Eric Lubrick (born Texas; lives Indianapolis, IN) studied at Columbus College of Art and Design, OH and received an MFA from the Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, MI. His photography has been featured in numerous publications and books such as Huffington Post, National Geographic and Sotheby’s. When Eric is not shooting freelance or working in the studio, he is Senior Staff Photographer at the Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields. Eric was awarded the Crystal DeHaan Artist of Distinction Award for aspirational visual arts projects.
Statement from the Artist:
Like many artists, writers, and people before my time, I have found the complexities of flowers to be endless. This intersection of the natural world and human involvement reveals connections to various times and places. For instance, the dandelion (French for dent-de-lion, meaning lion’s tooth) is a flower that was brought to the Americas by Western settlers in the 1600s because it was edible. Settlers planted this in their gardens, and it has since propagated as a wildflower. Now it is hard to imagine a spring/summer, mid-western American landscape without the dandelion. This invasive flower littering the landscape is a direct lineage and representation of how America came to be. This body of work came about by exploring the idea of juxtaposing language and flowers. I saw flowers as objects that could symbolize calmness, stillness, a safe space, and beauty. I was interested to see if this comparison of flowers and words could influence my creative process and understanding of topics such as politics, injustices, and the art world. Holding up these idyllic metaphors next to these overwhelming topics allowed me the power to recontextualize these tough subjects. While creating the photography series ”Shattered Still Lifes” and the sculptural work Floral Word Pieces, the pandemic and political unrest shook the world. Much of the project began to take shape around these life-changing events. Words like waves, languishing, empathy, and essential seemed to be a large part of the 2020 – 2022 lexicon as well as my mental space. Like all of us, I was left questioning and grappling with this new way of life. This work is a visual representation of how I have felt and partly coped with the global pandemic and the current politics dividing America. Exploring the deconstruction and reconstruction of the flower and these perceived “beautiful” objects has been a therapeutic powerful action. The flower petals functions as both the subject matter and as a medium. Though the “Shattered Still Life” series is presented as a photograph, I view it as both photography and collage. In my mind, these compositions are something a bit more tangible than a photograph. Capturing and holding the chaos in place allows for a spatial articulation. Like within my own life, I find myself piecing together where things came from and trying to calculate where they are headed. This series first starts with building a set then creating a floral arrangement. From there I slowly deconstruct it while taking multiple photos of the process. In post-production I layer and merge these exposures to create the overall image.