Fox Thistle Folk Art is a one woman operation owned by Knoxville artist Erin Alcorn. Erin grew up in Southernn California, but has lived in the South for over half her life now. She has lived in Knoxville since 2017 and is in love with the city’s unique beauty, natural areas, proximity to the mountains, and of course that it is The Maker City!

Erin’s art includes many different forms of media, but is always centered around nature in some way. She is especially a lover of mushrooms and they often find their way into her pieces. She has experience with photography (and a Bachelor’s Degree in it actually), polymer clay sculpting and painting, fiber arts including knitting and needle felting, creating curio pieces, and has recently begun working with resin. Many of her pieces feature mixed media, and she is always dabbling in new art forms and trying things out. You can often find parts of the natural world in her work that she forages for and scavenges at every opportunity, and some of her favorites are mosses and lichens, insects, flowers, leaves, bones, and any other plant material that looks interesting. Everything she uses in her work comes from ethical sources and any part or whole creature came to meet their end of natural causes. She believes that every being, no matter how small, deserves respect and to be treated with reverence.

Erin currently lives in Fountain City with her husband Stevie, assortment of fish, two African Dwarf Frogs named Vicki and Bobby, large container garden, and enormous houseplant collection.