Emily L.

“Wise One's Skirt” and “Belt of the Sacred Oak”
Credit: Emily LArtist Bio

I spent much of my early life living in “in between” spaces. Riding in the car between parents’ houses, traveling to visit family, finding wonder in the mystery of the moments right before sleep takes over. My curiosity and relationship with liminal realms led me to creative exploration, first through music, then film, writing, and finally fine art. As I entered the early stage of my adult life, I experienced the tremendous loss of my step-mom, Susan. I channeled my grief through painting, spending time building relationships with the more-than-human world, and exploring psychedelic spaces. Every step on this journey led me to this moment, and looking back I can’t see another path for myself. My name is Emily, which means “industrious,” and any one of my peers will likely agree I live up to this name. I am an artist and a dreamer. Officially I can also say I’m an ecotherapist, and soon I will be an art therapist, too. While I disagree with the capitalist/industrialist notion that we are the sum of our vocation or profession, I embody these labels because they reflect the choices I have made throughout my life to dedicate myself to the pursuit of knowledge in all forms and the creative synthesis of my life’s lessons.

Artist Statement

When I started these pieces, I didn’t know they would grow to hold so much metaphor for my art therapy journey. The skirt started as a side project inspired by the garments of the desert Wise Women from a book series. I started it at the same time I started my educational journey, and finishing it now feels reflective of the wisdom and knowledge I’ve gained in the process. I was moved to work with leather for this project because of its craft-like quality and functionality of the medium. The design is inspired by my Celtic ancestry, and the piece represents the container for what I’ve learned throughout my grad school journey. Learning is a reciprocal process. On the left side are blank papers and a pen for you to share a piece of wisdom. On the right side are pieces of wisdom I and others (place yours there) have chosen to pass along throughout. Feel free to take photographs of ones that resonate with you, but please leave them in the bag for others to find as well.  

Wise One’s Skirt

This piece is part of an ongoing outfit project inspired by the Aiel Wise Ones from the Wheel of Time series. I started knitting this skirt at the beginning of my art therapy educational journey. It has transformed from representing an aspiration to representing a process. I put the skirt down for various periods of time over the last four years, and picked it back up when I could. To me, this reflects the growth process in life. We work on parts of ourselves at various points in time, revisiting old work with new perspectives as themes in our lives cycle through stages with us. At the end, single strands of thoughts, intentions, and feelings (yarn) are woven together to create a belief, idea, and/or narrative (skirt).

Belt of the Sacred Oak

When I started this project, I didn’t have an idea in mind. I just wanted to work with leather because of the feel and process of the material. The smell of fresh cut leather, the physicality of tooling and burnishing, the calculated process of dying and sewing. Every step of this creative process put me in touch with a different part of my being. I created pouches as a way to learn, then the belt as a vessel to hold them. Over time, meaning developed from the process. The belt, inspired by my Celtic ancestry, is the path of my journey. The pouches are the vessels which hold the knowledge and wisdom I have and continue to gain along the way. One piece of knowledge which has the utmost importance to me is reciprocity. I invite you to join me in a reciprocal process of sharing insight. The left side pouch holds blank papers and a pen. Please feel free to write down a nugget of wisdom from your journey and leave it in the pouches on the right side. I invite you to read the scripts in the pouches on the right side and sit with their messages.