Interview

Apr 28

Ericka Baker

Born in Whyalla in South Australia, Ericka moved to Tom Price in the Pilbara, Western Australia at age three. She attended Primary and High School in Tom Price. She completed year 11 and 12 via correspondence through Distance Education in Tom Price. She has a Congenital Nystagmus eye disorder and is legally blind. Ericka is a landscape painter. She completed her studies in 1993 at TAFE and in 2008 she completed her Bachelors of Art (Visual Art). She now works in her studio in Perth.

What is your background and how did you start your journey in the art world?

“I started to paint when I lived in the Pilbara Region in Tom Price at quite an early age. My father would take my siblings and I out into the landscape to teach us about the environment and how to look after ourselves should we get lost and plants and animals. I would collect rocks, take them home, crush the pigment up and mix water with them. I would paint using the mixture using colours such as ochres, oxide reds, pinks and violets from shale and so on. I became very interested in the colours of the landscape and began to use them to document how I connected to what I felt and how I saw the world around me. I was born with a visual disability, being legally blind which means your sight in both eyes must be less than 6/60. This translates to what a person 20/20 vision sees at 60 meters I see only at 6. My parents never compensated for the lack of vision I had to keep up with my full sighted siblings even out transversing the rugged Pilbara landscape. For me, this meant I had to improvise and find ways where I could safely move around without falling or injury, I used my other senses such as hearing to orient myself, I became proficient at recognizing varying depths and differences in rock heights. I moved as my siblings did climbing around the sedimentary rock formations and swimming in the pools of cold water down in the gorge. I developed an ornate connection to the Pilbara, I became at one with the ancient lands heartbeat.”

What inspires you?

“The Australian landscape particularly the Gorges in Karijini National Park in Western Australia. I am inspired by the rugged landscape of the terrain, the sound of the birds that dance around the flourishing trees in the gorges. I am inspired by the geological significance of the Pilbara Region. It is the second oldest geological place in the world. I am inspired by the ancient history that tells the story through the sedimentary rocks of how oxygen formed through rust and the stromatolites on Earth. The stunning, breathtaking colours of the minerals absolutely captivate my imagination. The stark contrast of the landscape most certainly depicts the way I see in terms of my congenital eye disability. I am inspired by the vulnerability you feel immersed within this landscape and the awareness of existential challenges you may face in such a harsh unyielding environment, I am very inspired to share such a National Ikon and treasure while I interrogate the impact mining has on such a fragile ecosystem and what that may mean for future preservation and sustainability for the flora and fauna and generations to come.”

What themes do you pursue? Is there an underlying message in your work?

“My theme is most certainly to foreground the beauty as I firmly believe that beauty brings connection and that in turn incites pro activity. I try to inspire people to visit such an Ancient important geological place hoping they will immerse themselves in the incredible beauty and in turn help protect such a National reassure for the future. My concern is that humans are becoming increasingly culture and technology saturated and further removed from nature. My message that underpins the tapestry in my paintings is the human race needs the environment not just for our basic primordial survival but for our physical and mental health. The message is everything is in flow if we keep disrupting the momentum we as a collective will tip the balance behind repair. Global warming is a prime example of what I believe is a consequence of shifting the balance into instability.”

How would you describe your work?

“My work showcases how I see the world around me visually. I hope the viewer is intrigued enough to move forward closer to my work and find themselves moving around the painting asking themselves questions. My work is highly emotive and striking. I think the compositions are slightly awkward as I hope to allude to the problematic restrictions my eyesight or lack there of create in the construction phase. I would describe my work as dramatic, rich in chroma, saturated with intensity and detail perhaps even explosive. I would describe my work as a celebration of such an incredible hidden outback landscape.”

Which artists influence you most?

“Monet, Pissarro, Issac Levitan, Jongkind, Adelsteen Normann, Van Gogh, Klimt, Matisse, Picasso.”

“My theme is most certainly to foreground the beauty as I firmly believe that beauty brings connection and that in turn incites pro activity.”

What is your creative process like?

“Rather ad hoc. I begin anywhere, sometimes sketches, by playing music, dancing, cleaning my space, writing, researching, or starting somewhere on the canvas and building that area before I move on.”

What is an artist’s role in society and how do you see that evolving?

“Artists comment or critique (like Picasso’s Guernica, a commentary that foregrounded the atrocity of the German’s testing of new artillery and planes on a small Basque town where folk were going about their daily business) of what is happening in the epoch in which they live. It can consist of political commentary or social, socioeconomic, environmental, existential concerns, gender, and so on. Or, what ever concerns the artist. I believe artists’ should take responsibility for what they create and the manner in which they create the artwork for example environmental impact awareness. Art is always evolving always in flux moving and shifting with the climate of the times or even slightly ahead of the time. Van Gogh’s work is an example and Monet’s.”