Erin Bodfish is a painter, florist, and writer based in Oregon. Her work is largely influenced by the conceptual deconstruction of traditional methods of painting, and the use of the body as a tool in art making. She is drawn to the use of raw materials, and conceptually focuses on the in-materials, those materials in which we do not see. Bodfish complete her dual Masters of Fine Arts in Visual Studies and Masters of Arts in Critical Studies at Pacific Northwest College of Art. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Art History from Oregon State University along with a minor in applied visual arts focused in painting. Bodfish is currently an instructor of Art History at Oregon State-Cascades in Bend, OR.

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Through my work I seek to find an understanding of the materiality of emotion. Presently, I achieve this through the use of oil and encaustic paint mediums. I apply these materials to raw canvas, cutting and tearing the fabric, and hanging my works in irreverent ways. In this work I strive to address issues of the human body, and how we live in it. 

By using a monochromatic palette, I invite viewers to focus on the texture and materiality of the substances used. I am attracted to the qualities of the encaustic paint that feel like skin, the smoothness and softness, and the impermanence of working on raw fabric. This for me echoes the buoyancy of the human body. These works are abstractly akin to my own physical and subjective existence.

I create works that lie between chaos and stillness. Exaggerated emotions are manifest through my material choices. Chaos lies in the negative spaces where tearing and fraying occur. Stillness is arrived at spaces generatively through the draping process. The paintings do not solely exist in a two dimensional realm but are pushed into the third dimension through gathering and folding, becoming their own forms. They are a reaction to my environment, involving individuals I encounter and spaces I move within.