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ARTIST'S
BIOGRAPHY: |
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From a young
age, growing up in the northern Maine town of Sherman
Mills, Erica Qualey has had an unwavering affinity
for art and all things aesthetic. She cannot pinpoint
the beginnings of her love for art but can certainly
recall the support that helped her become the independent-minded
artist that she is today.
Ingenuity is a core trait of most people raised
in a community where one makes oneself. If you want
something, you do not go into town and buy it. You
have to use the resources of your friends and family,
create it, or invent it. Erica was brought up |
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with the idea that you
make life what you will. No one can do for you what
you can do for yourself. You must be intrinsically
motivated and willing to take your own risks.
Her supportive family traveled widely to provide
Erica with the experiences she wanted as an aspiring
artist. As long as she kept up with her schoolwork,
she was allowed to do as much artwork as she liked.
After years of partaking in a variety of classes
and attending the Maine College of Art’s summer
high school programs, Erica attended the Rochester
Institute of Technology in western New York. She
graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Industrial
Design but also dabbled in coursework involving
illustration, pottery, and painting. She gained
many skills in her studies, however she struggled
with the rigidity of the industrial design program
and its focus on simplifying products in order to
universalize and mass-produce them. Seeking more
diversity and freedom in her work, she has been
focusing more on a range of fine arts and crafts
and trying her hand at anything that catches her
fancy in her professional life.
After college, Erica moved back to New England.
Living in Wells and Kittery, Maine, and Dover, New
Hampshire before moving to South Bristol last September.
She has worked in graphic and web design as an independent
contractor, doing free-lance web and advertising
design for numerous companies. Along with designing,
she taught design and drawing as an adjunct instructor
at McIntosh College for two years. Today, Erica
still works as a free-lance graphic designer in
addition to watercolor painting. She also enjoys
exploring other mediums such as silversmithing,
mural painting, woodcarving, and is now learning
about ceramics while working as a painter at Damariscotta
Pottery.
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