Ericka Clark Shaw sees a bigger picture, layering her artwork with meaning like archeological strata. As an artist, she positions herself between man and nature, acting as an informational conduit. Thus, urged to consider factors above and below the horizon line of the featured subject, viewers are prodded to consider the natural world and one's impact on it. Viewers are encouraged to discover more about themselves and their relationship with the environment.

Much of Ericka's output is devoted to abstracted wall sculptures. Pattern, repetitive textures and rhythm combine to suggest virgin landscape and human incursion into the natural world. Composed of multiple, autonomous components, the wall pieces often speak of tectonic forces and aerial panorama. Airbrushed colorants highlight undulating textures. To create the wall-pieces, Ericka works from a library of textured slab molds divided between natural and man-made textures. These are metaphors for the natural world and man's challenge to it.

Dream Stream (1994), asserts man's ongoing struggle to control a harsh environment and nature's reciprocal push back. "Natural" slabs are sandwiched layers denoting technological trespass. A middle ribbed slab suggesting cultivated land, partially folds back over a top layer textured to resemble rocks or mountains. That the top layer is shaped like a truncated, headless fish implies death and ongoing struggle. Surrounded and constricted by nature, man attempts to dominate. Viewed on the wall, these elements perform a dance macabre in the struggle for control.

In Doug's House (1994), Shaw presents ideas through the lens of her architect husband. This piece concerns the joy and occasional indecisiveness of creative acts. A windowed slab floats over a lower one as if the architect or artist were considering possible paths - ideas under construction. Perhaps the unroofed section suggests a metaphor for unbridled imagination. Thoughts are free to expand to infinity. Artistic expression arises from the untamed "soil" of our fundamental nature, built from the ground up as Ericka illustrates.

Shaw's Geo Span series depicts weathered beams rising from root systems. Here one finds the melding of man and nature. Presented like archeological artifacts, excavated and displayed for study, the works could be skeletal remains. Like people, buildings (or ideas), have a history and life span. Whether actual or metaphorical, they all have a structure like plants, a root system providing stability, nourishment and growth.

Ericka Clark Shaw presents the idea that creating is analogous to raising a structure in the physical world or growing in the natural one. Geo Span Bolted (1990) presents a "rusted" steel beam arising from textured wooden branching. One round hole pierces the top right surface indicating an intended joining. Work is ongoing. A metal bolt secures the piece to the wall, at that point a marriage of thought, art, and physical. Conversely, in Geo Span Angle (1990), interposed rolled slabs create vertical striated lines resembling petrified wood or wind-sculpted stone in southwestern deserts and speak of timelessness. These columnar pieces describe man's path away from the natural world. Elements are layered like ideas, one inside another until solid support is achieved.

Beginning in the 1990's, Ericka became involved with public art. Mosaics, painted tiles and sculptural inclusions showcase various talents of the teens, schoolchildren, or community members she has guided in these projects from inception to final installment. Her overall goal is translating perception into clay. Through the act and end product, she endeavors to instill in others, the ability to look deeper and see beyond surface appearances.

In a collaboration with the artist Gary Carlos and Dover Elementary School fourth and fifth grade students (San Pablo, California), Let the Games Begin (2000), comprises five mosaic games tables. Tiles comprise actual games and display printed playing instructions. Color and design encourage player's eyes to hop skip and jump about the table surface. Minds play, as do eyes. A jumble of available games and irregularly shaped tiles vie with each other for player's attention. Shaw, Carlos, and the Dover students, invite players into a lively space where exploration and freedom are key - providing players the keys to their own minds.

In her pieces, Ericka Clark Shaw integrates a lifetime's experience and observation. She reminds us that the interactive flow between man and environment, both nurturing and frustrating, most importantly demands respect. Consciously or not, she merges expertise and observations derived from life experience and schooling - all focused through a unique individual lens. Ericka allows us to peer over her shoulder as she shows us what is deeper than surface appearance, her bigger picture.