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

Emily, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

After getting engaged in the summer of 2022, I convinced my fiance we needed a live wedding painter. I found an artist whose style I absolutely loved and we booked her for our wedding. Right after booking, my fiance said, “you could do that.” That was the lightbulb moment, even though, at the time, I didn’t believe him. I focused on pet portraits at first because I was not confident in my abilities to do a live painting. My fiance was such an incredible support system and pushed me to step out of my comfort zone and give live painting a try. I did my very first wedding this past April and absolutely fell in love. I knew my goal was to make that my career.

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 have always had the artistic gene thanks to my mom. I primarily did charcoal drawings before finding my love of painting. In September 2022, I took a pet painting class and everyone I showed my painting to was amazed. At first, my plan was to focus on pet portraits until I started seeing all the live wedding painting tiktoks. I convinced my then-fiance that we needed a live painter for our wedding. After booking our painter, he encouraged me to try wedding painting. After doing a couple of practice paintings at home, then decided to try to offer them as a service and I was astonished when I actually booked one!

While my primary services are live wedding paintings and pet portraits, I do so many other types of art that I plan to offer. Recently, I have done a watercolor portrait of a home, post-wedding paintings, and even created a piece where I introduced a grandfather who passed and his grandson who was born 6 years after his passing. For my own wedding, I created watercolor guest portraits of every single guest as favors.

The beautiful thing about live wedding painters is that there is no competition. Every artist has their own style that they offer that is uniquely theirs. Some artists will capture all the guests in the painting or use a more abstract or impressionist style. Personally, my style is realistic and I will only paint the couple because the day is all about them.

I am honestly mostly just proud that I’m doing it. I have never been a risk taker, so the fact that I am even pursuing this full-time fills me with so much pride.

It is so important to support local artists. I see ads for larger companies that do custom paintings, but when you buy from a local artist, you are supporting them and your community. You aren’t putting more money in a CEO’s already overflowing account. You’re supporting local families.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

Hands down the reveal. Seeing the emotion on their face when they see their painting whether it’s a wedding painting or a pet portrait. Most of the pet portraits I do are memorial pieces and losing a pet is already so emotional. It warms my heart to be able to turn their sad tears into tears of happiness about seeing their fur baby on canvas.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

When I first started wedding painting live, I was convinced I needed to get it all done there. At my first wedding, I struggled to get the proportions right and didn’t even come close to finishing the painting. I felt so discouraged. That first wedding was such a great lesson that I didn’t actually have to finish it that night. I took it home with my and finished it and was able to touch up details I wasn’t completely happy with. By the time I did my second wedding, I knew that finishing there was not the goal. The end goal was to provide the couple with a beautiful work of art of one of the most special days of their lives.

Contact Info:

• Website: emccreate.com
• Instagram: emc_create
• Facebook: EMC Create

Image Credits
Adri Rae Photography