Erika Thorpe

My style traverses the realms of the expressive and the surreal. I am interested in evoking a psychological response from the audience through the use of symbols that tap into the human collective consciousness. Simultaneously I am urging the viewer to draw from their own experiences to interpret the imagery. I am nothing more than a visual messenger, attacking the visual process intuitively much in the way a poet would with words. Once complete the work no longer belongs to me; responsibility now lies with the viewer to decode and insert context. Interpretation will inevitably vary from viewe...

My style traverses the realms of the expressive and the surreal. I am interested in evoking a psychological response from the audience through the use of symbols that tap into the human collective consciousness. Simultaneously I am urging the viewer to draw from their own experiences to interpret the imagery. I am nothing more than a visual messenger, attacking the visual process intuitively much in the way a poet would with words. Once complete the work no longer belongs to me; responsibility now lies with the viewer to decode and insert context. Interpretation will inevitably vary from viewer to viewer; each coming from disparate experiences, beliefs, and frames of reference. In this way my work is a malleable entity, often influenced deeply by life experiences, love of nature, design, color, pattern, as well as issues revolving around feminist consciousness. My hope is to infuse these experiences into my work as symbolic clues that invite the viewer to investigate and develop their own narrative about the work by filling in the blanks.