Today we’d like to introduce you to Emily Howard.
Every artist has a unique story. Can you briefly walk us through yours?
I can’t remember a time in my life when I didn’t identify primarily as an artist – some of my warmest memories from childhood revolve around the things I created: carving polar bears and turtles out of bars of soap; painting my own t-shirts; peeling and carving apples into heads that would shrink in the sun on the kitchen windowsill; sewing a sock puppet that became my mouthpiece (I was very shy). I was enthralled by the idea that I could think of something that didn’t yet exist, I could make a plan, and then that thing would suddenly exist, brought into being by own efforts. It was like magic, realizing that my ideas could become concrete, real objects that could bring joy and wonder to others. As far as I was concerned, it was as if I had stars shooting out of my fingertips. This magic has powered me ever since.
I began pursuing a career in the arts directly out of high school – I attended the University of Kentucky and achieved a BFA in fine arts with a minor in art history. A few years and many sleepless nights later, I was a graduate of the University of Cincinnati’s renowned DAAP program, with an MFA in fine arts and an additional Master’s degree in visual art education. While I was in grad school and teaching art in public schools in northern Kentucky, I established my one-woman printmaking business, The Diggingest Girl. Since then, I’ve shifted my focus from teaching to printmaking, and I’ve been printing exclusively & full-time for the last two years. When luck strikes, I also get to do a bit of freelance work, teaching and public art project managing through local nonprofits and museums.
Please tell us about your art.
I’m predominantly a relief printmaker – I draft my original drawings onto blocks of linoleum/wood, carve out the design with handheld gouges, and then roll the block with ink and press it into paper, creating a print. As I like to explain to my younger audience, it’s just like making my own, big stamps! I was a bit with the printmaking bug when I took an introductory woodcut course with professor Derrick Riley of dRock Press in 2006 at the University of Kentucky.
I’m deeply inspired by two of my favorite things: reading and the woods. I’ll read just about anything I can get my hands on: children’s books, mythologies, and folklore of peoples the world over, award-winning fiction, absolute trash, history, politics – I’m into all of it. The diversity of this world and the range of voices are endlessly interesting to me. I’m fueled by an unslakable curiosity that allows me to see beauty everywhere. I’m surrounded by woods, so it isn’t too difficult. I also tend to do a lot of representations of the feminine form, as I investigate my identity as a woman and how long-held concepts of womanhood are being challenged today.
I hope that when people look at my work, that same curiosity bubbles up within them. I hope that it pleases the eye as well as the heart. I hope it inspires people to spend more time reading. I hope that people feel empowered and encouraged by my work.
Do you have any advice for other artists? Any lessons you wished you learned earlier?
My advice for other artists would be to take the time to listen to the voice inside and heed it. Don’t worry about what other people think. Be dogged in your pursuit of what piques your curiosity. This has rarely steered me wrong, so far!
Given everything that is going on in the world today, do you think the role of artists has changed? How do local, national or international events and issues affect your art?
In my opinion, the overarching role of the artist hasn’t really changed. One of the functions of the artist throughout history has been to mirror society back to itself, sometimes in ways that seem harsh or unflattering (I’m thinking of works like Picasso’s Guernica, or Jenny Holzer’s Truisms). Art tells a truth about the world at large, as much of what we know of human history is rooted in the art that was left behind.
For a long time, I thought I was simply making my art to please myself, but I realized pretty quickly that I can’t ever truly divorce my work from the system that I actively engage in every day. So, to me, it is worthwhile to examine that system and respond to it, even if that sometimes means being critical. Though I live a relatively quiet life as an educated, middle-class white woman running her own business, current events & issues have thrown my privilege into sharp relief and I can’t ignore it. I can’t ignore my anger, either, and that’s a motivation I didn’t have before. I think more about what representation means and I’m taking steps to achieve it. I think more about the bodies of the women I carve. I think more about how art can help heal a broken, beaten heart. I think about how public art, in particular, can encourage and bond a divided community. I’ve been inspired to change the very structure of my business to fold in more philanthropy where I can, where a portion of the proceeds from a given print is donated to a related nonprofit like Standing Rock or the Malala Fund. It isn’t much, but it’s something. And if we all did a little something… I shudder to think of the beauty & love we could achieve.
So, these times have changed me, and I am thankful for it. I hope they continue to change me and the wider world, for the better.
How or where can people see your work? How can people support your work?
You can find me on the internet!
Website: www.thediggingestgirl.com
Etsy shop: www.thediggingestgirl.etsy.com
Instagram: @thediggingestgirl
Facebook: @thediggingestgirl
I also vend at many art & craft markets all around the south and midwest. You can support my work by following me on social media, purchasing a print or by preordering my forthcoming book, Block Print Magic, which comes out in February 2019 from the Quarto Publishing Group. It’s a how-to about relief printmaking, and it’s my very first book! You can find it on Amazon as well as other major online book retailers.
https://www.amazon.com/Block-Print-Magic-Essential-Designing/dp/1631596152
Contact Info:
- Website: www.thediggingestgirl.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/thediggingestgirl/
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/thediggingestgirl/
- Other: www.thediggingestgirl.etsy.com
Image Credit:
Emily Louise Howard
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