Erin Paradis: September 2014

Hello third year and hello to my thesis! It's hard to believe that I'm in my final year here in Minneapolis. I'm excited and ready though to work hard this year for my show in April.

My summer was a busy one. Traveling to Cape Cod and also Oaxaca Mexico(!!) as well as moving and working. It was much needed though to get some rest before the start of the year. My trip to Oaxaca was completely inspirational and so exciting to be in a new country and new environment. The colors were all so bright and vivid, the architecture and ruins held all of the visual stimulation that draws be into the structures, and experiencing a completely new culture was invigorating. I visited so many museums, took trips to Mitla, Monte Alban, and Hiergo el Agua, visited a ceramic artist in Tavehua, ate amazing food, and met some pretty incredible people while down there.

Coming back to the studio, I feel that I have new forms I want to build and colors I want to incorporate into my installations and work. Having had the past two years of more intensive study into theory and my conceptual ideas, it was valuable to bring this knowledge to this new landscape to research my documentation and experiential process in action. There were many things I became aware of concerning my reaction to certain spaces as well as what I gravitated towards that wasn't so evident for me in past documentation sessions. It's a really interesting and exciting thing to see yourself developing a specific "eye" for certain situations that would more likely be apparent to someone through practice.

Here are some images of my trip as well as a small installation from the all grad show at the beginning of the semester, "Blinking Fresh", as well as some work that is in process in my studio right now.

Take care and go pick some apples!