Artist's Biography

​       Em grew up. and has lived most of her life, in Eastern Washington. As a girl, she loved drawing and needlework. In the early 1980s, as a fiber artist, Em created large, textual, densely-patterned portraits using needlepoint as a medium. In 1986 she began her formal training in fine art, with a focus on drawing, at Spokane Falls Community College. She then went on to Eastern Washington University’s art program. She spent her final undergraduate year studying art at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, and graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Studio Art in 1992.
While studying at Spokane Falls, Em taught English as a Second Language (ESL) for the Community Colleges of Spokane’s English program for refugees and Immigrants.  She earned an undergraduate minor and Master’s Degree in Teaching ESL, and launched a teaching career, which afforded her the opportunity to travel and teach in Latin America, while continuing to work on her art.  In 2016, Em retired from teaching ESL at Gonzaga University in order to focus more fully on her art.
Em traces her love of drawing back to her childhood, and graphite and mixed-media drawing remain her favorite meda. The influence of her early fiber art can be seen in the intricacy of detail and patterns in her drawings.  An exhibition of Pop artists (such as Edward Kienholtz and Robert Raushenberg) that Em viewed as a girl can still be seen in the realism and dark humor in her work. For many years, Em has used images from 1950s magazine ads as metaphors to create ironic social commentary, focusing on the way the comfortable, privileged, “ideal” life portrayed in the ads allows people to deny the unjust and even horrific life circumstances of much of the world’s population, as well as the apocalyptic dangers threatening the world.