The spirit of a woman is alive and well in the home of Erika Hagberg, a woman who has learned that life is most complete when you live it with someone who makes you happy; someone who brings you great joy regardless of their gender.  Erika is re-righting her life after many years of living in an unhappy marriage with a man, as society expected her to do, and rewriting her career as a one-of-a-kind artist.  Today, she has broken free of the domination of “social norms” and is living happily with her partner on the magic shores of a Minnesota lake weaving the tapestry of her soul into the tapestries she creates.

Erika brings into her ‘Women’s Art” the dimensions of form, shadow, and line, enabling the viewer to feel the sensuality without the manifestation of lust, which is so often the focus of commercial nudity.  In today’s world of gut-retching pornography in both the printed page and digital technology, people have lost touch with the exquisiteness of fine art.  The human form has been the subject of artists throughout history, with male artists dominating the art world with their own political and sexual agendas as they interpret the male and female bodies.  The world is changing in their views of women, allowing them to unleash their potential in every walk of  life. Who could better understand the spirit and body of the female better than a female inspired by the love of a female?

As a fifth-generation artist, Erika started developing her talent at a very young age.  These talents manifested themselves in high school where she could always be found in the art room.  Her beginnings in the more liberal city of Madison, Wisconsin, influenced her choices in her art field.  Fine art has always been open to interpretation by the generation viewing them.  Most often, artists are not appreciated in their own lifetime.  These tapestries deserve to be appreciated in the here and now to help the world understand that nudity and sensuality do not have to be the exclusive territory of pornography and lust.

Erika is not just a craftsman using her skills to make something pretty.  She is an artist who puts a piece of her soul into each one of her masterpieces. She weaves the subtle shadows and lines of the human form by using color theory, hand sewing, hand beading, and embroidery. One cannot truly appreciate the depth of each piece by viewing it in a photograph.  Only by standing in front of one of her works of art can one see the interplay of textures and light and depth, allowing true appreciation of each piece.

Erika’s career, like that of many artists before her, has taken her through many different doorways of experience, but the doorway to her heart as always been art.  Some of her recent work can be seen at the Hunt Utility Group (hugllc.com), a teaching campus in Pine River, where she has constructed three dimensional mud murals.  She has also painted an undersea mural on a climbing wall at The Children’s Park in Crosby, Minnesota, and mural at the gaming store called Citadel Games of Brainerd, Minnesota.  But you will truly bust your bustle when you view her ‘busts’, two thermal graphic sculptures colorized through the depiction of body by means of a cancer screening tool; one male torso is sculpted with tumbled semi-precious gem stones, and a female torso that glows with the many facets and colors of Swarovski crystals.  Monsieur Pol, as the male is named; and Madame Bling of Swarovski elegance, are sculptures that would lend grace to any establishment with boldness and refinement.

The struggles she has faced in her life: broken marriage to an alcoholic, supporting two children, and finding herself in love with a female, all lend to her creative genius in transforming cotton, muslin and silk into sensual tapestries and other multi-dimensional forms.

-Susan Sterling