Quick About Me
My name is Erica Hiller, I am a Wisconsin-based teacher and artist. I acquired my bachelor's degree in 2022 from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire in instrumental music education. I currently teach Pre-Kindergarten through 5th grade general music in central Wisconsin. In addition to being a teacher and musician, I am a birder, a photographer, and a self-taught artist. The combination of those three qualities is what inspired the creation of Portraits with Peanut.
Why Portraits with Peanut?
The name Portraits with Peanut came from how I love to spend my time, drawing with my clingy dog, Peanut, in my lap. Luckily, he is only 10 pounds, so he fits quite nice between my lap and the bottom of the table. When he isn't sitting in my lap, he sits on a pillow in a chair next to me or is running around the apartment and creating a mess with his toys. The rest of the story is a bit longer.
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I first got into photography when I was 14 and took my parent's camera and started taking photos with it. None of them turned out good, so my parents signed me up for a local photography class. I was the only person there who didn't have gray hair. Once I got my first job, I saved up my money and made my first large purchase ever on an Olympus camera and a zoom lens. I've had this camera for nearly 10 years now and it has been the gift that keeps on giving. In high school, I took a photography class and learned about film and digital photography. It was here that I really began a relationship with photography as an intricate art and hobby.
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Coincidentally, the semester after my photography class, I took a birding class run by our biology teacher. This was the beginning of a life changing obsession. Yes, I am obsessed with birds. He taught us about common local bird species, differences between males and females, bird calls, bird migrations, bird banding, and the great activity of birding (going out and intentionally looking for birds). Since then, I have been looking at the sky when I drive, looking in the trees on walks, and listening to the air to identify songs in spring.
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One last gift from my high school was when I took AP Art my senior year. This was when I discovered my secret talent for colored pencil portraits. I had always enjoyed drawing growing up, and in high school I particularly liked cartoon marker drawings. I did my portfolio concentration work with alcohol-based markers in cartoon styles of the Greek Gods and Goddesses. When it came time for my portfolio exploratory work I did a couple water colors and other marker drawings and black and white sketches. I remember specifically that my last work I made was a colored pencil portrait of our family dog. I brought the reference picture and my colored pencils to school and told my teacher "I am going to draw this and make it look like the picture. How do I draw fur?" and she looked at me and said "That is going to take you a very long time and is going to be difficult, are you sure?" and I said "Yes." I don't recall if she helped me with the fur, but I know that she never doubted me. At the end, she was so astonished that she said I should have done my entire portfolio of colored pencil portraits because it was so stunning. Well, now I finally am.
My dear Peanut wanting belly rubs while I draw.
My first colored pencil portrait of our late family dog, Robert.