Draft:Erica Gordon

Erica Gordon (11 February 1941 - 27 December 2020) was an English artist who created papier-mâché, paintings, ceramics, jewellery and textiles. She lived until the age of 79, during which she created over 100 pieces of artwork, including Millie and her dog and a papier-mâché alebrije dragon. She also worked briefly as a director, author, editor, and was a wife, mother, grandmother and friend.

Erica was born in Willesden, in the North-East of London, where she grew up with her mother (Esther Canton) and father (Israel Victor Canton) as an only child, and she attended the London School of Economics and Political Science to study history after leaving secondary school, and then gained an interest in artwork and, as a result, attended the St Martins School of Art. She voyaged to Israel later in her youth to learn fluent Hebrew, a skill vital to Judaism. She then demonstrated her generosity by aiding African refugees in a summer programme of a French-Jewish organisation, and taught them arts and crafts.

In the 1960s, Erica returned from her foreign travels and met Michael Gordon. She married in 1968, on the 11th April, and stayed together for 52 years, giving birth to four children while in Willesden. She then, with Michael, moved to Richmond, in the South-West of London. She soon began her artistic career, and along with her creations, she created a play about Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, which was produced by the Orange Tree Theatre and a children's book, The Little House, designed to teach young people about Judaism, which was illustrated by Victor Ambrus. Later in life, she retired and moved to Shenfield with one of her sons and lived until 2020, when she was diagnosed with AML. She died on 27 December 2020.

She and her husband were buried in a traditional Jewish cemetery, called Bushey New Jewish Cemetery, in Bushey.