For the last blog post of 2023 I have the distinct honor to have Erika Wurm of Wurm Wares as my guest.
I’ve been following along with Erika’s journey on Instagram and love her expressive nature centered artwork. I know you will benefit from learning a little about her and be inspired to pursue your path to creativity no matter how many twists and turns are encountered along the way!
ENJOY!
Erika Wurm started as an art student studying traditional illustration in 1998 in San Francisco, but left after a couple of years because of the intenseness of the Universities pitting students against each other.
She then found herself in Horticultural school where she learned of another passion; playing with plants.
After years into her plant-y career Erika found herself at another crossroads to reinvent herself after she had experienced some difficult life events. It had been over 12 years since she had picked up a pencil but she was drawn to revisiting her first love of creating.
It’s funny how life works this way.
She literally started from the beginning again, practicing and relearning; but Erika is the kind of person that uses tutorials to get her started or to learn basics but then tends to let herself go wild (to “Wurm-it-Up”).
She absolutely loves the exploration of experimenting to find the result she is looking for, or sometimes just to create a mess. It’s all part of her process!
Erika primarily worked with acrylics and didn’t care for watercolor because of its “unruliness” but now that’s what she loves about the medium and what she primarily uses. But because she is a huge texture fan, she tends to use other materials in her work like fabric, wire, embroidery and of course you will see a nod to her horticultural career with dried flora in there as well.
Erika believes leaving art school and their regimented ways freed her inner creative child. It has allowed her to play with such unabashed freedom, make mistakes, and learn what her artistic style is.
The subject of her work is primarily inspired by her love of Nature but you will find very child-like whimsy in there too.
It is important to Erika to share her fascination of researching endangered or over-looked species of flora/fauna. She finds it interesting to discover cool creatures and bring awareness to them; like Jumping Slugs (an important environmental indicator species)!
In turn some of her artwork donates to conservation groups to rehabilitate the very animal or its habitat that she is featuring in her work.
Erika hopes that her art brings people joy as well as striking curiosity about the wild world around them.
Connect with Erika!
