Meet Emily Irwin in Phoenix

Today we’d like to introduce you to Emily Irwin.

Emily, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I have been making artwork as long as I can remember and doing so for a living has been my endgame the entire time. As a child, I was constantly drawing. During middle school, I started making work for others. By high school, I was learning how to paint with acrylics. By then, I knew without a doubt that I could paint forever and never get tired of it. I focused on mastering many mediums of paint for the next few years through my undergrad program. After graduating, I became fascinated by experimental art and electronic media art. However, I haven’t abandoned my roots in painting. I am now constantly looking for means of integrating traditional art making with technology and invigorating it with new approaches. Currently, in my ongoing investigations in art, my favorite form to create is interactive art. I love the enticing human curiosity and watching how people behave around art they have permission to play with.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It’s been a pretty smooth ride. I’ve worked hard to earn what I have. Most of the hiccups I’ve encountered have been recent in my exploration of electronic media. Getting electronics to cooperate and behave the way I want them to is a new frontier that I’m still learning to navigate.

Please tell us about your work.
A lot of what I do now, in the traditional sense, utilizes watercolor media that is often heavily saturated through tedious numbers of layers. My watercolor work tends to have a long and liminal incubation period before it finally comes to fruition. This is because my paintings are mapped using digital image compositing before being painted. The relationship between digital and analog is very important to me and continues to inform my ideas of society’s relationship with media. I’m most proud of my flexibility across disciplines and ongoing exploration of even grander and weirder mediums. I hope that my usage of digital media will take on a larger role in my future work.

Any predictions for the industry over the next few years?
I think that interactive art is very important. It can be fun, engaging, and lacks the bourgeois pretension found in the greater majority of the traditional art world. It doesn’t have to make sense. People don’t have to “get it.” It’s accessible to everyone.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.emwyn.com
• Email: irwin.emily@yahoo.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gothlorien/

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