Acrylic Paintings
This piece was inspired by music. It is painted on top of a homemade stomp box (percussion). The artist, Erika, painted the whole surface of the hand made instrument white, then used black, red, yellow and teal paint to create a backdrop, then poured white paint straight from the bottle to create the swirls in the foreground. She was expressing her amazement and love for music in all its forms. She has expressed that she felt feelings of happiness and contentment while creating this piece.
This piece was an attempted recreation of a previous painting that Erika gave as a gift to one of her lovers. While the resembling piece is not in Erika's possession, and also while this piece does look somewhat like it, it also has some distinct differences. The gifted piece contained oranges and brighter yellows, and the paint on this canvas has been applied with more emotions of inner turmoil and frustration. Erika has stated that she felt angry at the state of affairs in her life at this point, and also at the current happenings on a greater scale in the world.
While creating this piece, done on canvas, Erika was inspired by street art, and has said that she was feeling very playful and expressive. She chose to contrast bright colours with black paint, as is aligned with her personal style. She applied paint with a brush, and experimented with a spray bottle for the first time, and found she was very pleased with the result. She has stated that she had a lot of fun with this piece, and it has become one of her personal favourites in regards to her own work.
Erika created this piece in the heat of the moment of having big feelings about being a single mother of two small children. Some days go easy, others are harder. While her kids were bellowing like banshees, and she felt herself becoming overwhelmed, she reached for her paints and created this piece, helping her find some peace in the midst of this kind of beautiful chaos that surrounded her. The centre of this painting was the last part she added, with a swirl of a round brush. Upon completing this small piece she remembers feeling rejuvenated and joyful.
This painting was the centrepiece for an art exhibit Erika displayed at the Alderney Library in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, in September of 2017. She created this piece in her basement on an easel that she made herself from recycled palettes. She wanted to create a calming painting using cool colours, as she finds these balancing at times where she feels the heat and fire inside of her. This abstract piece is totally open to the interpretation of each individual who sees it, although Erika would describe it as an expression of cosmic energy and beauty.