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Erin Crooks Wallace

The Arts Center Exhibitions:

• 'Portals,' Winter Show & Silent Auction, 2011
• 'Where Birds Dream' Winter Show and Silent Auction, 2010

Artist's Statement - 'Portals,' Winter Show & Silent Auction, 2011:

I have been a developing artist my entire life.  Making art was never a question or a pursuit for me; it was simply something that I had to do.  From early on everything I looked at:  colors, shapes, lines, textures, were potential projects, something I had to capture.  Everything I picked up became transformed into an artwork….. And now, many years later as an emerging artist and adult, I continue to apply the same methods to my work.

My inspiration comes from my love of the millions of visual stories contained in all the ordinary things around me.  I will find an old coin and wonder what sort of journey it has been on.  Who has lost it? Who has found it? Who spent it?  Then I will combine it with other objects that have different stories and histories, and by doing this, I create a new reality.  I weave words, color, texture, shape, bits of trash and old treasures into works that cater to my quirky imagination.  I work primarily on stretched canvas using it as a surface to sculpt, rather than paint.  It becomes my stage where I create my drama using every unprecedented mode necessary.

I find my work captivating because it’s always different, always unpredictable, sometimes sad, and sometimes triumphant. It is this part of my art that propels me persistently on to the next piece.