What I love about today’s guest on the podcast is all the time she spent in a professional percolation mode that has recently resulted in an explosion of work with an incredibly strong throughline and voice. Emily Weiner combines ceramics and oil painting featuring eclectic imagery and bold colors. She received a BA from Barnard College, Columbia University and an MFA in Fine Arts at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. After school, she began curating shows in her apartment while working as a writer, moved on to be co-director of Soloway Gallery, and eventually worked as a curator for Vanderbilt University.
She describes her background, heavy in art history and peppered with various curatorial projects and we discuss how this is clearly evident as an influence for the imagery featured in her paintings. She depicts rabbits, landscapes, greek vases, and even clowns, all of which have rich histories and symbolism. She enjoys tapping into archetypes, and thinking of how things she depicts are symbols of the many roles she plays in life.
Emily shares how she made the move to Nashville after 20 years in New York, and the story is one of Emily simultaneously caring for herself, her work, and her young son. After nearly two decades of studying, making work, and curating in New York, Emily found herself unprepared for the particular circumstances of early parenthood. In a move motivated by the need to survive and to find the best circumstances for her child, she abruptly left New York for her husband’s hometown of Nashville. There, she suddenly found the time, space, and support she needed to dedicate extensive time to her practice, combining all her rich knowledge from art history, experience curating, and years of painting to really dig in and make a significant body of work. As a whole, despite the variation in what is being depicted in any given painting, a throughline has been able to emerge through the sheer volume of what she has been able to accomplish in her new setting.
I’m inspired by the way Emily, a true painter’s painter, has ventured into ceramics. She creates one of a kind ceramic frames for her work, challenging the historical hierarchy of materials. I love how she questions some of the deep rooted biases in how we think about art, and instead of focusing on how to make the next thing, she looks at how we can use symbols to understand the component parts and connections in life. I hope you enjoy how Emily’s story reveals the value in the various stages of life, and how a sudden pivot can allow for the culmination of one thing to feed into the next.
Final Five:
Biggest Art Crush: Georgia O’Keeffe & Magritte
Dream Trip: Japan
Film: Children of Paradise
Favorite meal: Japanese food
Shoutout: Grad school friends as well as husband, child, and Family
To see more of Emily’s work please visit her website and follow her on IG @emilyweiner
The Artist/Mother podcast is created and hosted by Kaylan Buteyn. You can see more of Kaylan’s work on her website or connect with her on Instagram @kaylanbuteyn
