Scraping off and painting over works has been a normal part of my studio activities — so much frustration. I could never arrive at a specific method. Since moving to California seven years ago, I realized this struggle with ambiguous starting points and stopping points is painting.
Erin Hanson is a life-long painter, beginning her study of oils as a young child. Her passion for natural beauty is seen in her work as she transforms vistas familiar and rare into stunning interpretations of bold color, playful rhythms and raw emotional impact. Her frequent forays into National Parks and other recesses of nature include backpacking expeditions, rock climbing, and photo safaris.
My work evolves from an inquiry into the nature of my materials, my working process, and the paper itself. What I learn from my media I use as a frame of reference for the real world. The pieces in the River Rocks series express some of the common ground shared by natural processes and my art-making methods.
The landscape out the window is composed of buildings in Mexico — in Coyoacán and Guanajuato — where I spent a lot of time a few years ago. I love it down there. Feels more like home than here. The title’s a reference to the guy’s gesture, but could easily apply to any number of terminated habits, two of which are seen here.
Clockwise from upper left: Emma Goldman, Nina Simone, Walt Whitman, card back, James Baldwin, Marcel Duchamp, Angela Davis, card back, Henry Geldzehler, Margaret Cho. The deck was inspired by famed Greenwich Village jazz and comedy club the Village Gate. Over the course of its 35 year history, the 3-story club hosted everyone from Nina Simone to Noam Chomsky, Richard Pryor to the Velvet Underground.
