The Surreal Photographic Art of Erin Sparler
Sparler's creative career stems from her high school days, when she first began doodling and drawing. After winning first place award for the Student Art Awareness Month competition and seeing her work printed on a billboard, she became completely hooked. She continued to draw and paint and study art throughout college, and graduated from the University of Vermont with a major in Studio Art and Product Design and Development. She later moved to San Francisco to study Computer Animation. Yet she could not stay away from art; three years later she received a Master's of Fine Art from the Academy of Art College. While she was in graduate school, Erin needed to escape from her computer, as she was spending 12-14 hours a day working on her thesis. It was then that her mother sent her a little 35mm point and shoot camera. She made a point to get up every day and go for a walk before sitting down in front of the screen for another long session. She soon became fascinated with the stairways of San Francisco and began photographing them as well as the vistas she discovered along the way. Photography ended up becoming a deep passion of hers that she couldn't have stopped doing if she tried; her walking habit increased and cameras and photography equipment began to stack up. Though Sparler has extensive training in art and places a lot of emphasis on her understanding of color theory, composition, and sacred geometry, she is primarily self-taught when it comes to photography. It was her knowledge and experience, as well as the desire to continually learn more and grow as a photographer, that was the segue into her teaching career; Erin moved to Maryland, PA to became a Professor at a local private college. She has shown her photography and fine art all across the country, and is the author of numerous educational and academic publications.
