​Errin Ironside is an artist, graphic designer, and gardener living in the U.S. Her main art practice is focused on handmade collage where she uses discarded books and magazines to create small scale pieces that inhabit concepts of mental health.

She is deeply interested in the therapeutic quality of collage. Her work is an opportunity to inspect how the creative process can shift her perspective and promote curiosity.

Her broader art practice includes painting, photography, artist books and zines, and quiltmaking.
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artist statement
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Working within abstraction, I explore mystery, distortion, fragmentation, and multiplicity. I am drawn to moments when things break down, decay, or are dismantled, and I question what it means to sit with uncertainty. Can I accept not knowing why something happened? Can multiple truths exist simultaneously?

I create abstract paper collages that embrace color, movement, and texture. Using fragmented text as both material and subject, I distort language into forms that hover between legibility and abstraction. Words are sliced, rearranged, and reconfigured into shapes that evoke confusion, fracture, and instability.

My work reflects an ongoing process of navigating residual trauma, grief, and anxiety. Each piece maps the emotional weight of these experiences while mirroring the nonlinear paths of an unsettled mind. I approach my practice with openness to the unexpected—repurposing paper fragments, relinquishing control, and allowing intuition to guide the outcome. Through this process, unease and grief are not only expressed, but transformed into something constructive.

I welcome the unexpected in my art. 

Even after I call a piece complete, I continue asking questions, interpreting what a piece is saying to me, and finding ways to welcome vague or ambiguous answers. It encourages me to keep going and persevere.

​The enigma is intriguing. It’s a surrender, and not being precious with the materials. An openness to whatever comes next. It’s a meditative, intuitive, interactive, and therapeutic place where I can quiet my anxious mind.
 
Many things in life have left me wondering why would something so terrible occur. Why me, why this? How do I persist under so much weight? I’m constantly playing with a push and pull, questioning and accepting, putting things together and taking things apart. Seeking structure while inspecting disarray. 

These traumatic life events infuse my work with emotions, movement, depth, and a sense of inquiry. Small windows of clarity and resting points appear in my pieces, surrounded by turbulence of textures, amputated forms, and broken text. ​