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Artist Statement

Last updated 2026.01

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​I incorporate scrap materials from my “day job,” painting murals and large-scale backdrops and scenery (for television, theatre, museums, cruise ships, parades, retail displays etc.) to make colorful, inventive, post-human paintings and collages. Working in the entertainment and production industries keeps me acutely aware of the colossal amount of waste they create, and I often salvage materials such as scrap lumber, muslin, and offcuts from CNC routers that would ultimately end up in dumpsters. When painting, I use leftover scenic and mural paint to ground my canvases, and my color palettes are inspired by used stir-sticks that I have been hoarding for years. I even peel the dried paint from the inside of my five-gallon mixing buckets: these "paint skins," as I think of them, are truly beautiful as objects in and of themselves and have been the basis for hundreds of collages in an ongoing series.

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The World Without Us: End Days (Every Other Wednesday)
12 x 12" oil and acrylic on panel
2023
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ERICA HARNEY, ARTIST

Original + Custom Paintings, Murals + Scenery

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