We Are the Salt Seas Who Uphold These Lands* | Crystallized Tears on Cotton, Wood | 1 of 5  | 12" x 12" | 2012

*Atwood, Margaret. The Circle Game. Toronto: Anansi, 1998, 81.

We Are the Salt Seas Who Uphold These Lands* | Crystallized Tears on Cotton, Wood | 2 of 5  | 12" x 12" | 2012

*Atwood, Margaret. The Circle Game. Toronto: Anansi, 1998, 81.

Artist Statement: Confluence/Efflorescence explores a liminal landscape and union that lies between lived experience and inner emotional journeying. It is as much about the drawing together of ideas, people, places, and relationships as it about the dissolution, the branching outward of what had once flowed together and tracing its path in hopes to strengthen its bond. The emotional landscape in the work relies on the metaphor of a tear as a physical manifestation of emotion. Tears are fleeting phenomena and tears are the opportunity to witness emotions manifested as tiny, salty droplets. When the tears have fallen, they collect into a sea that dries up and the salt from the fallen tears crystallize, leaving evidence of the emotion that spilled forth in a process called efflorescence. Emerging over two years of adjusting to new geography, relationships, and ways of seeing, these works become a site for the changes to take form as an emotional journey. I incorporate images of landscape, geography, and rivers in order to allow narratives to coalesce and unfold along the banks of these rivers, intertwining the twists and turns of the inner emotional landscape with that of the physical waters that nourish and guide.

Erin Coleman-Cruz received her MFA in Studio Art from Northern Illinois University and her Bachelors in Art Education from Goshen College in Indiana. She moved to Salt Lake City in 2011 where she practices and teaches graphic design and chairs the Graphic Design program at Broadview Entertainment Arts University. Both Coleman-Cruz’s art-making and design practices range between personal narratives and public collaborative works that address issues such as creative re-use, sustainable design, domestic space, wearable arts, and social issues pertaining to women and gender. Her skills and interests include teaching, museum and exhibition curation, sewing and needlework, and collaborative projects. Coleman-Cruz serves on the board of the Sugar House Farmers Market as Education Outreach Coordinator and leads programing for children to teach them about where their food comes from while learning skills for upcycling used materials into art and craft. She exhibits locally and nationally, and made her international debut in 2011 with a work of collaborative performance art, The Merkeyna Coif Boutique. Recent exhibitions include I’m thinking of changing my smile at the Dole Mansion in Crystal Lake, Illinois, and 35 x 35 at Finch Lane Gallery in SLC, UT. Her portfolio can be found at: erincolemancruz.com.