Erin Luman, (b.1977 in MA) is intent on trying to remember. As a young person, she methodically catalogued her experiences in journals. In her teens, she’d pick up a stone from the ground after a first glance with a crush or she’d pocket a bottle cap to attempt to remember the feeling of watching fireworks in the thick darkness of summer. In later years she was diagnosed as having problems with her working memory. So now it seems that her inspiration to try to catalog life’s moments feels like an obvious response to what she’s always known to be true- Her memories are and have always been, fleeting.

Knowing all of this, you can draw a straight line to her subject matter. A payphone. Her childhood tape player. The clothes she wore as a child in the 80’s. The oldest summer cottages on the edge of the Atlantic.

“It’s only a matter of time before the sea claims these cottages so I’m trying to document the oldest ones that remain. I want to capture and keep those summer places.”

Luman uses acrylic paint on cradled wood panel in her seaside Massachusetts studio. After two sold out shows with the Gloucester cottages, she’s expanded her focus to other beach communities in coastal Massachusetts. Most recently though, her other projects are varied, including an exploration of vintage bathroom sinks, and another about the places artists perch when they do their creative thinking. Get on the mailing list to follow along.