ABOUT
Thank you for visiting my site. :) I'm honored to have some of your time and hope that we can connect in the future. Thoughts? Leave me a note below!
Artist Statement
Bringing forth beauty in the mundane or broken, my work honors the fragility and pain of the human experience while pointing towards a greater hope. It reminds us of the awe in the natural world, the significance of our lives and tenderness of humankind. Underscored by a closeness to grief, my practice addresses the resilience of goodness, gentleness and kindness in a world of darkness.
My inspiration is rooted in the interactions with others, faith, nature, and divine encounters. Viewing the paper as a prayerful extension of my story or someone else’s, I use cyanotype photography, watercolor pigments and organic dyes to create paintings that transcend our understanding of growth. With objects that range from foraged flowers to digitally edited photographs, I develop cyanotypes in the sun, which are then used as an underpainting for glazes of watercolor and natural tinctures. The process itself is ritualistic, allowing for prayerful meditation over the unique story and purpose behind each piece—honoring the grief yet bringing forth beauty.
Why Art?
"Beauty is a necessity, not just a nicety." —Makoto Fujimura. Humans are drawn to beauty and subject matter that relates to their story or resonates with them in an emotional or experiential way. People desire artwork for their homes or places of being that mean something significant and elevates their space—making it more beautiful.
Bio
Emily Crisman (Em), an Erie, PA based, visual artist and community advocate, creates meaningful paintings on paper with cyanotype photography, organic dyes and watercolor pigment. Born in Buffalo NY to an educator/counselor father and stay at home mother who co-created a strong familial bond, provided her a supportive environment to pursue creativity, that also shaped her Christian faith which is the bedrock of her art practice. She went on to study art, psychology and communications at Grove City College, and earned her Masters of Arts at Crown College in 2020.
Art remained a constant calling throughout her studies and early career, so much so that she left a full time job in 2018 to pursue painting. In 2019 she launched her first professional body of work. With each step of confidence towards art-making, came affirmations in the form of art sales or opportunity. Over the course of her emerging artist career, she has offered commissioned artworks, shown in multiple galleries, and sold out of her biannual series.
Em currently lives in Erie, PA with her husband and two daughters and finds her practice as a mother-artist is not limited to solitary studio time. Rather, art-making is interwoven into all of life. She works out of her home studio in the evenings with her family and also has a second studio in downtown Erie. Creating art is one one of her purposes in life, and in every season finds a way to bring forth beauty from the broken or the mundane.