Erika Ehrman
To Cool For School, 2024
Goauche on Wood
24 x 24
 
My work combines gouache painting with photographic imagery printed on wood panels. I paint directly over the photographic surface, simplifying figures into quiet, graphic forms that hold both presence and anonymity. By obscuring faces and emphasizing color, posture, and negative space, the figures become vessels for collective experience rather than individual identity. The work explores themes of visibility, belonging, and emotional inheritance, particularly within feminine and familial relationships. Printing photographs onto wood introduces texture and warmth, allowing memory to feel both grounded and fragile. Existing between documentation and intuition, the images invite viewers to consider how women are seen, remembered, and held within personal and cultural histories.