Erin L. Gilson

Visual Art – Cincinnati

Born in 1987 in Cleveland, Ohio, Erin Gilson was almost immediately thrown into the world of Art by her grandmother Ruth, who saw to it that she was also enrolled in every extracurricular art class that Erin had time for, setting in motion a life-long curiosity and dedication to all things artistic. Before Erin received her Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree from Miami University in May 2012, she began receiving accolades for her talents in graphite and sculpture at Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin College Preparatory School, earning placement as well as cash awards in multiple shows. After dedicating her summers to classes at the Cleveland Institute of Art, she received the distinguished honor of being featured in the Ohio Governor’s Youth Art Exhibition. Once at Miami University, she took advantage of their wide range of studio courses, further developing her foundation in photography, drawing, and ceramics, while broadening her horizons with printmaking, animation, illustration, and oil painting. From this mayhem, direction took hold and Erin’s artwork found motivation: the challenge of visually capturing the emotional experience of a fleeting moment. She begins her process by placing herself into a new environment and paying keen attention to emotional shifts while identifying their catalysts. Once the cause of the new emotion is pinpointed, she takes several photographs, cataloging those elements around her that embody what she is feeling. Erin’s oil paintings are thus drawn from a photorealistic and meticulous emotional understanding of her subjects.