I have coined my product/service as the *Erika Givens Art Experience* because I believe it’s just that : an experience. One that I hope engages a viewers heart, head, and eventually hands in the same way I experience the process of making it all.

H E A R T : Personally, my heart flutters and races a little whenever I manipulate physical objects in a certain way. The molding, sanding, etching, locking, connecting, and creation of positive/negative spaces have got to feel intrinsically right deep down or I don’t let the glue dry.

H E A D : A weird sort of dream sequence tends to happen when I spread out, play with, arrange, pile, overlap, nudge, corner, forget, or reject objects to form curious patterns. These patterns, which are partly nonsense and partly inspired by science, nature, math, and the rules of the Universe, spark my brain and get me a little dizzy in the head when they evolve just right.

H A N D : I can feel the weight of a thing, and the quality of its flexing translucent skin, or chalky cold damp gravity. I can feel the layers and thus sense the sequence by which a thing hardens or flakes or squishes. I can encourage a fragile thread-thin edge with a fingertip or discipline a restless foam heap with a cupped palm. These hand manipulations of objects repeated over time are the ultimate manually satisfying gift.

So just as my art pieces are the result of a triangular collaboration between heart, head, and hand, so is my hope for those experiencing the work . . . that there is a flutter, a little dreamy dizziness, and a temptation to get one’s own hands dirty as they walk away from one of my walls : )