February 2011

I strive to create unique works of public art.  A love of learning about and working with innovative materials and processes has developed a number of ways for me to express myself.

In August of 2008 I received a $1500 career development grant from the Marin Arts Council.   Fueled with the confidence and affirmation a grant can offer, I invested more time and money to create a process that allowed me to make a print directly onto aluminum panels.  This process creates a digital monoprint; it is not exactly a digital print even though the work itself comes from a digital image.  My hand is embedded in the process of creating the print serface, and imparts the random imperfections that give the print its interesting and unique characteristics.

My first series of large digital aluminum mono prints, titled “white line diary”, featured images of West Marin as seen from the road.  Many of the “white line” series are now on permanent display, purchased by the Sellers Markets restaurant group in San Francisco and others.

I like the aluminum because the surface gives a luminescent depth  to the works. The light moves with or viewer’s position.

I studied the movement of light and color with the aluminum prints in a series titled “in a mind’s eye”. Each work starts with a thought or idea, I crate multiple works in a series from one thought. Color is important to me and the driving inspiration for the feeling I use to create each work. Rhythms and patterns created in nature and by mathematics are also inspiration for me.

Using Polycarbonate panels, and a modification of the  process I created for aluminum,  I constructed a large free standing translucent screen titled “October 2008”.  This is my totem, a marker of time: I love this work as it ages.  It is beautiful.   I hope it sparks memories for some and, perhaps in the future, an interest in the historical issues from  October 2008.

2010 has been a year of artistic growth.  I began working with sculpture and casting, exploring some of the symbolism I envisioned as I transitioned myself from a businessman, to the artist I am becoming. The first work completed “Running Rooster”, is a kinetic sculpture of cold cast bronze and found objects.  I have others, and am working towards completing a cohesive collection for another solo show.  The working title is “Power: motion, motivation and control”.

eric john hoffman