The paintings of Erin Brubaker ’18 will be on display at the Bexley Living Fine Art Show on Friday, May 18, from 7-10 p.m. and on Saturday, May 19, from 2-4:30 p.m. at 520 South Parkview Ave., Bexley, Ohio. The show features more than 15 artists from Bexley, and the 90 pieces highlighted will be available for purchase. 

This year for my senior thesis project at Wittenberg, I made a body of work called “Naturalism.” It consists of seven oil portraits of students on campus, using photos that I took for reference. I wanted to show the subjects in candid moments in everyday settings. It was important to show them in a way that was true to reality, as opposed to the perfected images of people we see on social media. This series has been hanging in the Ann Miller Gallery in Koch Hall since April 6, and on Friday, May 18, they will be a part of the Bexley Living Fine Art Show. 

This semester I also had the opportunity to create another body of work by doing an independent study painting course. This group of paintings is titled “Escape” and is currently hanging in Thomas Library. It is made up of five oil paintings.

The inspiration for these works came from traveling to Las Vegas, Nevada, and San Simeon, California. I used photos that I took for reference - each of them showing a replica of ancient sculpture. I recently went to Las Vegas for spring break and had the chance to photograph the many sculptures of figures that are located on the strip. The ones that I used for the series were outside of Caesar's Palace and Planet Hollywood. The other photos that I used were taken at Hearst Castle in San Simeon, California.

Each stone figure is painted along with an advertisement sign. I wanted to create a contrast between the ancient beauty of the sculptures and the superficial signs. The sculptures are also meant to represent our concept of ideal beauty in the context of places we go to escape our everyday lives. I hope to continue this series after I graduate and show it in both group and solo exhibitions. 

Erin Brubaker '18
Major: Studio Art with a concentration in painting
Hometown: Bexley, Ohio