erika nelson

ART +  CULTURE WRITINGS

Articles, Editorials, and Papers

  Erika’s writing morphs with the audience, spanning fast easy reads to industry jargon, in-depth analysis to esoteric interconnected strand pulling. Her work has appeared in art and travel magazines, commissioned white papers, scholarly journals, and weekly small town newspapers.

Really Real: Manipulation of Perception in Artist-Built Attractions

Society for Commercial Archeology Journal, Vol. 39, No. 1, Spring 2021

 This paper was originally presented at a Society for Commercial Archeology conference in Wisconsin Dells, WI., then expanded for publicaiton in the Society’s Journal. A comparative essay on the treatment of space in roadside attractions built by artists, the work includes the following sites:  
    
  •         House on the Rock, Spring Green WI
  •         Abita Mystery House, Abita Springs LA
  •         Tinkertown, Sandia Park NM
  •         Witches Gulch, Wisconsin Dells WI


    SCA MEMBERS DOWNLOAD FOR FREE


    Inappropriation on the American Road

    A publication to accompany the “Inappropriation at TeePee Junction” popup exhibition, Travel and Tourism Week 2023


     Responding to problematic roadside attractions, “Inappropriation on the American Road” solicited artist responses to tourist attractions that play up the myth of nostalgia, while commercializing culture in cartoonish, often insensitive ways.

    This 12-page publication features essays by three artists invited to participate in the pop-up (Armando Minjarez, Mona Cliff, and Erika Nelson), an analysis by Connie Fiorella-Fitzpatrick, a special guest cartoon contrubution from Randy Regier, and images from the 2023 Tourism Week popup exhibition at TeePee Junction in Lawrence Kansas.

    Erika conceived, coordinated, and curated the show, and published the catalogue with support from the Kansas Creative Arts Industries Commission, Mid-America Arts Alliance, and the National Endowment for the Arts.



    Grassroots Growth of Creative Cultures: Programming Public Art for Rural Areas

    Americans for the Arts whitepaper


    • Case Studies included:

    •       Wormfarm Institute, Reedsburg WI
    •        Kentucky Rural Urban Exchange
    •        Lucas Grassroots Community KS
     Abstract:
    Interest in having public art in communities has continued to grow throughout the country, specifically in rural areas. As growth continues, it is important for communities to have a basic understanding of planning for public art. As rural areas have their own unique needs, it is important to dive into these aspects as they relate to public art in rural communities. This essay was written as a means to provide an outlook of the current understandings of what make planning and implement public art in rural areas unique.



    Self-Made Worlds: Meet the Makers of Hand-built Art Environments, Where the Creative Spirit Reigns

    Public Art Review  Issue #50, Spring/Summer 2014


    This article was written as an introduction to the motivations of artist-built environment creators, outside of the commercial or institutional landscape.

    • Environments included:
    •  
    •        M.T. Liggett, Mullinville KS
    •        Jim Bishop’s Castle, Rye CO
    •        Leonard Knight’s Salvation Mountain, Niland CA
    •        Vollis Simpson’s Whirligigs, Lucama NC
    •        Simon Rodia’s Watts Towers, LA CA
    •        S.P. Dinsmoor’s Garden of Eden, Lucas KS





    Dinsmoor as Creative Catalyst: 100 Years of the Garden of Eden in Lucas

    Raw Vision #58, March 2007
    Lucas, Kansas is a small farming community of 430 people nestled in the Geographic Center of the United States. Across the Midwest, rural communities are losing their inhabitants to out-migration, family farms are closing under pressure from an increasingly corporate agricultural industry, and decreasing population translates into loss of business opportunities in small towns. But the town of Lucas is surviving. This is perhaps due in part to the fact that at its core is Samuel Perry Dinsmoor’s folk art environment, the Garden of Eden. Built between 1907 and 1932, the Garden captures the social climate of the era through its sprawling concrete illustration of politics at the turn of the twentieth century from the perspective of the Populist Party.
       

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    Dinsmoor in Context: The Populist Garden

    The Pulitzer Project in Kansas/Humanities Kansas

    As a part of Humanities Kansas’ Pulitzer Project in Kansas, this 8-page newspaper format publication featured Dinsmoor’s original writings, articles pulled from regional news sources, political cartooning from the turn of the last century, and cultural influences that informed Dinsmoor’s artistic masterwork, “The Garden of Eden” sculptural tableaus. Published in partnership with Humanities Kansas, the Pulitzer Prizes Board, and the Federation of State Humanities councils in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Pulitzer Prizes.



    DOWNLOAD the PDF HERE


    Think Big!

    American Road Magazine
    Department editor and author for American Road Magazine (2009 - 2021), a quarterly print publication celebrating the highways and byways of the United States, and the built environment that form the roadside culture of travel.


    PREVIEW THE MAGAZINE or SUBSCRIBE HERE


    Plots and Schemes 

    reaching out


    Interested in hiring Erika for a cultural examination in words and pictures? She’s always up for exploring pathways that help readers, artists, and institutions find their way, or get lost in new worlds. 

    worldslargestthings@gmail.com