Erika
Schmidt
Unfolding
collage & gouache, 36" x 48", $2,000 |
Erika
Schmidt
GALLERY VII
Much of Erika Schmidt’s childhood was spent exploring the
forests and ravines along the shores of Lake Michigan, north of
Chicago. Seasonal changes intensified her experiences during those
walks and it was there and then that she began to sense the fragile
connections within coexisting systems and the intrinsic circular
nature of all things. "My work reflects this assimilation of
observation and experience of the body, psyche and spiritual life
force," says Schmidt. "Much of what I make arrives through
a collage sensibility where fragments, images and symbolic elements
are integrated, fused, and layered in order to capture a momentary
glimpse, thought or view." Schmidt employs a variety of materials
in her work, which, she says, is essential to expressing a search
for balance within ambiguous and incongruent experience. For Schmidt,
the work is a means toward discovering that, in order to achieve
unity, one must avoid separating the elements. |
