About Emicia
Cast into the sea of foster care at birth, I thrashed about the high tides
of identity formation until my fins split at age 7 in Pratt Institute’s
Saturday Art School. With new legs, I stepped into their program, and
simultaneously into my first viable self-concept. The maturation process
of a mini artist in New York City, which houses some of the best
museums in the world, was a monumental stageset that fell flat. While
each scene placed me merely a metrocard away from indisputably canonical
masterworks of art, there was rarely, if ever, a brown-faced cameo in
any museum.
This set a fire within me to create the images that I needed to see. As I
grew as an artist, the thematic aspects of my work began to center
around topics of identity in world-building, healing/evolution, the
preservation of underexplored histories, the connection of shared
traditions across the African diaspora, subcultural representation, and
the reclamation of purpose. The connective thread is its nuanced
celebration of the interior worlds of black women.
I am an artist who has been classically-trained in fine art, design and
illustration at renowned institutions and in a multitude of mediums from
charcoal to marble, but I most enjoy the viscosity and fluidity of
acrylic paint. I have lately found myself working in digital mediums as
well, such as Procreate. Kerry James Marshall, Frida Kahlo and Mary
Cassatt are amongst my chief inspirations as I also chiefly create
expressive figurative art. But I’m also greatly influenced by Lisa
Frank. Similarly, my aesthetic is sumptuously vibrant and unabashedly
filled with colors and patterns as rich and unique as my subjects.
My studio practice is also unique because the outpicturing of my vision
transcends the canvas and draws me into my community. I have been a
teaching artist and community leader for over a decade and have received
a city council citation as well as a senate resolution for my leadership. Empress By Emicia launched in November of 2022 and I have been delighted to fulfill both individual and corporate orders. I have also been selected to exhibit this Summer with The Bold Art
Society as well as The Spectacular Black Girl Art Show. My goal is to
exhibit internationally and expand my product offerings until Empress is
a full-scale lifestyle brand. A lifeboat where every brown person, cast
into their own sea of identity formation, can be buoyed to safety.