantly who or what it is for.  I am invigorated by breaking a sweat for my art.  I get lost in my process, the physical activity quiets my mind.   

 

My finished pieces are very satisfying segues between chapters, they give me a moment to reflect, but to me the true art happens in the time between start and finish, the moments of hands-on making and discovery.  The subject of my work is mostly the human figure, poses that are a snapshot of an in-between, neutral moments of waiting, hovering between quiet contentment or subdued grief. The day to day thrills of living in a body, and all that means and inevitably doesn’t matter.  The space between the milestones, when we learn and grow, but in the moment don’t realize it’s happening.  My pieces of art are my milestones, when I line them up I get to see my own evolution, growth and story.

 

I like to play with ideas of gendered labor designated as men’s work or women’s work, blurring the lines of what is associated with femininity and masculinity in our culture.  I like to make hard things look soft, and vice versa. I am interested in traditional practices and folk art.  Techniques and materials used hundreds of years ago are relevant to me today, the physical connection to my art ignites me, and connects me to the earth and my moment on this historical timeline. Working with the same atomic elements that comprise clay and bronze, that were used to create art millenia ago, feels magical, like I get to work in a time machine.  I feel that by connecting to the past I also connect to the future.