Eric Tillinghast was born in 1974 in Los Angeles, and currently lives and works in northern California. In 1990-91 Tillinghast attended the Virginska Konst Skolan in Orebro, Sweden, after which he continued to study art in Colorado, Northern California, and industrial welding Santa Barbara.  In 1995 he established a studio in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and began a series of works that explore the use of water as a sculptural material.  Since that time Tillinghast has continued to develop and create this body of work as well as several other ongoing series of wall-mounted sculpture, drawings, and installations. 

Works from these series have been exhibited at The Albright Knox Gallery, in Buffalo, New York, The Galerie der Stadt Mainz Bruckenturm, in Mainz, Germany, The Museum of Fine Art, in Santa Fe,  Rocket, in London,  P.S., in Amsterdam,  and The Center For Contemporary Non-Objective Art, in Brussels.

Tillinghast has been awarded grants from the Land Rheinland-Phalz Kulturministerium in Germany, and the Dallas Museum of Art, and residencies from the Kohler Company, in Wisconsin, Centre-Est-Nord-Est, in Quebec, and Alafoss, in Reykjavik, Iceland.  His work is included in the permanent collections of the Albright-Knox Gallery, The John Michael Kohler Art Center, the Museum of Fine Art in Santa Fe, and in 2008 completed his first federal 1% for the arts commission from Portland State University, in Portland, Oregon.