Catherine Conner Erickson
I am the youngest of four children. I was born in San Francisco and grew up on the peninsula. I started my art career, at a very young age, on the floor of our home’s long hallway…. drawing and painting on a continuous long roll of newsprint that my dad had brought home from his job, as a printer. I drew from imagination. I didn’t do much after that but came back to art making in High School. I excelled at drawing, painting, composition and color theory. I won awards. My art teacher thought I was fabulous and encouraged me to go to art school. I did not go to the art school I wanted to attend because my parents could not afford it. I put myself through local community colleges and San Jose State majoring in Fine Art. I kept drawing and painting throughout my life. I returned to it full time when the urges became too strong to ignore. I paint for myself. I like to constantly change and move forward with my work. I like the idea of saying something, but not always saying something. I am moved by the things from my past that compel me to speak of the times I grew up in...... the 1950's and 60's....the musicians and artists, and poets. The beat poets and musicians weigh heavily on my mind and I feel a kindred spirit with their speak and song. Sometimes it isn't about anything.... just about how I see a place or scene and the actual application of heavy paint with a palette knife. I like the doing of it. Sometimes I paint what I see but more and more I paint/create what I feel. I use oils and found road trash or lost items in my work. I feel my latest work is of the imperfect, impermanent, incomplete, and unconventional. It is where corrosion and contamination make the expression richer. The work is made of materials that are visibly vulnerable to the effects of weathering and human treatment. The sun, wind, rain, heat, and cold create a language of discoloration. Rust, tarnish,stain, warping, shrinking and cracking are my pallet. These elements bring life to my work. I know when a piece is done when I am at a point of contentment with it.
Thanks for looking at my work.
Catherine
There is vitality, a life force, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, the expression is unique. If you block it, it will never exist through any other medium. It will be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is, nor how valuable it is, nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel of your creativity open.
You do not even have to believe in yourself or your creativity. You have to keep open and aware directly to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open. There is no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is only a queer, divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive.
- Martha Graham
What makes art art is not extravagant critical acclaim, nor good or bad taste, or the artist's ambitions. Rather it is the degree to which we are touched which defines it as such. If nothing is revealed or felt, then it is not art. As in quantam, it's the veiwer's participation that affects what the experience will be.
My latest series of paintings titled "Looking for America" explore the questions we face in our nation today. But also are reminiscent of social conditions in our country's history that we continue to face as our nation becomes further and further divided on who we are as a people and where we go as a nation. I have made a commitment where ever my works are showing and up for sale that 50% of the proceeds will be donated to local food banks, homeless shelters and pet rescues/animal shelters. You can view the rest of the paintings in this series on the "works" page.
Thanks for looking. Catherine
