We recently connected with Paola Emhardt and have shared our conversation below.
Paola , appreciate you joining us today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?
I was working in New York City as a invitro fertilization specialist for a well renowned university, Every morning while performing surgeries on mice , the only think I had in my mind was ART, I just wanted to finish the work day and go back to my little apartment in Queens to continue with my personal art projects.
I used to stay up very late just to take photographs, intervened them in different ways. Instead of reading and thinking about science , I was living and breathing ART. I decided to do a BA in studio art and it was the beginning of a my love story.
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 a current project called palapapapa , it is a term used in Colombia where I am from. to refer to getting money to buy food. During the pandemic , I started designing and painting to cope with the difficulties of the situation. I could not stop and started sharing with others .
Palapapa work is the results of a deep necesity of going back to simplicity in life, using lines and colors to obtain a minimalistic, bright and uplifting experience for the viewer and herself.
Palapapa is a visual invitation to live the moment.
I am also currently working in personal photography and painting projects where I explore spiritual transformation and ancestral cosmovisions
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
The most rewarding aspect of being a creative is the creative process itself, that moment when you have an idea, you feel it in your heart and soul, you start calling and connecting with your intuition to know exactly what medium to use in order to let that idea become an entity and share its message as accurate as possible.
The creative process is my fuel in life.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
To make a honest body of work I had to unlearn the meaning of being a strong woman, at the time it was me showing a fake facade to hide my pain,
I learn throughout my art to be vulnerable to become really strong mentally, physically and spiritually.
for 10 years I had to do inner work to become a better human, healthy for me and others and that’s reflected in my body of work in palapapa and personal projects .
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @palapapanow @paolaemhardt