Erich Moffitt

Professional Artist and Jewelry Designer, Seattle, WA

Education:
Bachelor of Fine Arts in Art with a concentration in illustration, UNC Charlotte (2007)

Erich Moffitt spent most of his childhood in Austria, an experience that would influence his art-making in various ways.

“I learned early on to embrace multicultural and cosmopolitan influences from either side of the Atlantic, which shaped what would become a lifelong passion for art, illustration, and design,” he says on his website.

After a few semesters of study at Central Piedmont Community College, he enrolled at UNC Charlotte to study illustration and sought out professor Dean Butckovitz (now retired).

“His demeanor and the tenor of his voice made me think that he was a man on a quest, searching through a maze of art directions and information,” Butckovitz recalled in an interview with Associate Professor of Art History Jim Frakes.

Erich also worked closely with professor and illustration area coordinator Jamie Franki (now retired), who once purchased one of Erich’s large drawings, a prize winner in the 2006 Juried Art Exhibition, and donated it to the department. Inspired by Raphael’s famous fresco, The School of Athens, Erich’s The School of Rowe depicts the front of Rowe Arts building and includes images of art department faculty and students.

Erich moved to Washington state and has built a successful career as a freelance illustrator and jewelry designer and currently works with Green Lake Jewelry Works. He has simultaneously maintained an exhibition career, showing in venues in Europe, Australia, and the United States.

For the Generations exhibition in celebration of the 60th anniversary of the Department of Art & Art History, Erich contributed a mixed media work inspired by Oscar Wilde’s “The Fisherman and His Soul” – a story Butckovitz shared during his final semester that explores the connection between heart and soul.