Moments of Connection
“ALL THIS HE SAW, FOR ONE MOMENT BREATHLESS AND INTENSE, VIVID ON THE MORNING SKY; AND STILL, AS HE LOOKED, HE LIVED; AND STILL, AS HE LIVED, HE WONDERED.”
Erin Hughes is an artist based in South Carolina. She employs a variety of mediums to explore the nuances of wonder and the influence of memory and nostalgia on our life experience. She strives to honor these memories and the beauty of connection in her photographs as well as her photo encaustic and oil paintings.
Words & Photography by Karen Miles
You know the feeling you get when you’ve walked a while and you come around a bend to a beautiful expanse of land? The way your breath catches a bit and you realize that maybe you will just take a seat and stay awhile, letting the sun warm your skin… acknowledging the connection between yourself and that place—that very moment. These are the moments that I have always cherished. Even as a child, I remember swimming down as deep as I could go just to feel the temperature of the water change and the silence that surrounded me. I would create stories underwater, imagining the dolphins and whales that would surely be my soulmates. I think this is where my creativity began to gain a voice. I wasn’t yet holding a paintbrush, but my soul was already searching for connection.
During high school, I was given access to a photography darkroom. While the music played in the darkness and I watched my images appear on the paper, I was again swimming deep, finding connection. I began to see the world through the viewfinder of a camera… what do I keep in the frame, what do I remove? The camera became a tool to explore and experience the wonder of the world that surrounded me.
Now, as I am older and aware of the importance of memory, I try to hold on to those cherished moments through my art. On many occasions, I still begin with film loaded in an old camera, but then I continue my explorations with encaustic, oils, and cold wax medium. There is a moodiness to my work, probably stemming from the realization that we become separated from beauty due to our own choices, increase in responsibilities, destructive tendencies, and/or our loss of wonder as we age. I look for moments to remind me that beauty is right in front of me each and every day; I just need to train my eyes to see.
Across the globe, I think we can agree that the last year and a half have been unlike any other. I still find myself in a state of shock… how did we get here? What happened and how did it happen so fast? For me personally, I experienced the first real loss of my life last year when my dad’s transplanted lung gave its last breath. That precious time of life when one has her children at home, parents close by, and everyone in good health ended. Just like that. And then within weeks, the Covid pandemic began.
There was a day in early March of 2020 when I was taking photographs of a large floral arrangement in my home studio. I think the need to photograph beautiful things was my soul finding its way through grief. I felt separated from beauty. My heart ached. Reaching for my camera was a way to find connection again. However, my oldest daughter decided to let her pet “fancy rat” Piper loose onto my glorious scene. At first, I was irritated because I was so focused on the flowers and resented the interruption, but then the most magical thing happened. Piper came just into focus with the most shocked expression right next to a spilled container of Goji berries. She was just as surprised to be in the scene as I was to photograph her there. In this moment my quarantine education began. This is when the beauty of reality, even the often-seen-as ugly side of reality, began to demand my attention.
Almost every day I would create an environment for Piper to explore while I attempted to capture her from behind the lens. Most days, one of my three daughters would help set it up… soon they began to run inside with glee after finding a snail or carpenter bee to add to the composition. It was as if Piper was discovering the scent, the colors, and the texture of it all—absorbing the glorious details in wonder and awe.
At this point I must confess, I have never been thrilled about having a pet rat. I’ve always thought their faces, their mannerisms, and bodies were adorable… but then there’s the tail. The tail still gives me goosebumps! However, as I spent more and more time with Piper, watching how she moved and her sweet demonstrative expressions… I began to care for her much more. A need to protect her surfaced—she’s old and I can see what is coming down the road. And that’s just it… when we truly see the beauty and humanity in those that are different from us… this is when our love grows. Our empathy grows. Our heart breaks open to the world. This is where our behavior can change.
When I add all the elements of my personality, my experience, and my memories together, the predominating theme is connection. I would be lost without it. Everything I create is a journey to connect to a moment, a single heartbeat, a catch in the breath that says, “This is it!” This is life and love and pain all in one.
