TR Ericsson
Susan B. Ericsson (July 11, 1969), 2022
Oil on linen
61 x 50.8 cm
24 x 20 in
24 x 20 in
Copyright The Artist & Harlan Levey Projects
“This is the third time I’ve painted her since starting to paint again. There’s something I understand about her face that I don’t think I would understand about another face...
“This is the third time I’ve painted her since starting to paint again. There’s something I understand about her face that I don’t think I would understand about another face and there are moments where the painting does something the photograph doesn’t do. Haunting, ghostly, moments when I stop working on it and step back from the painting and she seems almost animate, almost real. This feeling of her realness is becoming a little like an addiction. It’s fleeting, ungraspable, but I love these moments. It’s something I think or imagine, or it could be something that happens between the photographic image and painting it, my visual memory overriding, or transposing itself over the photographic image. It could also be the action of painting, the endless gesturing with the brush that brings an animating energy to the painted face. Whatever it all is, I keep wanting to repeat it, I keep wanting to experience this feeling of her realness.” – TR Ericsson
TEXT SCREENED ONTO BACK OF PAINTING
TR ERICSSON (b.1972 U.S.A.)
Susan B. Ericson (July 11, 1960), 2022
Oil on canvas
24 x 20 inches
The year before my mother died I recorded her over the phone and I asked her about the photograph I used to make this portrait of her and about her marriage to my father.
And how old were you when you married?
When I got married the first time I was 20.
And who was that?
I'd rather not say.
So the second marriage was the one that really stuck?
That was the one that meant something
Okay when were you married?
I was married to Mike Ericsson on July 11, 1969.
And where were you married?
He kidnapped me one night. I swear to god we were going on a date which we were all, we were gettin' real, you know, chummy now, nothing was going on though, you know, but we were really in love, and this was after only two months. So one night he came out on the freeway to bring me home from the west side and he just kept on driving, said I'm not taking you home we're going to Wheeling and gettin' married, and I thought Oh my god I'm going to be in trouble now. So, ah we ended up in Wheeling, and uh we got married, and nobody knew where we were, and uh, I told him, I said "Man the FBI is going to be after us, my mother and father are going to freak out."
What did he say about that?
Ah he didn't say anything. He thought I was nuts.
Do you remember anything about your wedding day in Wheeling?
Oh it was great, it was so hot. Well we're sittin' in our air conditioned motel room first and we're gettin' all dressed up and ready to go to the church and then my husband to be, Mike, says to me "I don't feel very good." and I said to myself oh no he's trying to get out of it now I'm really in trouble, and uh no, but I jollied him along and we made it to the church. We got married, it was like 90 that day and humid, aww it was awful, and uh we came out of the church after the ceremony, which was pretty primitive and guess who was there? His two older brothers. They found out about it and they threw rice all over us and the car, and it was so hot out the rice baked onto the finish of the car
What kind of car was it?
Oh It was a little Triumph, Triumph 3, that's what it was, and we couldn't get that rice off but we got caught in a big thunderstorm and it took the rice off the car and then we stayed down there for a couple nights and then we came back to Cleveland, and we didn't have a penny, neither one of us had a job, we went to my mothers, is that what we did? Yeah, ah no, no wait a minute no we went back to his apartment he shared with a boyfriend, that's what we did, and then he got fired from his jobs, but I was still workin' and I didn't get fired so we were ok and then he finally got a part time job workin’ with his older brother.
TEXT SCREENED ONTO BACK OF PAINTING
TR ERICSSON (b.1972 U.S.A.)
Susan B. Ericson (July 11, 1960), 2022
Oil on canvas
24 x 20 inches
The year before my mother died I recorded her over the phone and I asked her about the photograph I used to make this portrait of her and about her marriage to my father.
And how old were you when you married?
When I got married the first time I was 20.
And who was that?
I'd rather not say.
So the second marriage was the one that really stuck?
That was the one that meant something
Okay when were you married?
I was married to Mike Ericsson on July 11, 1969.
And where were you married?
He kidnapped me one night. I swear to god we were going on a date which we were all, we were gettin' real, you know, chummy now, nothing was going on though, you know, but we were really in love, and this was after only two months. So one night he came out on the freeway to bring me home from the west side and he just kept on driving, said I'm not taking you home we're going to Wheeling and gettin' married, and I thought Oh my god I'm going to be in trouble now. So, ah we ended up in Wheeling, and uh we got married, and nobody knew where we were, and uh, I told him, I said "Man the FBI is going to be after us, my mother and father are going to freak out."
What did he say about that?
Ah he didn't say anything. He thought I was nuts.
Do you remember anything about your wedding day in Wheeling?
Oh it was great, it was so hot. Well we're sittin' in our air conditioned motel room first and we're gettin' all dressed up and ready to go to the church and then my husband to be, Mike, says to me "I don't feel very good." and I said to myself oh no he's trying to get out of it now I'm really in trouble, and uh no, but I jollied him along and we made it to the church. We got married, it was like 90 that day and humid, aww it was awful, and uh we came out of the church after the ceremony, which was pretty primitive and guess who was there? His two older brothers. They found out about it and they threw rice all over us and the car, and it was so hot out the rice baked onto the finish of the car
What kind of car was it?
Oh It was a little Triumph, Triumph 3, that's what it was, and we couldn't get that rice off but we got caught in a big thunderstorm and it took the rice off the car and then we stayed down there for a couple nights and then we came back to Cleveland, and we didn't have a penny, neither one of us had a job, we went to my mothers, is that what we did? Yeah, ah no, no wait a minute no we went back to his apartment he shared with a boyfriend, that's what we did, and then he got fired from his jobs, but I was still workin' and I didn't get fired so we were ok and then he finally got a part time job workin’ with his older brother.