An exploration into intimacy
Unmade Beds Series
Unmade Beds: Living Through Covid is a series of miniature gouache paintings created during the COVID-19 quarantine from personal photographs of beds submitted by participants. What began as an intimate documentation of private spaces became an exploration of memory, vulnerability, isolation, and the quiet traces of human presence.
The bed, our nest, refuge, and most intimate domestic space; exist at the boundary between the private and the public. Familiar yet deeply personal, it holds the evidence of daily life: rest, solitude, intimacy, and retreat. During a period when the outside world became uncertain and distance became necessary, these spaces took on a heightened significance as places of comfort, protection, and emotional refuge.
Through color, atmosphere, form, and shifts in perspective, Erin transforms these ordinary interiors into contemplative studies of human experience. The unmade bed becomes both subject and metaphor; a quiet record of lives lived and a witness to a moment defined by uncertainty, isolation, and profound change.
The work also explores the uneasy relationship between intimacy and observation. By inviting the viewer into spaces that are inherently private, the paintings create a tension between the desire to look and the awareness that we are entering a world that does not belong to us. The miniature scale intensifies this exchange, requiring the viewer to move closer and engage with each painting in a deliberate and intimate way.
Together, the works create a space between comfort and exposure, privacy and curiosity, intimacy and distance. Unmade Beds: Living Through Covid seeks to evoke what Erin describes as an “uncomfortable peace”, a quiet place where vulnerability, memory, and beauty can coexist.
Commissions upon request
All works are 2” x 3” and upon sale are matted and framed
Anna’s Mom
Hannah’s Parents
Sparks II
Caroline
Newburgh
Carla
Marybeth
Kara
Jon
Durna
Roni
Katie Mae and William
Bayo
Zachary
David
Ying and Patrick
J and G
Casey
Jenn
Sparks
Stephen and Kate
Heather
Eric and Samantha
Doobie
Kristen and Jeff
Patrick
Michelle
Lisa and Kevin
Aulden
Kerry and Jordon
Clover and Andy
April
Michele
Susan and Bruce
Joel
Gabriela
Lily and Max
Emily and Stephen
Clementine
Michael and Sarah
Alicia and Scott
Jordon and Jessie
Tracey and Mark
Jenn
Annaquatucket House
Kate
Jennifer and Joel
Laura and Andrew
John
Scotty the Blue Bunny
Jackson and Maddy
Juliette
Michelle
Michelle
Casey
Jennifer and Alexander