Erica Stanley

Erica Stanley

Erica Stanley is an artist, educator, goldsmith, and arts advocate living along the beautiful Wolastoq River, in New Brunswick. Stanley’s artistic practice serves as a means of experiencing, understanding, and honouring the natural world around her, and has shown in various galleries, including the Beaverbrook Art Gallery.

She has taught goldsmithing at the Nunavut Arctic College, and currently is a Studio Head of Entrepreneurship at the NB College of Craft and Design (NBCCD), as well as a Jewellery Instructor. Stanley holds a Bachelor of Applied Arts from the University of New Brunswick, as well as a Diploma in Fine Craft and a Diploma of Advanced Studies from NBCCD.

It is with great thanks to ArtsNB that Stanley continues growing her professional practice, thanks to CraftNB for their community and programing, to her husband and Artist Aidan Stanley for the many collaborations, and to the Metal Six women whose collective inspires her to push her edges and continue to explore.

Artist Statement: Pinned

Celebrating the twelve calves born this season so far, and cautioning against the overuse of materials that end up in our oceans, this series of brooches on paintings highlights the magnificent beauty of the North Atlantic Right Whale. Mothering females had enough to eat this year, in the Bay of Fundy and further north, indicated by the successful number of calves carried and birthed so far. These precious young are the hope for the lineage of this ancient mammal.

Using recycled silver and gold accompanied by plastics that were headed for the landfill or oceans, this juxtaposition of garbage alongside precious materials aims to articulate the beauty that can be created in rubbish and mess. We are in a mess here, the warming waters depicted with splashes of hot pink behind each whale, however, if we can practice critical thinking and consciousness in our daily decisions, a cleaner and more ecologically diverse earth can be made manifest.