Works by Erin Wiersma
Exhibition: October 6 – November 4
Gallery Reception: October 14, 12:00-2:30 p.m.
Artist Statement:
Figuration has consistently been the foundation of my paintings. My practice as an artist has progressed from observing the tangible human form of another, to the physical representation of myself in relationship to the paper, to expressing the emotional and intangible aspects that make up my being. When I paint, I seek to maintain a meditative-like state in which I’m present and in the moment, experiencing what T.S. Eliot calls “a still point of the turning world.” Freed from ordinary time in this way, I give myself a place where I can ask questions and search for assurance; with large surfaces to paint on, engaging the scale of my whole body, I’m able to use my physical energy and manipulate materials to see beyond myself, to catch a glimmer of something powerful and ineffable. Tracing my body’s movements, I generate a language of marks across the surface of the paper, leaving physical evidence of my presence, residues of energy transcribed over time as lyrical passages and encountered again in the present. Observing this score of bodily gestures, I discover a confluence of the spiritual and the material.
Gallery of Works:
