Image Credit: Photo by Heather Helen Ray
Today we’d like to introduce you to Erika Jaeggli.
Erika, before we jump into specific questions about your art, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
Like many artists, my journey has been circuitous and not followed a traditional path. Growing up Baltimore, Maryland, I always loved making art. I spent my weekends and summers taking classes at the Maryland Institute College of Art. My college years took me to New York City, where I majored in Art History and minored in German Studies at Columbia University. While attending Columbia, I had some incredible experiences, like taking a figure painting class from John Currin, working for Mark Dion, and working at Luhring Augustine Gallery. At this point in my life, I felt that my love for art would translate to working in the gallery or museum world as a profession. However, after graduation, the desire to create resurged, and I became a web designer, as this was the late 90’s during the dot-com boom. Feeling like I needed to hone my tech skills further, I applied to graduate school to pursue this field.
My first day at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts ITP was September 11, 2001 (yes, that 9/11). Like all New Yorkers – and the country – my world was shaken to the core. This event changed everything — for me, my husband, my friends. Similar to today’s pandemic, it forced us to think about what was really important in life. By the end of graduate school, I was pregnant with my first child and making watercolor paintings. Over the next few years, despite owning my own business doing video production and web design, my desire to make digital work had waned. The life-altering events of 9/11 and having two children made me hungry to return to my earliest passion — painting. At night, after putting my children to bed, I retreated to the basement and started making my first body of work, entitled Mother’s Hours. This work came from a deep place within me. From then on, I dedicated myself to raising my kids and making art.
I entered the Texas art scene in 2008 when we moved to Austin, where I maintained a studio at Pump Project Art Complex. During my time in Austin, I participated in several shows, the East Austin Studio Tour, and was an instructor at the Art School of the Austin Museum of Art. A move in 2011 brought me to Dallas. While in Dallas, I have exhibited at the Janette Kennedy Gallery at South Side on Lamar with fellow artist Sonali Khatti. In 2013, Alison Jardine and I were the inaugural artist-in-residence at the Dallas Arboretum. This residency involved painting onsite for three months and culminated in a show of paintings and video at the Arboretum’s gallery and artist-led-tours throughout the gardens. My paintings were featured in Studio Visit Twenty-Four and Thirty-Three. In 2015, I had my first gallery solo show at WAAS Gallery, entitled ‘FOMO’. I was also a founding member of Texas Vignette, a non-profit that is dedicated to highlighting the work of female artists in Texas. This was an incredible experience to take part in something bigger than myself and to be able to highlight so many talented females, and female-identifying, artists from across the state.
Last fall, I started the MFA program in Drawing and Painting at UNT in Denton. I realize how lucky I am to be part of this incredible community and be working towards a degree in the field that I love. It is a three-year program, and I am giving myself permission to explore, push boundaries, and tap into the amazing network of artists around me. While the pandemic has disrupted the school year in ways no one could have imagined, it has given me time to reflect on what is most important to me.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
As a mother, I appreciate the similarities between making art and raising kids. There are always struggles along the way, and a lot of the time, you feel like you have no idea what you’re doing. My art-making process has mirrored my mothering to a certain extent. When my kids were younger, I held on tightly, spent my time teaching them the basics of life, and overseeing their schedules. Now, teenagers, I feel comfortable letting them go, loosening the reigns, and appreciating them as unique, individual beings. It has been similar with art; I have moved away from making literal, didactic works to allowing the pieces to emerge and become what they want.
The hardest times I experienced were moving to new cities without knowing anyone or having a pre-existing network from school or growing up. I was fortunate to inhabit studios and make friends that have helped shape my career and guide me along the way. Without the support of my husband, family and friends, I could never have done any of it.
We’d love to hear more about your art.
My artistic output has been concerned with creating contemplative works and installations that address subjects of gender, environment and history. Caves, shadows, ghosts, dream images and primordial iconography all make up my visual language. I draw from sociology, art history, and anthropology for inspiration, but ultimately I am interested in making up imaginative spaces and languages that connect to others on a primal level.
For the past year, I have been drawn to caves: using caves as subject matter for drawing, painting and video, reading about the geology and history of caves, and thinking about caves on a metaphorical and allegorical level. Something deep within me feels pulled to the image and idea of the cave. Entering a dark, quiet space — encountering the unknown. The structure of a cave is actually an absence of form — a void created by water eroding stone over thousands of years. It’s an inversion of space that has a distinct feminine sensibility. Elements of caves lie at the intersection of art, history, philosophy, spirituality and domesticity. The work I have been making since March has taken some of these ideas about the void and darkness and translated them onto canvas. I have been painting in watercolor, as working from home prevents me from using oil paint and toxic materials. It is a medium I have returned to over the years, and I find comfort in the simplicity of it — pigment and water.
Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
I love the saying ‘it takes a village to raise a child,’ and I certainly believe the same is true for an artist. Being an artist is a solitary pursuit. I spend hours alone making work but it is not made in a vacuum. I am constantly inspired by and learning from other artists. Many of these artists are friends, with whom I have amazing conversations about work and life. Whether it is going to see gallery shows or hearing lectures at museums, my friendships are among the most important in my life and definitely shape me as an artist. The other part of my ‘village’ is my family, especially my husband, Nelson. Their support keeps me going every day.
Contact Info:
- Website: erikajaeggli.com
- Email: info@erikajaeggli.com
- Instagram: @erikajaeggli
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