Erica Applewhite

As a child I frolicked in the yarn and fabric of my mother’s fiber art studio. However, even then, I was attracted more to the immediacy of paints, pens, and paper. Later, in college, I discovered printmaking as a way to augment drawing and painting with an element of surprise. The moment before pulling a print is like the delightful spark of anticipation before opening a Christmas gift, watching summer bulbs sprout in my yard, or being sent on a treasure hunt.

In my work I create relief block prints by carving, inking, and printing with material generically known as “soft-cut,” a rubber eraser-like block similar to, but softer than, traditional linoleum. I love using soft-cut for the malleability and portability that suits the immediacy of my process.

Inspiration for my print imagery runs the gamut of local iconography, household objects, clothing, food, quirky objects, modes of transportation, social issues, birds, animals, water and landscapes-the latter I attribute to a life happily immersed in the Northwest woods, water and mountains. Artists that delight me and continually influence my work include Max Grover, Emily Carr, John Cole, the Canadian Group of Seven and my fellow artists in West Sound Printmakers.