Erika's work is new to Coconut Grove

The Mad Hatter Festival is November 21 and 22 at The Barnacle. We'll be profiling some of the artists who are participating this year.

Erika Taguchi-Newton works mostly in acrylic, sometimes oil and watercolor. She is down from Delray Beach, where she lives. Erika is excited to be showing her work for the first time at the Mad Hatter.

"I like the whimsical theme of it. I love storybooks and fairy tale worlds," says Erika about the festival. This is her first show ever in Miami. She won 3rd place in the Dragoncon Art Show this year. 

Erika

I asked which of her pieces was her favorite, she said, "My favorite piece is one of my first pieces called 'Armadillo Dreams' created in 2010. I experimented with many styles previously. Then I found my technique and theme with this piece."

You can see the image above, is screams "Alice in Wonderland," and the detail is incredible.

Erika is originally from Japan, "I’m a military brat and lived in various places. All of my adult life has been in South Florida. I have always been illustrating, but I started to take it seriously in 2009," she says.

I asked her what she liked about Coconut Grove, she said, "I’m not very familiar with the area but I love the name. It sounds like it belongs in Alice in Wonderland. Like a village made up of giant coconut houses." Erika's art reflects this sort of image; it's all detailed beautiful fantasy images.

Currently Erika is a bit obsessed with painting woodland creatures in Fair Isle sweaters. Which is perfect for the Mad Hatter and Grove Isle, a few blocks away from The Barnacle, used to be Fair Isle, so it all fits in so perfectly.

"Forest Masks"

"Selkie"