Erika Thorpe

Artist Reception on June 25th

Erika — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 19:19:56 +0000

Life is Just A Fantasy
Artist Reception June 25th from 6:30-10:00PM
show runs until July 30th
@ The Whole 9 Gallery
6101 Washington Blvd. Culver City 90232

Abstract Tree #3

Erika — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 14:25:21 +0000

Of course I love my trees. This was just a fun whimsical design-centered piece created for a Fantasy themed art show in Los Angeles.

Fantasea

Erika — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 14:20:04 +0000

Created for a Fantasy themed show in Los Angeles:

(1) Mermaids: 24w-x- 34h aqua-oil on wood panel
(2) In the Octopus’ Garden 48w-x-32h aqua-oil on canvas

Life is Just a Fantasy

Erika — Mon, 30 May 2011 16:40:58 +0000

Been putting together some new works for an upcoming show “Life is Just a Fantasy” at The Whole 9 Gallery in Culver City during the Culver City Artwalk. These works are fun, colorful, and a little whimsical in respect to the show’s fantastical theme. Preview of “Mermaids” below.

Life is Just A Fantasy
June 4th – July 31st
Artist Reception June 25th from 6:30-10:00PM
@ The Whole 9 Gallery
6101 Washington Blvd. Culver City 90232

chameleon beginnings

Erika — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 21:13:30 +0000

just an incomplete beginning, more on this later….

of Dry Spells and Science Illustrations

Erika — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 14:04:48 +0000

I haven’t painted in months. I’ve had paintings living in my head but no ambition to let them escape on to the canvas. I don’t know what is wrong with me. Perhaps it is all the major changes that I’ve been involved in the last year career-wise that have left me creatively frozen. My moods have been down, my heart torn between challenges, and the art is just stuck inside behind a clogged creative artery.

In the meantime I’ve been trying to sketch as much as time allows between design jobs and training for a new career. Nothing terribly exciting or imaginative has come from any of it, but sometimes just the act of drawing can loosen the mental knots. I have always been very fond of classic Science illustration, having found an amazing natural history book in my grandmother’s house as a child with wonderful illustrations. I found the delicate line detail of the drawings so beautiful. I remember trying to copy them. My renderings were clumsy approximations at best, but I found quiet comfort in the process. So when my creativity is dragging this is the type of work I find myself drawn to.

I’ve been studying photographs of insects, reptiles and sea life, slowly transforming what I see into line drawings. There is a moment of zen I reach in the process as I discover the beauty of each creature that I try to explain through each intricate articulation and organization of lines. Lines are the ultimate indicators of personal artistic style, and like a signature or a thumbprint, they define each of my drawings (no matter how mundane the subject matter) as uniquely mine…hence the entire process becomes an exercise in self reflection.

iguana

Erika — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 14:08:32 +0000

In my next life I’d like to be a fat Iguana lounging in the sun eating guavas.

bee

Erika — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 17:09:07 +0000

I like bees

Fly Sketch

Erika — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 14:54:58 +0000

just a little sketch on a piece of scrap paper. It started out as just a doodle, but before I realized it, it had become a very involved rendering of our friend the housefly. I was happy with the outcome, less happy with the fact I had used a torn scrap of paper… but nonetheless I was able to pull a few good prints from it, as well as use it in a skateboard design.

below a print from the drawing on a pillow cover

The Spelling Bees

Erika — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 23:45:34 +0000

This is an old one I dug up from the archives. I used it collaged with a photograph in one of my lithography projects, so hopefully I’ll be able to find those prints somewhere.