January 23, 2004
Joan Erbe - Surrealistic Patterning
Joan Erbe is a Baltimore treasure. She has been painting seemingly forever. Erbe has achieved legendary status in her hometown, yet her works remain undiscovered by a wider audience.
Erbe's paintings transport viewers into a fantasy world of kewpie dolls and circus freaks. Both are startling, yet neither is a cause for nightmares. From a review of her works: "Erbe's striking images seduce the viewer. With subject matter that ranges from dreamily uplifting to eerily disquieting, Erbe is willing to see the darker side of life, but does so with an undercurrent of humor. An Erbe painting is simultaneously funny and alarming. It simultaneously draws viewers in and keeps them at bay. It is this quality --- the push and pull of the beautiful, the bizarre, and the macabre --- that makes an Erbe, 'an Erbe.'"
Erbe's layering and flattened images are created with paint on panel, yet offer an insight into some of the layering and blending that the fiber community might aspire to. Her colors are rich and the patterning indicate, often repeating elaborate fabric patterning. Fiber artists looking to explore figurative or surrealistic imagery will find much to explore in Erbe's paintings.
image: Baby and Dog, 1996, hand-colored collagraph, 42" x 30" by Joan Erbe
