"The artist studio and the classroom create an environment for vigorous exchange, but the process of observation and learning to see anew is also important. My goal is to help students translate their experiences and revelations into physical objects that encourage the viewer to make personal connections between art and the cultural goals of the community."
As an artist, Eleanor Erskine uses intuition, reflection, and experimentation to support conceptual material investigations in printmaking. She is intrigued by defining and redefining multiple approaches and processes as the field of printmaking grows more expansive, inclusive, and significant as a major contemporary art forum. Her pedagogical aim is to ensure that her printmaking students develop a deep appreciation for making prints and the arts. She helps foster a relationship with their work and an intellectual faculty for creative problem-solving that will carry them for a lifetime.
"As an artist and educator, I have the opportunity to both teach and learn. The artist studio and the classroom create an environment for vigorous exchange, nurturing the important process of observation and learning to see anew. My goal is to help students translate their experiences and revelations into physical objects that encourage the viewer to make personal connections between art and the cultural goals of the community."
Eleanor H. Erskine was born in Barrington, Illinois. She attended the Chicago Art Institute, received a BFA in Painting/Printmaking from the Kansas City Art Institute in 1981, and earned her MFA in Printmaking, with a special focus in Sculpture, from the Cranbrook Academy of Art in 1988. She has taught at the Maine College of Art, the Kansas City Art Institute, the Chautauqua Institute, the Penland School of Crafts, and Portland State University. Her works have been exhibited at the Mark Woolley Gallery, Museum of Contemporary Art in Washington D.C., Nelson Atkins Museum, Portland Institute of Contemporary Art (PICA); and the Marylhurst Art Gym. She is recognized locally, nationally, and internationally, and her work is held in major private and public collections, including the California State University Museum, Portland Art Museum, Spencer Museum of Art, Hallmark Corporation, New York Public Library, Downey Museum of Art; the University of Iowa Museum of Art; and in Canada, Africa, Japan, and South Korea.