Fine Artist — Emily
Emily is an art practices major at PCC. She does printmaking, painting — in both watercolor and acrylics — drawing, illustrations and most recently creating a coloring book of flowers in Oregon which is available in a few stores in downtown Portland. While taking a full load of classes, Emily still finds time to work on personal work to either sell or creates pieces for her own enjoyment.
What are your creative activities?
I make eccentric and entertaining pieces where I tend to switch back and forth between painting and drawing. It’s easy for me to be intrigued and obsessed with new media, but I always come back to acrylics, graphite, and now watercolors.
What do you like about your activity?
Making art is a meditative task, it quiets any thoughts or problems I have. As it all falls away so I can solely focus on observation of my subject, like where lines meet and how the curvature of the cheeks cast a soft shadow on the face.
What emotions do you feel while doing your activity?
As long as I’m not on a deadline I feel this particular calm that relieves me of my worries, I never realize it, but I end up forgetting the list of things that have to be done that runs in my head all day. I just zone out with the TV or music in the background.
Do positive emotions or negative emotions affect your creativity process?
I feel that it’s easier to make art when I’m already emotional content, I have a stronger drive to produce work when I’m happy. There are times when I’m so stressed out that I use art to procrastinate on other tasks.
When are you most creative?
By far I’m the most creative at night, my favorite pieces were products of late night when everyone was asleep. I work better with little interaction and when I can control the environment I’m in.
What inspires you to be creative?
There’s a lot that inspires me, I find that it’s the small things that really move me. Just last week I saw two onions on the kitchen counter and they just looked so angelic, and later that night I dug up my watercolor supplies to study the small onions that seemed so fragile. The same thing happens when I see plants and small dandelions, I love things that people don’t notice or pass without a second thought.
“Art making can help people overcome their feelings.” Do you agree with this statement? What’s your response?
I think that art can help process feelings and work through event in our lives. I have paintings that I can point to that were the manifestation of personal struggles that through the layers of paint I was able to lessen the impact of that feeling.
What would your life be like if you didn’t do this activity?
If I wasn’t creating art I would quite honestly be a wreck, my life is based around making art. It’s one of the things that I pride myself on, and I wouldn’t know what I was doing with my life if I wasn’t an artist.
What is your process during art making? Do you even have a process or system? Or do you kinda just make to make?
I usually just start drawing to sketch out what I want with line and then start painting values. Then I go in again with paint to add in detail as if I was drawing. Most of the time I don’t think about what I’m doing and just pick up what’s closest to me and start working.
Do you keep your work? What happens to your work when you are finished?
I keep everything, it just stacks up which makes it easy to see my progress in a year. I half work in a sketchbook, so I have a lot of loose paper laying around. I’ve filled up portfolios and folders and it never seems like I have enough space it all.
“I’ve never thought about creating for the purpose of a therapeutic effect, but I do find that it does reduce my stress and it is something that I enjoy immensely.”
–Emily
