North Shore Meet an Artist: Emily Aussem

Despite her busy schedule juggling two jobs and social activities, North Shore artist Emily Aussem has worked diligently to establish a functional art practice at the studio. After experimenting with multiple mediums, including the photo transfer process she describes below, Emily has finally found her niche painting geometric abstractions of prominent figures from contemporary culture. Continue reading to learn more about Emily, her artistic process and see images of her current artwork.  Jared: What project are you currently working on? Emily: A photo transfer, put modge-podge on it, and now I’m doing the background. It’s a horse. I was riding horses since I was nine years old. The background matches the photo; oil pastel. It’s cool! Jared: How long have you been making art? How often?Emily:Not that often, I have to work. 1 year in the studio so far. Jared: What subject matter do you like depict? What materials do you use?Emily: Photo transfers of anything, animals a lot. Oil pastels.  Jared: What inspires your art?Emily: The iPad; Google! Photos I find online. Recent projects have been guardian angel. A photo transfer. A mansion because thought it would be fun.  Jared: What is the art-making process like for you? How do you overcome any creative roadblocks?Emily: I just do what I have to do and get it all done in a matter time. Depends on what day I come and what day I don’t come. Jared: What is your favorite part of working at The Arts of Life studio?Emily: Getting paid! [Laughs]. Meeting new people. Niki, Amanda, Montell, everyone at the studio. We do stuff, we help each other out. Jared: When you’re not at the studio making art, what do you enjoy doing? What else are you interested in besides art?Emily: Sleep! Hanging out with friends, going horseback riding. I go every other week, just for the fun of it to KC’s farms. Since I was a kid… Actually I taught myself how. Jared: Wasn’t that scary?Emily: No it wasn’t scary it was actually fun!  Jared: Do you have a piece you’re extra proud of or a favorite piece you’ve recently made?Emily: The guardian angel. It’s acrylic and large. It’s for my dad who passed away. I just typed in ‘guardian angel’ into Google.  Jared: Do you have any ideas for future art projects?Emily: No, still working on it. Jared: How did you first hear about the Arts of Life studio?Emily: My stepmom was looking for programs for me to do in the daytime and so I moved out and my roommate’s mom was telling my step-mom, ‘my daughter really likes it, maybe you can call Hilary’. We had a tour and I joined. I was excited to join. Jared: Besides being a tremendous artist, do you have any hidden talents?Emily: I used to be a cheerleader. I used to be a dance teacher/instructor. I used to be a sign-language interpreter. I threw my knee out so I don’t dance anymore. I coach. I actually took my girls to state the year before, and one of the girls threw her shoulder out. So I had to teach my sister the routine. Even though we were missing one girl we still got gold. This was in October.  Jared: What type of dance?Emily: Hip-hop. Dance to artists like Britney Spears, Robin Thicke, Katy Perry, Mariah Carey. Rihanna, Janet and Michael Jackson. Jared: If you could take a vacation anywhere, where would you choose to go?Emily: Miami, because I’d swim with some of the dolphins again. My step-mother and I went to Florida this year and we actually got to swim with them. One of my dad’s closest friends has a boat down there. He took us on his boat for like three hours straight she got sunburn and I got the tan. But got seasick too! Jared: How do you live up to the name of Emily Aussem (pronounced “awesome”)?Emily: You really had to ask, didn’t you? [Laughs] Everywhere I go they’re like, ‘you’re so awesome’ and I have to just be like “I know”. My friends at work don’t even call me Emily they just call me awesome. I told them if you forget my name you can just call me awesome and they’re like ‘you know what I’m going to start calling you? awesome.’