Eric Rottcher

My work begins with unresolved memories, secrets, and emotional baggage I haven’t fully come to terms with. I work primarily in mixed media—using collage, décollage, paint, and found materials to create images that hold tension rather than provide resolution. I don’t offer answers; I give form to what’s difficult to confront.

Collage is central to my process because it lets me speak indirectly. I use existing images found in old magazines as proxies—scapegoats—for thoughts and experiences I’m not ready to claim outright. Each piece gives shape to what usually lies just out of reach: faded memories, grief, regret. It’s a form of honesty— an indirect confession, offered without the vulnerability of physical presence.

The entire process involves layering and erasure. I build layers, scrape, cut, blast it with a hose, and rebuild—leaving visible evidence of revision, failure, and impulse. The final work is shaped as much by what’s removed as by what remains, mirroring how people are formed by what they hide as much as by what they reveal.

In a time that demands clarity, closure, and performance, I choose to leave my narratives open-ended, unfinished, and imperfect. My work isn’t about resolution—it’s meant to be lived with, questioned, and quietly felt.