Meet Emily Collins

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Emily Collins. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Emily below.

Emily, we’re thrilled to have you sharing your thoughts and lessons with our community. So, for folks who are at a stage in their life or career where they are trying to be more resilient, can you share where you get your resilience from?

I have learned a lot about resilience recently and I believe it is deeply rooted in adaptation, healing, and, for me, creating. I graduated from Clemson University with my Masters of Fine Arts and my final thesis exhibition was based around my experience and research on emotional abuse, its physiological and psychological effects, and transforming this experience into art. My main reading source was The Body Keeps the Score by Dr. Bessel van der Kolk where he simply and coherently went in depth on the psychological effects of abuse. However, instead of only focusing on these negative effects, he shifted to research on how our minds overcome and adapt to the aftereffects of abuse and trauma. I then decided to revolve my thesis around healing as a way to use creating as my own healing process.

Throughout my last semester, in the midst of creating art about how our minds process trauma, my dad was in the hospital and passed away. In addition to all of the overwhelming thoughts and feelings, this was overall just surreal. Going through this experience while simultaneously learning about how our minds process these sorts of situations was like seeing in real time how the different regions of my brain were reacting. More importantly though, I already learned of what the healing process will look like.

I get my resilience by channeling all of these feelings, past and present, into my art. My creative process is very repetitive, meditative, and therapeutic. It’s a way for me to escape. Moreover, I can visually translate ideas such as adaptation, repair, and healing into a physical piece that can help bring some objectivity to these difficult and complex ideas.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

Currently, I am a freelance artist. I became a metalworker during my sculpture journey starting in my undergrad years so most of my commissions have been forged ironwork. I make a lot of traditional decorative ironwork but one really fun and really different project I made for a friend was some giant forged fish hooks. My next commission will be forging decorative elements such as candle holders and a fence for an outdoor chapel that I am really excited for.

Since graduating, I haven’t had a ton of studio space so I have recently gotten into jewelry making. I’ve found that it’s just a smaller version of the other metalworking I do! I want to bring my decorative and architectural interests to my jewelry designs too. I love classical art, I actually started teaching myself the basics on how to carve marble at one point. I would love to make a collection that uses metal and marble together. I hope to have an online shop sometime this year.

In addition to my own art practice, I love teaching others how to make and create. I’ve taught middle school art classes, worked as a teacher’s assistant for Beginning Sculpture and as an instructor for Art Appreciation at Clemson, and will be teaching again this summer at the Clemson Arts Center. One thing I love about teaching is seeing the different skill levels and how they develop over time. The Art Appreciation class was intended for non-art majors but with each project or activity we did I saw how much they enjoyed this creative outlet. A lot of my Beginning Sculpture students were in 2D disciplines but every one of them quickly picked up skills such as welding, woodworking, and handling tools and machinery.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

1) Create something everyday.

I know this is something artists and creatives hear all the time but it’s genuinely so important. Make something, draw something, write something everyday no matter how bad you think it looks or sounds. Big things always start off with little things, little experiments. In my sculpture practice, I had never used liquid latex in my work until about a year before my thesis exhibition. I started making random little objects. I painted the liquid latex on just about anything I found to see the mold it would make and see how the material operates. Fast-forward a year later and I have an entire exhibition with large-scale latex sculptures. Once you let go and start playing with what you have without thinking if it’s good or bad, then it will inevitably grow into something.

2) Build a community.

If you’re an artist or any other creative, then surrounding yourself with other creatives is fundamental in your growth and development. Even surround yourself with others who aren’t working in your discipline. Collaborate with fine artists, writers, poets, and musicians. We all see and perceive the same things, we just portray them in various creative ways. And I find that incredibly fascinating.

3) Be patient.

I’ve mentioned growth, development, and adaptation a lot. All of these definitely take time. I think this sense of immediacy has been so ingrained in us that we crave to have everything work out and succeed right off the bat, but that’s not the case. Speaking in terms of an artistic career, there’s a lot of creating, marketing, and building connections before anything gets off the ground. This can be incredibly frustrating (most of the time, honestly) but just pausing and looking at everything you’ve accomplished so far will put this journey into perspective. This definitely applies to pretty much any area of life, too. We all have had our experiences, hardships, and traumas. Most of the time it’ll require us to rewire our brain and adapt to this new situation. Again, it takes time but focusing on what you’ve built and improved on in the process can help keep you going one more step at a time.

How can folks who want to work with you connect?

Yes, I absolutely love collaborating with other creatives! If you do any sort of creative making be it visual arts, music, writing, then I’m down. I’ve worked with other fantastic sculptors (and totally would again) but I also think it’s so cool to meet and create with someone who is outside of my discipline. I want to hear and see how you portray things different from me and see how we can make two seemingly unrelated disciplines intertwine. Art is complex, so I think we need to step outside of our comfort zones!
Anyone can connect with me through a DM on Instagram!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://Instagram.com/emilyy__collins