My name's Erin Cruz (formerly Dietrich), and I like to paint. More importantly, I like to bring joy and fondness through colors and inspire minds to think outside the box.

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Besides six months of weekly watercolor lessons in middle school, I am a self-taught artist and have had a passion for art since I was little, growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area. Now, where did this all start? Well, my first love was drawing. As a kid, every paper I ever got my hands on became covered in comics or characters or doodles (and yes, even the classic eye doodles). Before bed every night, I would grab my sketchbook and just go ham.

 

Fast forward to my high school days. I remember being terrified to go to high school - I only knew a few people that I had gone to elementary school with and I was a very shy and anxious kid. As a way to hopefully meet new people like me who also enjoyed artsy things, I joined this program called the "Art Academy." This was basically a group of students at the school who took the same English and social studies classes together, but they also had a specialty art class. Out of the 4 specialties - art, drama, photography, and video production - I chose video production since I had LOVED to make little movies with my cousins and brothers as a kid (movie spoofs were our specialty). Being in this community, I was always surrounded by artists of all types. My interest in acrylic painting really blossomed during this time because my best friends would often paint for gifts, school projects, or just for fun. There was a painting I did at a friend's house - an ocean sunset with a big sunflower as the sun, shining on a little sailboat. This was the project that showed me I could actually really enjoy painting.

 

After graduating high school and going for a communications degree at Grand Canyon University in Phoenix, I began to practice my skills as an acrylic painter and have continued for the past six years. Whenever I have some free time, I love creating surreal art to encourage outside-the-box thinking. I also think it's super cool to recreate meaningful photos as a painting. I have been painting all kinds of different commissioned pieces for a few years now. I've tried various styles and subjects, trying to discover what type of artist I am. I want to be the type of artist that can bring joy to people through the details - to me, paintings add a deeper element to the feelings that are already captured in an image, like how you get taken back to elementary school by the smell of the blacktop when it starts raining, ya know? I want my paintings to bring you back like a smell can.

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Incorporating bright colors and strategic juxtapositions into my paintings, my surreal style began to develop as I entered college. I had only a few canvas panels from the Beverley's Art Supply and some craft paint I took from home that my mom had collected over the years for DIY projects. I believe that being self-taught makes art more enjoyable since there are no due dates, no rules, and no one to tell you what goes where. My art is inspired by the desire to think of something that has never been thought of before - it's an attempt to show others how freely one’s imagination can roam.

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Currently, I'm living in Eastern Washington with my family and hubby. I DREAM of moving somewhere by the beach (I do miss that Cali sun). While I am here, I hope to begin my artistic career as a live wedding painter soon! In the meantime, I am loving taking commissions for painting wedding/engagement/honeymoon photos ;) - my other hobbies include crocheting, playing guitar, watching movies while asking questions the whole time, (bad) dancing, and going on runs when it's sunny.

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Thank you for reading <3