Artist Statement

ANDREA LYNN HERRICK ARTIST STATEMENT

As an interdisciplinary artist with roots in collage and printmaking, my practice is imbued with a love of process. The practice of focused step-by-step making provides a meditative cocoon, insulated from the worldly chatter outside my studio. Submerging myself in each stage of my work, I feel a sacred sense of purpose, as a monk serving my vision, obedient to the process.

Having earned a B.A. with Distinction in Interior Design from Purdue University, my training in hand drafting has proved invaluable in the studio. My corporate career as a designer and project manager girds up my studio practice with discipline and confidence of vision.

The content of my work arises from personal experience and becomes an act of storytelling through the most advantageous media. Beginning as a focused “media artist”, I have developed through my practice into an “idea artist”, exploring paper and book arts, video, performance, poetry, and textiles as expedient venues for compelling story.

The work shown on this microsite was photographed on exhibit in SAIC’s 280 Building in April 2021. Marking a critical turning point in my practice following a traumatic sexual harassment experience at my undergraduate fine arts school, the work responds to a psychodrama of treachery, which aborted the Honors BFA I had been earning for more than four years. Since May 25, 2017, my paper-centric work gradually arced out of grieving pieces, into presence pieces, and then into these power pieces: handmade paper documents of my voice and agency in an atmosphere of institutional corruption and oppression. Voice and agency are prominent themes in my practice, and this work expresses my determination to be heard, believed, and documented through hand papermaking techniques.

Confession I, 2021

Show title and vinyl wall text quote – a public confession at the basis of the work in this exhibit.
Catechism, 2020, Handmade denim paper, pigmented paper pulp, embossment.
Bad Baby, 2020, Handmade paper, pigmented paper pulp, inclusions. With a nod to Chris Isaak.
Pulp Question, 2020, Triptych – handmade paper constructions, pigmented paper pulp, stencil.