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

Emily, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

While I practice several mediums, the one I am best known for in the arts community is my resin art made with crystals and pressed flowers. Many people ask me how I got into resin in the first place. The answer is that pressing flowers came first. I love going for walks and hikes and just spending time outdoors. I had been collecting and pressing flowers for some time and decided I didn’t want those flowers to remain hidden inside books, I wanted to display them in works of art. I tried gluing them to paper but wasn’t enthused about the process or the outcome. Then I picked up some resin and things clicked into place. Now I had a medium with versatility to create wall art, home decor, and jewelry so I could bring little bits of nature into the home and on the go with me wherever. Fortunately, I had some experience in casting and mold making from my work as a props artisan. I watched a few videos, but for the most part I jumped straight in and started experimenting. Through many broken molds, improperly cured pieces, and oh so many bubbles in the resin, I figured out the materials I liked using, how to handle the materials, and how to eliminate as many bubbles as possible. I have honed my craft for three years now, but I still sometimes end up burning a piece, contaminating clear resin with an overspill of pigment powders, or breaking a flower apart while trying to remove a bubble. Resin is a craft that requires you to work quickly and also work patiently. I am still learning, trying out new materials, experimenting with new ideas, and advancing my art. I occasionally teach resin workshops and hopefully helped some beginners learn from my mistakes so they can create their own resin works of art.

Emily, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I am an artist and craftsperson of many mediums – a jack of all trades, if you will. I studied Theatrical Production Arts at Ithaca College in the beautiful landscape of the fingerlakes region of New York. I have worked as a props artisan, scenic artist, and costumer for theaters coast to coast. After the pandemic I pivoted from theatre to freelancing as a fine artist and running my own business. Through my scenic art training I learned the skill of sign painting and had the honor of painting the Aquamarine Daydream storefront sign on Historic Fourth Avenue, where you can now find some of my resin jewelry and art for sale in-store. I enjoy oil painting, drawing, photography, and most notably resin art. My resin art incorporates flowers that I collect and press myself and real crystals in order to create little fairy-like worlds that bring a bit of nature to your home or as jewelry for you to wear and have with you wherever you go. I am also happy to create custom resin pieces – if you have flowers, foliage, photos, momentos, or even ashes you’d like turned into a custom resin piece I would be happy to turn your ideas into a reality. I also do commissioned paintings, signs for homes and businesses, murals, and faux finishes. I have done many different creative projects for all kinds of clients, including creating a custom headpiece, refinishing and upholstering furniture, and creating custom event centerpieces just to name a few. So whatever kind of creative project you have in mind, ask me about custom work or collaborations!

I am also very involved in the local arts community. I am and active artist member and serve on the board of the Warehouse Arts Management Organization here in Tucson. I often display my work in the galleries affiliated with WAMO. I am also a member of the Southern Arizona Arts Guild and sell my resin art in the SAAG Gallery. And you can typically find me vending at local markets like Made in Tucson, Tucson Hop Shop Queer Bazaar, and the Fourth Avenue Street Fair.

Apart from my artwork, I am excited to be enrolled in Yoga Teacher Training with Yoga Oasis and look forward to sharing the practice with others!

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

In all the noise of life, art brings me quietude. It is the single most joyful, frustrating, beautiful, grounding, challenging, and purposeful thing I have done. While I love interacting with community at markets and art shows, I love interacting with other artists and pushing each other to go deeper, I love making a sale and knowing someone is going to have and enjoy something I created, truly the most rewarding part of it all is the practice of making art. The hours spent in the studio can be exhausting and grueling. There will be late nights and frustrating setbacks. But even through the difficulties, the process of making art is the thing I find most fulfilling to my soul.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

One of the most frustrating things I have experienced as an artist is struggling to make a living and having people tell me that I should just do something else. This isn’t frustrating because I simply want to make art, it is frustrating because it devalues art as a whole. When people tell artists to just go do something else, and that art isn’t a good career path, they are not addressing the real issue – that our society does not value artists despite consuming so much art. Take the tv/film industry for example. When the pandemic hit the people making shows and movies were largely laid off, especially the actors and the technicians who paint scenery and hang lights and such. Meanwhile, everyone at home was binging all of the tv and movies they could to keep occupied. There may not be a lot we can do individually to change the current state of challenges artists face trying to make a living in this career, but we can change our mindsets to recognize the value of artists and shift the blame of the “starving artist” issue onto the exploitative practices in the arts industries instead of the individual’s choice of career. Start recognizing that every show you watch, every graphic you see, every book you read, every song you hear, every mural, every greeting card, and so much more are all rooted in the work of many different artists and without them life would be pretty bland. And then please stop telling us to choose a different career, and start telling your representative to invest in the arts.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://emilycartagine.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/emilycartagineart/