Eastend Arts Center in Marshall, Michigan, is launching its inaugural Artist‑in‑Residence program with Michigan collage artist Erica Eash. Collage is a technique using all kinds of materials, usually clippings of photography, prints, or other artwork, assembled to form one visual piece. The artist’s solo art exhibit, Blueprints and Bombshells, opens January 23rd with an artist reception. Her residency will continue through June.
“The residency will kick off with a solo exhibit that will be on display and go through February 13,” says Eash. “And then I will be teaching a workshop or two in the spring. I think we are looking at March. And then it will end with a fashion show on May 2. That will take place in the Wagner Ballroom. That show will be taking my collages and turning them into actual fashion.”
The solo art exhibit is described by Eastend Arts Center Executive Director Jennifer Conley Darling: “Through two distinct collage series, Eash explores the female experience from contrasting perspectives: vintage Detroit engineering blueprints paired with bold portraits of women, and a dreamy sci‑fi aesthetic that speaks to intuition and identity. Together, the works highlight resilience, strength, and the layered complexity of femininity.”
Eash says that when she realized that painting and drawing were not her strong points, she could still express her creative side through collage.
“With collage, I can work intuitively,” she says. “I don’t have to have a vision in my brain of what it is going to be. I can just sit down and let things flow with whole images that are speaking to me, and I know how to piece them together.”
A challenge for Eash is that she says that she feels collage artists are not taken seriously. It is something she hopes to change.
“Especially in the fine arts world, it’s just not as respected as a painter or an illustrator,” Eash says. “So I feel so lucky to be in a place where there is a local gallery that recognizes the value that I can bring as a collage artist.” Blueprints and Bombshells will be on exhibit in the Larson Exhibition Room. Visit Eastend Arts Center, 143 West Michigan Avenue in Marshall, for details on workshops and the Art of the Alter Ego fashion show on May 2.
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