Secrets

Erin M. Riley is a very contemporary artist who works with wool tapestry, and she is within one of my top ten favorite artists (at this current point in time). I really admire her work for the concepts that she presents, and also through the unique medium that she works with. Riley brings contemporary issues into her work and brings attention to them through not only the content she presents (subject matter), but she uses a medium that fits with her concept, as well as her choice of color usage and the lack of detail. Riley presents subject matter that is commonly seen on the internet, and she presents the actions of teenagers (teenagers sexting, doing drugs, smoking, etc), which brings attention to the issue and gets her viewers to think about why kids of the modernistic age do these things. It gets people thinking about how this issue can change and what we can do to change it, which to me is very inspirational. I also really admire the use of abstractism in her works (for example, in the piece above, the subject is faceless). This is significant and admirable, because it allows the viewers to kind of paint the picture and self-interpret/create their own story. The fact that the subject is faceless is significant as well, because if the subject DID have a face, then the story would already be told. The piece conveys the idea that anyone can choose to pursue the actions and make the choices that these pieces convey. The color usage is also realistic, yet some parts of the work is a bit abstract, which I also admire, because I really love abstract work and try to incorporate that technique into my own work. The choice of medium/wool/fabric is also inspiring, because it fits well with her concepts. The concepts that Riley chooses to present kind of show how life can deteriorate and fall apart when teens/young adults make negative choices. Similar to these, fabric can unravel and fall apart as well.

Image derived from:Riley, Erin. Secrets. 2013. Hand woven wool tapestry. Erin RileyWeb. 10 Sep 2013. <http://erinmriley.com/artwork/3113521_Secrets.html>.