Erika Garell grew up in Berkeley, California, and spent most of her childhood summers in her mother’s native Shimada City in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. Erika received her BFA in Fine Arts from UCLA, with an emphasis in Japanese Studies. The opportunity to live and teach English in Japan after UCLA for the Japanese Monbusho (Ministry of Education) allowed Erika to develop a unique bicultural aesthetic that she has embraced throughout her life as an artist and designer. Erika returned to the United States, where she pursued Fashion Design and Apparel Manufacturing Management Studies at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising (FIDM) in Los Angeles. Upon graduation from FIDM, Erika founded NiQ NaQ, an upscale children’s clothing manufacturer, designing and selling infant and toddler clothing wholesale to specialty boutiques nationwide. Over the past several years, her creative skills have graced the sets of local children’s theater, designing elaborate backdrops and costumes.
Erika recently returned to her love of creating fine art, redirecting her focus from large scale, abstract, oil paintings to more intimate, abstract wall sculptures. She continues to live and work in the San Francisco Bay Area, with her husband, Scott, and three daughters, Arriana, Kiera and Jacqueline.
erikagarell.com 
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