Erica Venuti

I started painting in 1999, but since 2007, I have been painting a healing journey. Spending most of my life in Long Island, NY, I moved to Vermont in 2009. This move was part of my living life experiment, "getting back to basics" or becoming closer to the land that nourishes the heart and soul. Living in rural Vermont offers solitude and an opportunity to live in cycles of the seasons. I started gardening and raising chickens for both eggs and meat. My art as with the seasons change

The works that came out of me range from automatic painting, figure works, landscapes, surrealism, and as I begin to lighten up my works become whimsical. I cycle between intensely focused work and free spirited pieces, using a range of materials to suit my ever changing moods.

Within my experience, living in a natural environment, I discovered many allies in the natural realm they appear to me as teachers, offering wisdom to my current situation. These characters often appear in my work. Some are anthropomorphic, some transmorphic (changing from one state to another) and some realistic. They come to me in dreams, across my path on daily walks or some may even visit me right outside my door.