We recently connected with Emily Imbrogna and have shared our conversation below.

Emily, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

I have been privileged to get to contribute to a number of projects that have been incredibly meaningful to me. The most recent project that I am most proud of is a painting series inspired by my hero –

My hero is undoubtedly my grandmother, who I lost this summer. Like me, she was a
creative in her own right – a passionate poet who wrote political writings for local papers, expressing her values that centered on her belief in community and that everyone is deserving of kindness and a fair chance. She also wrote poetry for us, her family, expressing her devotion to us in many different iterations over the years through her creativity with words.

I never questioned her support for me. If I could credit only just one person for inspiring my art career it would be her. She always told me how proud she was of me and continuously encouraged me to make art. Her home was basically my first art gallery where she exhibited my illustrations and paintings on nearly every wall from every age going all the way back to my castle drawings at age 5.

Reflecting on the gravity of her presence in my life, I feel more motivated than ever to fully commit to building my art career, in honor of her legacy – all the love, support, and inspiration she has filled my life with during the limited time I got to know her.

Her personal motto was “Never give up, never give in, never quit.” In the most challenging moments, that motto is my guiding light.

The work, a series of 5 paintings I made for my first ever solo art show, entitled “Enchantment” I had the pleasure of exhibiting recently at The Liberty Hotel, is dedicated to her. The series represents an exploration of magic in places and concepts that are meaningful to me. My grandmother is the reason I know my own magic.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I have been an artist before a time I could even remember. The identity of “artist” was always reinforced in me, especially from a young age. One of my earliest memories is actually the day my little sister was born: I was gifted a box set of markers, crayons, pencils, pastels to celebrate the day, and it remains such a fond memory in my heart. I loved drawing castles in particular, and eventually I convinced my parents to sign me up for extracurricular art classes outside of elementary school because I just couldn’t get enough of it. I had a long phase where I was really interested in fashion design, as well. Also, as kids, me and my cousins would often script and act out variety-shows with our family video camera for fun – so it makes sense that as an adult I have continued to pursue these passions in video production and painting as a career.

Eventually I took up filmmaking more seriously in high school when I started spending a lot of time at the local television studio. I took AP art classes and worked on a multi-disciplinary portfolio to apply for art school. I ended up pursuing digital filmmaking for college where I primarily focused on documentary/non-fiction work. I completed an internship in video production for a local education non-profit. I worked in the art library at my college as well, so I constantly surrounded my self with artists and art representing a variety of disciplines. On the side, I started to help to organize and program the Boston Women’s Film Festival, which helps to platform women’s stories by women filmmakers.

I continue to paint and have begun selling my art while freelancing in video production. I am still early and my career and hold a lot of excitement for the future as I continue to pursue my multi-disciplinary passions.

Having graduated from a school that pioneered arts therapies studies, my mission as an artist is influenced by this interest in creating art and promoting arts engagement primarily for the purposes of wellbeing. I seek to partner with companies and clients that want to bring art into their space that helps to support creating an environment that heals and inspires.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

When I was in my final year in the film program at art school, I struggled in the beginning stages of developing my senior thesis – a short film assignment. While I had completed many short film assignments well over the last few years up to that point, I put an immense amount of pressure on myself to come up with something brilliant that I could execute perfectly. This self-imposed pressure only made the project feel impossible to pursue. I felt confused over directions to take, as though all the ideas I had could be wrong turns that would lead to failure.

I had developed a maddeningly-stifling case of creative block to the point of absolute psychological strain. My “inner-critic” was vicious, constantly asking that I start over from scratch with another brand new idea that had to be better than the last.

From poetic narrative character studies to dramatic sci-fi pilots to a documentary on local service-capuchin-monkeys, I was all over the place and making little progress. As soon as I felt moved to go forward with an idea, my inner critic was quick to strike, stopping me in my tracks – telling me it was a bad idea that couldn’t be executed well, or if I dare even try I should expect it to come out bad.

I agonized over this ideal expectation that this project needed to launch my career as an artist and filmmaker. It needed to be flawless in every way, in every aspect of production; it needed to be worthy of awards; it needed to serve as my jumping-off-point to skyrocket into success. In my head, I had this notion that it needed to move people, and move the needle, and be stunning in its quality and smart in its execution and innovative and original enough to draw attention from producers and distributors. I began experiencing regular migraines toward the end of the fall semester, making the task even more daunting and challenging.

Eventually, I worked with my guidance counselor who steered me toward having a conversation with a particular professor, (who I wasn’t too familiar with at the time). I knew he was held in high regard by many, so I took his advice enthusiastically when he suggested I read Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott.

The lessons I pulled from reading this book helped me quickly to remedy the toxic relationship I had unintentionally built between me, my inner critic, and my creativity. The lessons I learned from Lamott’s seminal piece still serve me to this day. I recommend it to any artist or creative – we all face “block” eventually in some capacity, and some may argue that it is an essential part of the process.

This professor who recommended Bird by Bird, also ultimately connected me with another professor, named Trina, who would become the subject for the documentary I would end up pursuing to completion for this senior thesis project. This other professor shared her very own, incredibly powerful story with me. It was a story had resonated with me and the types of stories I was interested in telling, especially at that time. Her story fell into perfect alignment with the interest areas I wanted to explore in my work – artists, women, and the surprisingly effective care that can be provided to humans via the emotional intelligence of an animal companion, an emerging treatment option for a variety of ailments.

Ultimately the outcome was a positive one. The journey ended up being rewarding in both the process and the destination I arrived at with the project.

At the beginning of my final semester, in January 2020 and by month’s end, I managed to film all the footage I needed and started on the edit. Then, covid lockdown hit – we were confined indoors within weeks of me completing filming on this project. Suddenly, all this time expanded for me to focus on editing a final cut of the work. I was free to be singularly hyper-focused in on this idea I was able lot feel committed to. At this point, I had already become very proud of my progress and felt excited to make it to the finish line with this film. I found myself feeling oddly lucky, despite the chaos that had erupted in the world.

During my (virtual) graduation that came in May of 2020, I remember receiving all kinds of praise from classmates and professors, and people I didn’t even know for She Wanted to Be a Cowboy, the title of my senior thesis.

This short film went on to receive many laurels – She Wanted to Be a Cowboy screened at exhibitions and festivals based all over the country and around the world over the years that followed.

I am having fun building my career in film/video production and making paintings as often as I can.

I still put a lot of pressure on myself to make worthy art and I often still have to confront my inner critic. I have resolved to not allow my inner critic to stop me from being creative, at least not for long. The process that I went through for my senior year has given me the experience for learning to how to manage that. It is something I intend to continually learn about and get better at.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

My overarching mission is to contribute beauty to the world through my art. I would like for my art to function as talismans for well being – promoting joy, healing, and inspiration.

I do believe that I was put on this earth with these artistic gifts and interests I have for. a reason. The world needs art; it needs creatives, and it is a better place as a result.

In this fast-changing world that is requiring solutions on a variety of fronts, creativity is perhaps the best vehicle for driving progress toward meaningful change. Especially during challenging times, I try to remember that my creativity is my own source of magic, and with it, I have the power to design my life and maintain control over my reality.

Additionally, it is my goal to help inspire creativity from all people – because we are all innately creators. The legacy I care to leave behind is one centered in helping people, and I believe the best way to do that is through my art.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.emilyimbrogna.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/emilyimbrogna_art/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emilyimbrogna/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@emilyimbrogna