We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Emi Serafini. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Emi below.
Emi, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.
I work as an instructor at a pottery studio in West Hollywood, teaching students the craft of ceramics. My students will often ask me how or when I started my journey to become a potter. The short answer is that I took a class in high school and just never stopped. Here I am 12 years later, still throwing on the wheel and hand building with clay as often as I can. The longer answer goes even further back.
I grew up in a suburb of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and my childhood home had a creek running through the back yard. When I was very little, probably 6 or 7, I was always wanting to play outside. I would take out my Mom’s old pots and pans and make “soup” out of water, grass, sticks, acorns, rocks… whatever I could forage. One day I got a little more adventurous and was playing in the creek to see what “ingredients” I could gather. I found naturally formed clay in the bed of the creek and used a stick to dig it out. I was fascinated by this strange gray, sticky substance. Through pure childlike exploration and play I made a tiny pinch pot. I gathered flat rocks and broken pieces of brick from around the yard and pressed them into the clay while it was wet to create a mosaic effect. I put my creation out into the sun to dry and “bake”, then sealed it with Mod Podge and glued felt onto the bottom so it wouldn’t scratch my Mom’s dresser. I gave it to her and she still uses it for her jewelry nearly 22 years later.
I must have been destined to work with clay because ever since then I have been obsessed with making things from it. I took classes all through high school and college. I cannot picture myself doing anything else professionally. After earning an Associates of Science degree in Studio Art, I needed to take some time away from the educational setting I found myself in. I made the difficult decision to put school on hold to sort out my finances and mental health. After moving back to my hometown, I began working in finance at my local bank branch. My plan was to take a year off and then go back to finish my bachelor’s degree, but the world had other plans when the pandemic hit. I spent a total of four years working as a banker. I learned many valuable lessons along the way, but I knew it was not something that I wanted to do long term. I built a studio in my childhood home and spent most of my nights and weekends there.
When I relocated from Pittsburgh to Los Angeles in February of 2023, I wanted to prioritize my art and work somewhere where I would be putting my skills to good use. Now, I work full time as an instructor at a pottery studio. In my free time I also work on freelance projects across many mediums. This includes ceramics, painting, murals, photography, and graphic design. Eventually I would love to be my own boss and work full time as a freelance artist, or have my own business established.
Emi, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I have spent a lot of time trying to define my “brand” as an artist. Since I am just one individual, I find this somewhat difficult. Because so much of my art is tied to my identity, it feels very personal. I’ve made an effort not to box myself in with too many labels or limitations. I am allowing myself to take up space and work across multiple mediums rather than sticking to one niche. It’s easy to overthink what curated content you are putting out there for the world to see, but I have been trying not to overthink things like social media or take it too seriously. I like sharing my life and my art with my followers. I know that the right audience is out there, they just have to find my page! I got into this industry by taking a lot of art classes and growing my skills in an academic setting. Now that I am a working professional in my field, I find that networking is one of the best skills I have at my disposal. I am constantly stepping out of my comfort zone to connect with other creatives in classes, artist talks, gallery openings, markets, and other events. I have found that a huge part of being successful is reaching out and asking for what I want. I am grateful for my time working in finance because it helped me with my sales skills and has me more comfortable marketing myself. If I can ask a client to buy something to benefit a financial services corporation, why couldn’t I ask them to do the same for me?
While I work across a wide range of mediums, I would say that my main crafts are ceramics and mural painting. As a ceramicist I have dreams of submitting my work to shows and galleries. I want to travel to different cities and teach workshops on my decorating styles. I would love to get enough of a following to be able to have multiple online sales throughout the year. I primarily make functional pots that can be used every day like mugs, bowls, plates, dishes, pitchers, teapots, and vases. I also want to dedicate more of my time to more playful creating that utilized hand building and sculpting techniques. The area that I want to expand most is painting murals. I have painted murals in apartments, homes, nurseries, art studios and businesses. I find that adding dynamic color to a space can completely transform it into something new. It could be your staircase or home office, a wall in your child’s bedroom, a space where artists come to create, or in your business to attract new clients. Using walls & windows as my canvas is my favorite way to paint and I can attribute this to when I painted sets for plays and musicals in high school.
I am most proud of a mural that I painted in LA’s Art’s District at Still Life Ceramics Studio. I painted a mural of pots in my signature color palette in a room that holds all of the studio member’s work and supplies. This was the largest mural I have done so far and it has me wanting to paint in art studios all over the city and beyond. I am also currently working on painting the front windows on the facade of the business to help increase foot traffic. My dream is to work with businesses on more projects like these! What sets me aside from others is I had the chance to sharpen my client services skills and the business side of being an artist. There are many talented artists that were never taught how to keep track of customer orders, business communications, or the financial piece of running their own business.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
As an instructor, I find it most rewarding when I can help a student that might have some additional challenges such as a mental or physical disability. Everyone should have the chance to try new hobbies or learn new skills, regardless of their abilities. If I am ever given the opportunity to go back to school and complete my bachelor’s degree, I would love to finish with some kind of art therapy minor or certificate. I find it so rewarding to work with children and adults with special needs and would love to learn more about the benefits of art therapy. Ultimately, I want to help people. I think there’s an opportunity for art classes to be more accessible to individuals across all walks of life. I think I would find a lot of purpose in creating space for that initiative.
Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?
I wish I would have read The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron earlier in my career. I implore anyone who feels like they are a creative person to read this book. This is a 12 week guide that is “a spiritual park to higher creativity.” The author walks you through two main exercises – morning pages and artist dates. The morning pages are 3 pages of writing every morning to get your day started. Artist dates are a weekly exercise where you take yourself on an intentional solo date. It could be something that your inner child artist would have wanted to do when you were younger. This book and the guided exercises in it has helped me to feel like a more organized and enriched artist. I am currently reading this book and doing the tasks for the second year in a row and am finding I am getting even more out of it the second time.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Www.itsemiskye.com
- Instagram: @itsemiskye
- Other: TikTok: @itsemiskye
