To satisfy her ADHD brain, this Tucson maker carved pink erasers into a massive online community

Well, it’s October … and, at least for one Tucson artist, that means it’s officially time for the pink eraser ARTober challenge.

Serena Rios McRae is the force behind the social media movement called Pink Eraser Art. She’s created a community nearly 30,000 strong on Instagram and TikTok, where she documents, teaches and curates pink eraser art.

What is that, you might be thinking? Well, it’s pretty simple.

“I love carving on erasers because it has made the art of carving so accessible that I can do it while I’m waiting in school pickup or I’m waiting in the drive thru, and I can take it with me everywhere I go,” Rios McRae explained.

In her very popular TikTok videos, she shows folks how to use a set a very simple tools to carve some really gorgeous drawings into those pink erasers. You might remember them from elementary school. You press them in ink and stamp them.

To Rios McRae, it’s almost a meditation. And she told The Show, it began for her out of a place of necessity.

Full conversation

SERENA RIOS MCRAE: You know, it was a funny start because it was just a moment of necessity. I was in a really stressful point in my life and was very financially strained, which was part of that stress. And I knew that if I made something with my hands consistently every day, that it would help me get through this period of time.

And so a friend of mine on Instagram, called Naptime Press, she was like, “I'm gonna do Printober,” which was a challenge on Instagram, and she said, “but I don't wanna buy all the linoleum to do it for a whole month, so I'm just gonna use a box of erasers.” And I thought that was brilliant because I could afford a $12 box of erasers at the time. And I was like, “Yeah, we can do that.” And so her and another Instagram friend of ours, the three of us started carving erasers, and that was October 2023.

And by the third day, I was obsessed. It was immediately connecting the brain and body and mental health and emotions that I needed to process at the time. And the erasers are so soft to carve into that it's just very soothing. So very quickly I was like, “I'm not just doing this for a month. I'm gonna do this for eternity.”

LAUREN GILGER: Tell me about how this took off so quickly. I wonder if you were surprised at how quickly other people caught on to this when you started sharing it on social media. 

RIOS McRAE: I created on day one a TikTok account, and I called it Pink Eraser Art. And I actually started it as a bit of an experiment because, you know, the algorithm, sharing our artwork on social media is a whole beast.

And so when I started my college degree, I started in psychology, and I find the way that psychology, sociology and the way that we interact online fascinating. And so I was completely anonymous. I didn't share my face. I didn't share my voice. It was only my hands creating the artwork.

And by the fifth day that I posted, it had completely taken off. The biggest comment I remember getting was, “How did you suddenly make printmaking not feel intimidating at all?” And I was like everybody was commenting like, “I've always wanted to try this, and it seems so scary, but all of a sudden I'm watching you do this and I'm like, ‘I can do that!’”

GILGER: Because it's a pink eraser. 

RIOS McRAE: Right, yeah.

GILGER: That's amazing. So I mean you've got a book coming out on this and a lot of that kind of how-to is in the book and design ideas, etc. How did that come about? 

RIOS McRAE: Oh, that was so fun. So I've always wanted to write a book, and my childhood dream was to write a novel. And I'm not surprised at all that my first book is a teaching manual, because I've grown to love teaching. I've taught workshops for watercolor and all kinds of different mediums that I get my hands into.

I love seeing sparks light up in other people. And it's one of my favorite things in my life. Especially when I have people come to a workshop who are so afraid to make a mark that, I mean, I've had some people that won't even put their brush to the paper until we're almost finished. And then when they finally do, it's like something breaks open, and it's incredible to watch.

GILGER: So I'm looking through the book here and there's a picture of the very minimal supplies you need for this, and one of them is a Band-Aid. I have to ask you what the Band-Aid is for. 

RIOS McRAE: Oh, the Band-Aid. So I have never cut myself with these tools. But it is probably the top comment that I get consistently. People are saying, “you're carving too close to your fingers. That's so dangerous.” Or “I did that in high school and I cut my hands so much.” And I've never cut myself, and I have a whole section in the book on safety so that you don't.

So you won't cut yourself. It's not a dangerous activity. People always laugh. When my dad first got to see the book, he opened it up and saw the Band-Aid, and he said, “You put a Band-Aid in here!”

GILGER: I'm glad I asked about it. OK, so we're in the midst of what you've dubbed Pink Eraser Artober, and this is like a challenge you do through your social media every October now, kind of like the way you got started with Printober. Has this caught on? Is this big? Are lots of folks carving erasers because of you? 

RIOS McRAE: Across the entire world, and it's amazing. And I have a community account on Instagram that's called Pink Eraser Art, and I run it as a community page where people can collab with their reels and their posts. And so I want the whole thing to be a showcase of everybody who's doing this across the world and it's been so cool watching people's skills grow over time and then it’s like a showcase of all the enthusiasts who just really love doing that.

And I got an amazing post that somebody shared, and she explained what the Pink Eraser Artober was and that she was participating. And she said, “I've made so many friends online. And like this is so fulfilling and fun. And I'm growing this community and meeting people.” And it's just such a cool moment of feedback from somebody who's new who I haven't gotten to know yet.

GILGER: That's really great. So I mean, what's next for you, Serena? I wonder, are pink erasers it for the rest of your life? Are you gonna expand this into other formats and other mediums as an artist? 

RIOS McRAE: Oh, you know, that's funny. So I have ADHD, and I get my hands into every medium that catches my interest. And over time I find something new, and I learn as much about it as I can before you know, I see the next shiny thing and go on to learn something else.

And over time I've melded all of these materials and mediums together, and so my art is constantly growing and changing. So I started carving pink erasers, and then last year I took a ceramic arts class for the first time. And within that class I started stamping the erasers into clay, and so now that's the thing that I do.

GILGER: That's cool, yeah.

RIOS McRAE: Yeah and so my art is always growing and expanding because the ADHD brain craves novelty. So I've set up my life in such a way that I get to follow that.