Artist Feature – Erin Holscher Almazan
“My work is driven by my experience as a female-identifying artist, from recalling memories as an interloper of the popular crowd to culling aspects of my identity as a mother, wife, and feminist. I am interested in the complexities and dualities that exist within our female identities. I use individual and group portraiture and self-portraiture as a vehicle for examining the spectrum of our compositions; that we are complex and multi-dimensional, capable of good and bad, built from light and dark and molded by nature, nurture, influence, and self-awareness. Sexual undertones, gendered rituals, memories of girlhood, and the desire for approval are embedded within the work. I draw, paint, and print to capture the breadth of emotive and behavioral facets to our identities and dynamics. I am interested in witnessing and taking part in the unfolding of these dynamics, from secrecy to solidarity”.
Artwork Description
“These pieces are part of a new series of linoleum cut prints that are currently in progress. The series includes depictions of intimate friendships. I am interested in blurring the lines between friendship and romantic love or having a crush, feeling a surge of euphoria when we are with female friends that deeply inspire us. I am interested in the intensity of friendship and how positive and negative emotions can fluidly overlap. My goal has become to depict the bonds or chemistry between women and to explore these complex bonds that can be as or more satisfying than romantic relationships or marriage, as well as further identifying how we truly feel about ourselves and how we can become more attuned with self-love”.
Erin Holscher Almazan is an Associate Professor of Printmaking and Drawing at the University of Dayton in Dayton, OH. Erin is a native of North Dakota. She received her BFA in Fine Arts from Minnesota State University Moorhead and her MFA in Printmaking from Rochester Institute of Technology, in Rochester, New York. She taught as an Adjunct Instructor in Foundations at Rochester Institute of Technology prior to teaching at the University of Dayton. She has completed two printmaking residencies at the Frans Masereel Centrum in Kasterlee, Belgium. Erin’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and has been included in exhibitions in connection with the Southern Graphics Printmaking Council and the Mid-America Print Council. Erin is also an active member of the Dayton art and printmaking community. She resides in Dayton with her husband and two sons.
