Erin Bodfish is a painter, florist, and writer based in Central Oregon. Through the intersection of her writing and painting practice, Bodfish weaves together a history of grief, memory, and presence of the body in an emotive landscape. Bodfish received her Bachelor of Arts in Art History from Oregon State University along with a Minor in Applied Visual Arts. As a Merit Scholar, she completed her dual Masters of Fine Arts in Visual Studies and Masters of Arts in Critical Studies at Pacific Northwest College of Art.  Bodfish is currently an instructor of Art and Art History at Oregon State-Cascades in Bend, OR.

Through my work I seek to find an understanding of the materiality of emotion. Presently, I achieve this through combined painting mediums such as acrylic, oil, and encaustic. Working between large and small scales, I create tension within my paintings that express the deeply complex interchanges and overlaps of emotion. I am interested in the fragmentation of shapes and colors in painting, and how they can become an anchor in places where words are not enough.  

 

I strive to create emotive landscapes that hold places for grief and love, places of solace. They are a following of intuition, of instinct. I create these environments in the hope that they can be transformative for the human condition when they exist in a space outside of ourselves. They are a reaction to my lived experiences, involving individuals I encounter and spaces I move within.

 

I draw from my family heritage in the floral industry. By using dried and live floral matter in my work, I address the temporality of the human condition. This ephemerality, deeply beautiful in its essence, serves as a reminder to always seek moments of presence.