Emilie Lemakis

Caged
watercolor and ink on paper
26 x 40 in.

For me, making art is a very powerful experience. I work with a variety of media so I can extend the creative process beyond the studio’s walls. Through drawing, sculpture, and photos, I feel connected to my art at all times. Over the years I have let go of certain guidelines of what artwork should look like and allowed my self to follow my whim. This has resulted in an eclectic and untamed body of work. A desire for independence from more formal or technical concerns has made navigating between my ideas and actual works more spontaneous and direct. I think being in a state of learning rather than perfecting keeps a kind of energy going and a generating of ideas, not unlike having a conversation. Conversations possess the beauty of spoken words that stir in a person feelings and associations. The tangible world, in turn, gives language to the intimacy of the imagination, as the internal self by itself is abstract. This drives me to want to define it, humor it, to form a psychological portrait. I approach my work in a literal, low-tech, and democratic way. The creative life makes its own rules and then desires to display the outcome. The realities of contemporary living remind me that life can be extinguished or glorified in an instant. With privilege and modesty, I critique self-existence over and over again with each new piece.

© Emilie Lemakis