Eleanor H.  Erskine was born in Barrington, Illinois. She attended the Chicago Art institute, received a BFA in Painting/Printmaking from the Kansas City Art Institute in 1981, and earned her MFA in Printmaking, with a special focus in Sculpture from the Cranbrook Academy of Art in 1988. She has taught at the Maine College of Art; the Kansas City Art Institute; Chautaugua Institute; Penland School of Crafts; and Portland State University. Her works have been exhibited at the Mark Woolley Gallery; Museum of Contemporary Art in Washington D.C.; Nelson Atkins Museum; Portland Institute of Contemporary Art (PICA); and the Marylhurst Art Gym. She is recognized locally, nationally and internationally and her work is held in major private and public collections including the California State University Museum; Portland Art Museum; Spencer Museum of Art; Hallmark Corporation; New York Public Library; Downey Museum of Art; University of Iowa Museum of Art; and in Canada, Africa, Japan and South Korea.