Erica Hess lives and works in Appleton. She received her M.F.A at UW-Madison, working in printmaking, fibers, and sculpture. She is a co-founder of the Madison collective printmaking space, Polka Press, as well as co-owner of Hello! Loom, a company that creates laser cut looms for easy, convenient, and portable weaving.
Hess's practice is interdisciplinary, including printmaking, fibers, painting, and sculpture. Using familiar objects and materials, she explores conventions developed by society to deal with our deteriorating bodies. Packing, protecting, storing, and transporting objects is a rich well from which to consider new associations to materials and their intimate relationship to the body. The reality of being an artist, the making, building, stewardship, and storage of these art items have become the subject matter and the overarching metaphor in her work. Which objects are valuable enough to transport and protect? Why?
