Erica De Ciantis is a Toronto-based visual artist. She primarily works in oil paint on stretched canvas but is also exploring digital art as well as a variety of unconventional surfaces. To her, art is about freedom, connection, and expression. The work she makes is highly imaginative and psychological, featuring figures often in surreal situations and inhabiting worlds bursting with vibrant colour. Skulls and flowers are repetitive symbols in her work, offering reminders of life, growth, and death. When discussing the thematic choices in her work, De Ciantis explained that:

“I have made the conscious decision to dedicate the majority of my personal projects solely to mental illness. This is because many people, myself included, use art as a tool to heal. It captures my progress through life, like a narrative. What is most important to me is flooding heart and soul into my oil paintings. In my opinion, using hard to swallow personal experience is what gives it purpose and meaning, and hopefully that will translate to the viewers as well.”

Image Credits:
Feature: Sebastian Dooris at Flickr, Public Domain
Body 1: Erica De Ciantis, used with permission
Body 2: Erica De Ciantis, used with permission
Body 3: Erica De Ciantis, used with permission