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Starting in elementary school in the 70's,
Emily was the student the nuns would always ask to illustrate Bible stories...which they would then mimeograph (remember those?)
and distribute to all the students in her class to color. She also liked to write and illustrate her own little animal stories,
some of which she still has. She went through both a 'drawing horses' phase and a 'drawing mice' phase, which were attributable
to reading Black Beauty and The Borrowers, respectively. However, her absolute favorite thing to draw was always faces. By seventh grade,
she was drawing her favorite celebrities and band logos in her sketchbooks and on her brown-paper-bag book covers (remember
those??). Her first commissions, for a buck or two, were from boys in her class-- to draw the Aerosmith logo, etc. on their
book covers (they could manage Kiss but Aerosmith was too hard for them ;-) In high school, Emily took art classes,
but after that, artistic life took a detour as Emily married and had three children---which took up most of her time and creative
output for some years. She retired her art supplies for cooking utensils, gardening implements, counted cross-stitch and creative
birthday-party giving... ...until one day, when her youngest was a baby, and a recession was looming. Being a stay-at-home
mom was no longer an option, but Emily wanted to work at something that would let her both use her abilities and be with her
kids most of the time. Where were those art supplies??? She started drawing again, and hasn't stopped since. First it was
small custom painted signs (she targeted local family-run retail operations), then it was pastel portraits (she sat in gift
shops and drew in public on Friday nights to find clients) and then it was art festivals. At one particular local art festival,
Emily had a booth showing her pastel drawings. People were browsing all along the lanes of displays, but there wasn't much
excitement going on...until a lady showed up on the patio, whipped out a French easel and a sign that said CARICATURES, and
immediately started drawing a long line of people who appeared out of nowhere. Emily watched her, spellbound. This was fascinating, and she'd actually never seen a live caricaturist
before. At the end of the festival, she mustered up the courage to go talk to the lady, Sally Chase-Trace, who was very gracious
and encouraging, and even drew Emily's two small daughters who were with her. Emily told her, "I am going to learn to
do this, too!" and the lady just smiled. As this was quite a bit of time before Emily had internet access, that was the
first and last opportunity to see anything caricature-related for quite some time. So Emily went home, determined to
figure this out. Armed with a bunch of Sharpies and Nupastels, her kids' faces and her kids' friends' faces, she practiced.
And practiced. And practiced some more... Gradually,
from working for free or next-to-nothing at her children's school events, Emily worked her way up to drawing caricatures
at local fairs and events. The ball was rolling now! Once in awhile, she'd even get a gig alongside other caricature artists,
and that's how she heard about the National Caricaturist Network (now the International Society of Caricature Artists) and
its annual convention. In 2003, she drove to Orlando, Florida for her first convention, and had her eyes truly opened to what
can be done with this art. From there, she went on to having various agents represent her work, to drawing at major league
baseball games in both Philadelphia and Baltimore, to drawing for major corporate clients, to caricaturing in such locales
as the Las Vegas Strip and the State Fair of Texas, to learning all sorts of interesting techniques and possibilities, and
best of all, having a network of caricaturist friends all over the globe. Nowadays, when, not at gigs, Emily can be found in her studio painting in Photoshop, on her Wacom
Intuos drawing tablet which feeds into her beloved Macbook Pro. Please contact her to have her draw at your event or create
a caricature illustration just for you!
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| 1977--Paul has no mouth even though she tried so many times! And Yo' Adrian! |
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| John Travolta doesn't look like this anymore! |
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