Artist Statement I find glass as seductive as it is challenging. As a particularly unforgiving medium, an artist has endless creative opportunities to design for its unique properties--the only limitations are their imagination and skill in working with the material. I've always been captivated by how one can use this enigmatic material to achieve virtually any form, hold elements in suspension, and achieve great detail or soft abstraction. Its flexibility as a medium is matched by the difficulty it presents in using it to execute precise work. My current work is an intensive exploration of patterns, colors and transparency created through multi-layered cane and murrine (colored rods and patterned cross-sections of glass). While varied in composition and design, I most often create work within a series of graceful forms that I consider three dimensional canvases. The diversity in my compositions reflects my desire to constantly experiment and explore a variety of ideas simultaneously. Some themes in my work include windows into or through a piece, things hidden & revealed and extreme detail. Colors in contrasting and/or complimentary tertiary tones woven into complex patterns challenge expectations of the amount of detail glass can carry and its place in the art world. My influences include textiles, ethnically distinct colors and shapes as well as the marine environment. Creating my work begins with meticulous planning and designing of colors and patterns. After I pull the cane and murrine, I carefully compose these elements to design the final work, all days prior to blowing it. I enjoy this process of thoughtful creativity and the contrasting intensity of executing work in the hotshop, where the limited window to shape molten glass requires precision and urgency. The dual challenge of designing and executing complex work satisfies both the artist and the craftsman in me and I continually find it exciting to create a piece I've poured days over, watching it come to life in the fire. Bloom Recently I've been exploring a range of sculptural ideas which have evolved into a new body of work titled Bloom. Over the years I have experimented with the concept of precious things hidden and revealed and only recently found an expression for these ideas. Bloom are organic forms that reveal something unexpected and precious that reward close inquiry. Bloom are natural but non-representational and intentionally somewhat curious and hard to place. Since human brains are pattern matching machines ("oh, that looks like x"), I wanted Bloom to feel vaguely familiar but lack a single point of reference leaving it to the viewer to consider what it could be, how it evolved, what inspired it, what it communicates and what it could mean. Bloom are all one-of-a-kind works that vary in color, texture, interior pattern and overall form, but they are all of one 'species.'

Erik uses flat metal construction tools to create dynamic yet elegant
contemporary abstract paintings. His paintings are textural and full of
vivid colors. When Erik paints, colors and patterns emerge and submerge
and remind some of abstract architectural landscapes. Erik explores spatial
depth with his paintings. His photographs compliment his paintings and explore depth, light and intimacy.

Erik is a self-taught artist and began painting professionally in January
2002. While in architecture school, Erik started using acrylic paint to cover
the chip-board he used to construct architectural models. He soon
discovered for himself the joy of putting paint on a flat surface ... and that
started Erik on the road to his new painting career. His architectural background is always there, guiding him through the creation of each painting.

Erik has participated in over two dozen solo art shows and over sixty group
art shows. Nearly two-thirds of his paintings are now collected throughout
ten US states as well as Australia, Mexico, Tunisia and Hong Kong. Between
September 2008 and May 2010 three of Erik’s paintings were on display inside the United States Embassy in Dili, East Timor through the Art in Embassies program of the US State Department.

For several years I considered myself primarily a printmaker, but my interest in pushing the boundaries of printmaking has led me more and more into collage and mixed media. I began my life in art as a painter and graphic designer, and that background still informs all that I do. My work is filled with layers of information and of meaning, and often contains odd juxtapositions with their own resonance, open to endless interpretations.

Since I started art I have been thinking about different cultures, imagination and appearance, time and space. Between and cross differences. The series of monotypes

My paintings are based on nature, fashioned from memory and imagination, and imply landscapes not necessarily seen, but felt. I dissolve the landscape, leaving only what I consider to be the essence of nature. I continually examine the effects of light and form in the natural world. The dramatic effect of light that happens throughout the day sets the mood for each painting. The images created are grounded in a perspective associated with landscape; but rather than mirror the outside world I look inward reflecting on my experiences to find new meaning and relationships between form, light and perspective.