artist’s statement

I spent much of my early life living in “in between” spaces. Riding in the car between parents’ houses, traveling to visit family, finding wonder in the mystery of the moments right before sleep takes over. My curiosity and relationship with liminal realms led me to creative exploration, first through music, then film, writing, and finally fine art. In 2014, I experienced the tremendous loss of my step-mom, Susan. I channeled my grief through painting, spending time building relationships with the more-than-human world, and exploring psychedelic spaces.

In 2018 I traveled to the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors (CoSM) and studied with Alex and Allyson Grey at their annual Visionary Painting Intensive workshop. During the workshop, I had a vision of a woman made of fire walking on coals. From this piece on, my artistic passion and goal began to depict humanistic experiences through the textures and elements of nature. My work went from attempting to depict otherworldly realms seen in visions and altered states of consciousness to becoming a vessel for my own developing relationship with the beings in the environments around me. As I sat in stillness, amidst the trees and the breeze, putting brush to canvas, I learned to listen to their wisdom. I felt it in my body, heard it in my soul. This inspired me to move to the Pacific Northwest and begin a life in relationship with the temperate rainforests of this region.

In 2020, I began a 5-year educational journey to earn a Master’s degree in Art Therapy. This experience radically changed my relationship to my art, my process, and the creative process in general. I explored different mediums to learn the way each material can shift energy and experiences. I engaged with artmaking for the sake of making rather than for the sake of making something. While I still hold space for the creative process I refined before my art therapy education, I also hold new space for creative exploration in all its ineffable sacredness. My aspiration to use my process and the product of my practice as an ever-evolving example of the profound healing and empowerment which artistic expression facilitates, and I hope my work can serve as inspiration for others to embark on their own creative adventure of healing and self-exploration.

Every step on this journey led me to this moment, and looking back I can’t see another path for myself. My name is Emily, which means “industrious,”  and any one of my peers will likely agree I live up to this name. I am an artist and a dreamer. Officially, I can also say I’m an ecotherapist, and soon I will be an art therapist, too. While I disagree with the capitalist/industrialist notion that we are the sum of our vocation or profession, I embody these labels because they reflect the choices I have made throughout my life to dedicate myself to the pursuit of knowledge in all forms and the creative synthesis of my life’s lessons.