Work samples

  • Living room (night)
    Living room (night)
    Charcoal and graphite on Rives BFK, 42-1/2” x 63”
  • Room #3, May 12th, 2022, YWCA South Hampton Roads Emergency Shelter
    Room #3, May 12th, 2022, YWCA South Hampton Roads Emergency Shelter
    Charcoal and graphite on muslin, 58 by 90 inches
  • Judith watches over
    Judith watches over
    Charcoal and graphite on Rives BFK, 28-3/4” x 39-3/16”
  • Living Room (afternoon)
    Living Room (afternoon)
    Charcoal and graphite on Rives BFK, 42-1/2" x 47-3/4”

About Erin

My drawings invite viewers to consider connections to physical spaces they inhabit. Whether the urban landscape of a city or the private interior of a home, I choose not to draw the occupants, and with their absence I hope to encourage the viewer to not only imagine those not shown, but also to ruminate on correlations to their own personal environments. In my shadow drawings I draw particular attention to the malleability of our relationship to space, through even the continuously variable… more

YWCA Shelter Bedroom

I was invited by the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art to create work for their exhibition "More than Shelter." After I expressed the interest to shift the focus of my women's bedroom series to depict transitional spaces used in time of need, the museum facilitated a partnership with the YWCA of South Hampton Roads. I was invited to visit the YWCA  women and family emergency shelter and create a drawing depicting one of the rooms.  A few days prior to my scheduled visit, a woman had unexpectedly vacated her space. I was granted access to photograph the room as she left it behind. From these photos I stitched together a composite and then drew it to scale from the viewpoint of the room's doorway. Shown is Room number 3 as it looked on May 12th of 2022.
  • Room #3, May 12th, 2022, YWCA South Hampton Roads Emergency Shelter
    Room #3, May 12th, 2022, YWCA South Hampton Roads Emergency Shelter
    Charcoal and graphite on muslin, 58 by 90 inches
  • Detail
    Detail
    Charcoal and graphite on muslin
  • Detail
    Detail
    Charcoal and graphite on muslin

Shadow Drawings

As I was sequestered inside my home during the pandemic, I became captivated by the movement of light. Early on, I began photographing the fleeting shapes of sunlight and shadow that appeared throughout the day. Having collected hundreds of images, I would not decide to draw them until a year later, when I experienced the devastation of a miscarriage. The overwhelming sadness that I felt necessitated the creation of something beautiful. The photographs had captured visible moments of ephemerality and when drawn at life size each moment gained permanence and weight. The process of drawing each image felt akin to making my grief visible. Although these drawings are deeply personal, they are universal in their relation to how others experienced their homes during the pandemic and during times of their own grieving.
  • Living Room (afternoon)
    Living Room (afternoon)
    Charcoal and graphite on Rives BFK, 42-1/2" x 47-3/4”
  • Living room (night)
    Living room (night)
    Charcoal and graphite on Rives BFK, 42-1/2” x 63”
  • Front door (morning)
    Front door (morning)
    Charcoal and graphite on Rives BFK, 29” x 34”
  • Basement (morning)
    Basement (morning)
    Charcoal and graphite on Rives BFK, 36” x 43-9/16”
  • Office floor (midday)
    Office floor (midday)
    Charcoal and graphite on Rives BFK paper, 42.5" x 31"
  • Bathroom (afternoon)
    Bathroom (afternoon)
    Charcoal and graphite on Rives BFK, 29-3/8” x 26-7/16”
  • Hallway (afternoon)
    Hallway (afternoon)
    Charcoal and graphite on Rives BFK, 28-1/4” x 22”
  • Bedroom (morning)
    Bedroom (morning)
    Charcoal and graphite on Rives BFK, 32” x 23-9/16”

Women's Bedrooms

Since early 2019, I have been working on a series of drawings of women’s bedrooms. After spending several years drawing public spaces I wanted to focus on private interiors. My shift in interest from exterior to interior spaces coincided with a realization that I had been watching many of the women in my life rebuild their homes, often after upheaval. I developed an interest in acknowledging the resiliency required in rebuilding one’s life, and wanted to display the value of sanctuary within the home. I focused on the bedroom as a unique place where a sole woman occupant can be free of much of the objectification and expectation imposed upon her most anywhere else in her life, which is why her figure is explicitly not shown. We acknowledge her through representation of her space, rather than her body. 
  • Judith watches over
    Judith watches over
    Charcoal and graphite on Rives BFK, 28-3/4” x 39-3/16”
  • Mid-winter light
    "Mid-winter light"
    Charcoal and graphite on paper, 11" x 14.25"
  • Where she who champions, rests
    Where she who champions, rests
    Charcoal and graphite on Rives BFK paper, 22" x 30"
  • Blue settles in
    "Blue settles in"
    Charcoal and graphite on Rives BFK paper, 13" x 17"
  • Kindness, in the throes of disagreement
    "Kindness, in the throes of disagreement"
    Charcoal and graphite on Rives BFK paper, 11" x 15"
  • In a cloth of coral, slumber
    "In a cloth of coral, slumber"
    Charcoal and graphite on paper, 11" x 15"
  • In the light of a bare bulb
    In the light of a bare bulb
    Charcoal and graphite on paper, 11" x 15"
  • After 45 years
    "After 45 years"
    Charcoal and graphite on Rives BFK paper, 11" x 14.25"
  • In a house filled with women
    "In a house filled with women"
    Charcoal and graphite on Rives BFK paper, 11" x 14.25"
  • The advantages of being a woman artist
    "The advantages of being a woman artist"
    Charcoal and graphite on paper, 11" x 14.25"

The Weight of Absence

This series of drawings depicts architectural structures located in the city of Baltimore, my hometown. This work initially stemmed from a place of loss. As I grieved the death of my father, who was an architect, I used representations of physical structures to attempt to create an external vessel to hold my immense feelings of grief. I found these structures by exploring the City on foot, by bike, or by car. By building space and form through the layering of charcoal marks, I created tonal landscapes, rendering both the city and my internal world. As the work progressed, I developed an increased interest in the interplay of presence and absence, where the tangible and intangible become intertwined.
  • The weight of absence
    The weight of absence
    Charcoal and graphite on paper, 26" x 40", Private Collection
  • The intangible expanse of a last breath
    The intangible expanse of a last breath
    Charcoal and graphite on paper, 27" x 37", Private Collection
  • As if floating
    As if floating
    Charcoal and graphite on paper, 38" x 26", Private Collection
  • Behind the swell
    Behind the swell
    Charcoal and graphite on paper, 42" x 28", Private Collection
  • Pimlico Towers
    Pimlico Towers
    Charcoal and graphite on paper, 17" x 17", Private Collection
  • Warehouse bridges
    Warehouse bridges
    Charcoal and graphite on paper, 17" x 17", Private Collection
  • To have arrived at this place
    To have arrived at this place
    Charcoal and graphite on paper, 18" x 18", Private Collection
  • To hold close until breaking
    To hold close until breaking
    Charcoal and graphite on paper, 102" x 35"
  • To remain unprepared
    To remain unprepared
    Charcoal and graphite on paper, 17" x 17"
  • Little white house on Charles
    Little white house on Charles
    Charcoal and graphite on paper, 17" x 17", 2017, Private collection

East Baltimore Crankie

In January of 2018, David Native Son Ross and I performed a collaborative crankie. A crankie is a scrolled panorama, and for our performance I created 15 drawings of East Baltimore. As I cranked through the drawings, David performed a spoken word piece he specifically wrote to accompany the images.  Included here is a video of the performance and a few of the drawings. Once the performance was completed, the crankie scroll was cut up and sold.
  • Erin Fostel and David Ross: "A Walk in Baltimore"
    Video created by Human Being Productions. Recording of crankie performance by Erin Fostel and David Native Son Ross at the Creative Alliance in January of 2018.
  • Patterson Park Pagoda
    Patterson Park Pagoda
    Charcoal and graphite on paper, 11" x 14"
  • Monument East
    Monument East
    Charcoal and graphite on paper, 11" x 14"
  • Middle East
    Middle East
    Charcoal and graphite on paper, 11" x 14"
  • Creative Alliance
    Creative Alliance
    Charcoal and graphite on paper, 11" x 14"
  • S. Patterson Park Avenue
    S. Patterson Park Avenue
    Charcoal and graphite on paper, 11" x 14"
  • Canton
    Canton
    Charcoal and graphite on paper, 11" x 14"
  • Baltimore Cemetery
    Baltimore Cemetery
    Charcoal and graphite on paper, 11" x 14"
  • Old Town Mall
    Old Town Mall
    Charcoal and graphite on paper, 11" x 14"
  • Greektown
    Greektown
    Charcoal and graphite on paper, 11" x 14"