A member of Glendarragh Artists’ Studios in county Wicklow, Ireland, Erica is endlessly fascinated by the natural wonders of the plant world. She seeks to capture it’s ephemeral beauty, intelligence and struggles: exquisitely unfurling fiddlehead ferns, side-stepping sun-seeking leaves, the ragged profile of insect attack. She does this by creating living fossils. Her medium is mineral: Gypsum /Calcium Sulphate Dihydrate/Plaster of Paris. Mixed with water, the universal solvent, and poured into voids once occupied by some wisteria, sun spurge or pheasant berry, it sets, warm to the touch. Expanding ever so slightly, the setting plaster captures the most infinitesimal botanical detail. Some casts call for colour, others for the play of light and shadow alone, and yet others for the glorification of gilding. Erica is a graduate of Trinity College Dublin (Ancient History, Archaeology and Russian) and Durham University (Conservation of Historic Objects). She has worked as an historic object conservator at the National Trust in the UK, at the National Museum of Ireland and for bodies such as the OPW, Malahide Castle, Kilkenny Castle, the award-winning Waterford Museum of Treasures and many others. This work led her to a lasting appreciation of the decorative arts in its many forms. She now uses her skills as a conservator and her art historical knowledge garnered from working in beautiful historic houses and museums in her art work.

Erica’s work explores the concepts of nature and utopia, the garden and agriculture as the foundations of civilization, the relationship between light and life, the acceptance of the imperfect and the impermanent as beautiful, and the fragility of ecological systems.

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