So it's been one helluva semester, but really life has changed drastically (and for the better, to say the least) since summer. Change involving break-up, spiritual awakening, finding the higher being within, negating the ego, devotion, and finding that one, truest of loves I have yearned for for an eternity.

As you can see, the transformation has not only affected things and people in my life, but it has also crossed into the artistic realm. My art has been extremely affected. I have been a very conflicted artist up until this point...After some time, I became extremely dissatisfied with simply doing figures. Sure, it's a talent that I have developed competently, but the meaning wasn't there. The figure, to me, had been worn out. So, I did some landscape work, which finally turned out in my trusty staple, Nupastels. They turned out great and I loved it, but as I did more, the colors started to rebel...As professors were pushing me to merge the figure and the landscapes somehow, it became apparent that the more I used the colors, the more they wouldn't work for me...The figures, the sunsets, the colors had run their course.

But an overlap was occurring at the time of this discovery: some strange symptoms arose where there was just a nervous, erratic energy running throughout my body and I just didn't know what to do with it! So at work one night, I had my sketchbook, and I had some ink pens, and I just let it come through. One of my professors at our first Senior Seminar critique had suggested (when we were all trying to figure out how to marry the figures and sunsets), that perhaps there is something inside me--something purely ME--that is trying to come out, waiting to come through as art. As she said this, I felt an intrinsic urge to cry, and that's how I knew that she was completely right. I have so much to pour out, so much to express that I've never known how to before. With the rise of these symptoms (which had been proven medically to have had no real physical basis), the unleashing occurred. I found that drawing these "squiggles" eased the symptoms--it was the only thing that kept me focused and released the energy my body just couldn't handle. After a full month of dealing with the anxiety of not knowing the source of these symptoms, it's all too clear to me now that they occurred solely so that I may make this new art. Because now that I have worked with this new expression, honed it in a way that I can convey my reality, the symptoms are gone. The Universe truly works in mysterious ways.

My new work is highly spiritual in nature, and is a very yogic process--one in which I can only ever remain in the present moment. I do not plan where the line is to go, I just let it take me there, with some hindsight in my mind of what the creation is to become. I refer to this practice as "serendipitous intent."

Just as art is ever-changing, so to is the nature of life. In art, a line can never truly be absolute. It is unpredictable, lively, and formless on its own. However, its direction and essentially its identity is controlled by an outside force, an observer and a creator all embodied in one god-like entity, the artist. This is my role in my art. The line is essentially the self, traveling in sporadic, wild notions that never cease to change while continuing to grow. As in life, there is no real backtracking. As in life, there is no mistake. As in life, the lines take life only in the moment. I simply allow the lines to become, to exist; again, just as ourselves and all life. While I allow the lines to emerge into their existence, I also believe that my very thoughts are held captive in the same energy in which they are created. This dynamic synergy makes my work extremely personal and narrative, though its abstraction leaves it open to interpretation and, as is my goal, contemplation.

Ever since I first started to emerge artistically, I found that I connected most with figures, though as I mentioned before, figures in the traditional style had become redundant, meaningless, and was way too literal--I only showed what I saw, so it was nothing deeper than the surface. As my current work is operated on such an organic level of existence, it is not surprising that the result can be viewed figuratively, as well--this time on a much deeper, internal, and spiritual level. The lives of the lines create a collective entity in which their journeys have visibly defined a composite, holistic being, riddled with complexity that would seem unfathomable to decipher. All that is taken in is the effect. What is seen in my work is the sum of all the paths, or pasts, of the lines' lives. The result of which is an intricate, beautiful, and enigmatic being, just as all of us as living creatures, as beings of this world, are.

I hope you enjoy this new expression, as I do not foresee me going back to the traditional style any time soon. But I am living moment-to-moment, so who knows. The important thing is that I am more in-tune with how my inner self demands to be expressed artistically, so I am most of all excited to see what comes forth as I allow it flow freely. As this is all very new for me, all constructive comments are always welcome. I would love to know what you think!

Namaste,
Peace and so much Love,
Erika