Today we’d like to introduce you to Erika Alonso.
Erika Alonso is a self-taught Visual Artist from Houston, Texas. She works in many mediums of Art, including Painting, Collage, and Illustration. Erika joined the Sawyer Yards community in 2019 and currently works out of her studio at Winter Street Studios. Her current makings involve experimenting in Abstract Expressionism through a series of abstract-figurative action paintings.
Can you give our readers some background on your art?
My recent paintings—made with acrylic and charcoal—mix perspective and pure chance. I begin a painting with no intentions and no intended outcomes, fully embracing the unpredictability of materials and their interactions with each other’s elements. I am at my best when conscious thought is ignored—when my hands and eyes are left alone with the material. I use sound to drown out the incessant thoughts: static, waves, songs on repeat. Only under these conditions will a painting emerge: sometimes as an energetic landscape of nonsensical marks; others as evocative scenes that are fantastical and phantasmagorical.
My method varies depending on the painting, but always begins with automatic drawing and incorporates some form of action painting in the process. For my large works on canvas and wood, I start with gestural mark-making in charcoal. From there, I unmask figures (or non-figures) through a series of additional layers. The unmasking itself is a practice of presence and structured wonder. Influenced by my immediate surroundings, what results finds comfort at the interstices between abstraction and figuration. This ambiguity is at the center of my creative process.
How do you think about success, as an artist, and what do quality do you feel is most helpful?
Success to me has the time to create. Time is the most important—and limited—resource there is, one that can’t be bought or borrowed, and one which has become increasingly difficult to protect from the distractions of this fast-paced technological world we find ourselves in today. So long as I have time, I will always create, whether it’s sketching on a napkin or constructing a large-format painting. I think that this quality is most helpful in developing and succeeding as an artist.
I recently read a book written by renowned art critic Jerry Saltz, titled How to be an Artist, which I highly recommend to other creatives that are looking for advice on how to succeed as an artist.
What’s the best way for someone to check out your work and provide support?
Follow me on Instagram (@ErikaAlonsoArt) to see what I’m working on and find out about upcoming events. You can also DM or email me with pricing inquiries, requests for commissions, and to schedule a virtual or in-person studio visit. Currently, I have paintings exhibited at Spring Street Studios and Winter Street Studios in Houston, Texas.
Contact Info:
- Address: Winter Street Studios #22
Houston, Texas 77007 - Website: http://erikaalonso.art
- Email: erika@erikaalonso.art
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/erikaalonsoart/
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