Erin McCluskey Wheeler

All of the pieces in the Papers Series start with accumulated and collected paper: postcards from family and friends, envelopes, sketchbook pages, her daughter’s doodles, old wallpaper and photographs, hand-painted papers, and office supply stickers. Erin pieces the papers together following colors, forms, and shapes. There is often the suggestion of topography and water, botanical forms, and big curves of space.

Her work, like quilting, is full of strong and vivid color combinations, asymmetrical and strip piecing, reused old material, uneven and large line work (stitching), and the use of hidden protective charm symbols. Erin views her work of cutting and piecing and gluing and painting over as a method to record and share events of familial and personal importance.  In piecing together these disparate pieces, she gets to explore the themes of regeneration and rebirth, of bringing new life to old things.