Tell us about yourself…

My name is Eunika and I paint with clay ... and now other natural materials. I collect and forage for these on my hikes and travels - it is part of my life and creative process. Painting with clay is a technique I created while in graduate school getting my MFA in ceramics and mixed media. I was digging and using red clay and noticed that it was staining my clothes. I just took it from there and added other colored clays to my palette.

I was born and raised in Eastern Europe and has lived in Memphis / Mississippi for most of my life. I've been a graphic designer, graphic design professor and now a full time artist and Telluride resident.

What is your chosen artistic medium?

Clay - I dig it up on my travels and hikes. This is mine main medium that started my painting process. The medium is expanding to include, mushrooms, flowers and wine - natural pigments. Calling it 'Terroir Painting'.

What are your muses?

I am inspired by changes in time and how they affect us/me. I am inspired by nature and its processes as well as how it relates to me and makes me feel. Painting with clay gives me the ability to feel closer to it, to feel connected to it on a universal level.

What are your prep or practice rituals to get you into the artistic headspace?

Part of my creative process is getting my medium, which involoves a hike or some adventure. There is time - lots of quiet time that allows me to think and observe to see what moves me. I take mental notes and then plan it out. A lot of time is spent just on the planning of the next piece. Once in progress its just finding a good chunk of time to dive into the painting with my mud and good playlist.

What is your favorite barrier breaking time?

For most of my painting 'career' - my painting was a secret. Only few people knew what I was doing. I kept my paintings in storage out of the public eye with few exceptions. My paintings are sort of personal documentation and observation. Then I opened up Red Dirt Studio Gallery. It is a bit terrifying to have it all out for people to see and ask me questions about it. I am a quiet type - I feel like my work should speak for itself. There is obviously depth to it - it's personal.

What inspires you and keeps you engaged and moving forward?

I like creative challenges and new ways to interpret the world and how I see it. There are questions; where I come from and where I am going. I turn to nature to help me understand them and connect the missing pieces many of which were left behind in my native country of Slovakia and Karpethian Mountains where I was born and raised.

What is your favorite saying?

There are so many - I sort of collect them depending on my mood and situation - today ... 'Don't call it a dream, call it a plan'.

Tell us about what’s next…

I don't have any events planned at the moment. Right now just enjoying the peace and quiet of this amazing landscape - planning. Speaking of quiet - currently working on winter aspen painting. It is a diptych - trying to expand my size and scope of the visual experience. I started new series last year - 'Reclamation Project' - (paintings for rock formations and mountains that surround us). The idea is to 'restore' these rocky landscapes using materials they were formed with - clay and pigments eroded over time. I find these pigments down valley, deposited there through its natural erosion process. I recreate these landscapes in the moment they caught my attention.

FEATURED ARTIST: EUNIKA ROGERS