Profile

Statement / Bio

My pedagogical aim is that the matriculating Printmak¬ing students at Portland State University will have a deep appreciation for making prints and for the arts in general, and that they will have developed a relationship to their work that carries them for a lifetime. I believe they will have developed the intellectual faculty for cre¬ative problem solving that will serve them well in their future endeavors.?

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 (1981), and her MFA in Printmaking, with s special focus in Sculpture from the Cranbrook Academy of Art (1988).  She has taught at the Maine College of Art, the Kansas City Art Institute, Chautaugua Institute, Penland School of Crafts. As an artist her philosophy is based in experimental ideas, utilizes intuition & reflection, and supports conceptual material investigations.  She is intrigued with defining and redefining multiple approaches and processes of art-making as the field of printmaking continues to become more and more expansive, inclusive and a significant major contemporary art forum.

Her works have been exhibited through the Mark Woolley Gallery, at the Museum of Contemporary Art Washington D.C., Nelson Atkins Museum, Portland Institute of Contemporary Art (PICA), & the Marylhurst Art Gym. Her works are recognized locally, nationally and internationally and are in major private and public collections throughout the world, such as: California State University Museum, Portland Art Museum, Spencer Museum of Art, Hallmark Corporation, New York Public Library, Downey Museum of Art, University of Iowa Museum of Art, Canada, Africa, Japan and South Korea.

As both artist & educator I have the opportunity to teach as well as learn, both the artist studio and educational context offer vigorous exchange, but are not less important than the processes of observation, learn¬ing to see anew, making sense of what is experienced and translating the revelations into physical objects and artistic images, and then engaging the viewer/audience to make personal connections between art and the cultural goals of the community.