Biography
Erika Small is an artist who grew up in the midwest in Winona, MN right on the Mississippi River. Inspired by the beautiful landscape, she attended art classes with her Grandmother at an early age. They painted often together and she has gravitated to art ever since, majoring in fine art at St. Olaf college. Currently she lives in the Twin Cities area in MN with her husband and her three sons. She recently completed the mastery program at the Milan Art Institute.
Erika’s art is the summation of many stories of people who are facing challenges or fears that they must persevere through and overcome. Sometimes animals are used as supporting characters. Erika likes to create a dramatic scene to play out an important moment in the subject’s journey when they are chosen or deciding their path. As a mixed media artist who uses spray paint, acrylic, and oil paint, Erika uses extremely bold colors in acrylic and spray paint in the underpainting. Oil paint is the final layer.
In the future, Erika hopes to create more journeys to engage the viewer in, to inspire, and give the hope to keep going no matter what.