Erica Brown

View Erica's Work

Erica lives and has her studio in West Chester, PA.  She was honored to study at Tyler School of Art with many wonderful professors.  Erica has been creating art since she could hold a pencil or paint brush in her hands.  She has been pursuing a career as a professional artist since 2004.

Creative drive:
“Creating for me is close to breathing on the scale of what is necessary for me to be a functioning human being. I truly am not ok if I am not creating in some form.  In a deeper sense, I continue to create (whether I feel like it or not) because I have seen people be deeply moved by my artwork.  It is a humbling, beautiful thing.  I continue to paint and share my work, hoping that people will continue to connect deeply to it. ”

Key emotion represented in work:
"There are several emotions that are represented in my work.  The idea of Baptism by Fire- overcoming hardship- seeking hope in the face of hard times. There is also the aspect finding beauty in unlikely places/things. And of course the feeling of pushing through- both in persevering through life, and then more literally in the composition of my paintings."

What is unique about your process:

"I find the paintings as I paint them.  I may have an idea of what I want it to be, but as if the painting were alive and had equal share in what it turns out to be, we aim to find each other.  While this intuitive type of creation is beautiful in its own right, and obviously the way I was made to do it, it can be a very exhausting, frustrating (sometimes nerve wrecking) experience.  Also unique in my process are my materials. Sometimes I paint in Encaustic.  Sometimes I paint in “mixed media”- basically everything and the kitchen sink. (plaster, wax, resin, polyurethane, shellac, enamel, tempera, acrylic, oil, colored pencil, dry pigments, ink, dye and gold leaf)"

Personal relationship with your work:
"Goodness….it means a great deal to me.  It is what I produce with my life. With my tired beat up hands. Hoping, praying that good things will come of them when they are finished and out “there” being viewed.  I feel that it is my calling.  One of the main reasons I exist.  What I need to do with my life no matter how difficult it may make my life. I sacrifice what is necessary in my life to continue to do so."

Thoughts on sharing art:
“Art in any form has the ability to connect to others, insight depth, goodness, comfort and inspiration to those interacting with it.  What good would it be if I painted endlessly and hid them all away?! I do not do it for myself alone. I do it to share. I do it in the hopes that somebody will be touched by it in a meaningful, (hopefully) positive way.”

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