2023, 12.5" x 7.5" x 4", Media: Earthenware / Terracotta, Surface: Unglazed
2022, 48” x 48” x 0.75”, Media: Mixed Media, Non-clay
Corn, beans and squash seeds from Pie Ranch & Demeter Seed Library on cotton canvas with agave fiber rope & cotton thread. Site-specific installation for the "MexiCali Biennial: Land of Milk & Honey" at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History (Santa Cruz, CA).
2012, 20’ x 6’ x 5’, Media: Mixed Media, Non-clay
Found metal grate, folded & cut paper & paint. Site-specific installation for "Intervenida" solo show at Julio Fine Arts Gallery at Loyola University (Baltimore, MD).
2023, 14.5” x 14.5” x 0.5”, Media: Mixed Media, Non-clay
Seeds in the Legume (bean) Family from the Somos Semilla Seed Library on cotton canvas with agave fiber rope & cotton thread
2023, 6” x 8” x 6”, Media: Earthenware / Terracotta
red clay & copper carbonate
2020, 13” x 18” x 7”, Media: Mixed Media, Non-clay
scrap wood & metal, reeds, wire, glue, clay-based paint & gesso
2020, 10” x 12” x 8”, Media: Mixed Media, Non-clay
scrap wood & bark, cardboard, palm leaves, wire, glue, beeswax, clay-based paint & gesso
2023, 10.75” x 10.25” x 1.5”, Media: Mixed Media, Non-clay
Sunflower, squash, bean & beet seeds from Somos Semilla Seed Library in cardboard with wheatpaste & clay-based paint
2023, 6” x 4” x 1.5”, Media: Earthenware / Terracotta, Mixed Media
Red clay, agave thorns & yucca seeds
2023, 14” x 9.25” x 0.5”, Media: Mixed Media, Non-clay
Beans from the Somos Semilla Seed Library on cotton canvas with agave fiber rope & cotton thread
Artist Statement
I am painter and planter, sculptor and seed saver. The studio is my temporary temple, but the green, growing world out my window always beckons me back outside. I want to be in both places at once, so I try to merge my art practice with the natural world I so love. My first murals went up on walls next to gardens I helped cultivate on vacant urban lots. Now I create spaces to contain seeds in the service of their sovereignty. My art ranges from small watercolors to massive mixed media installations, the materials and process of a particular work informed by people and place, situation and site. Nature has certainly taught me that nothing grows in a vacuum, and I understand my art to be the result of collaboration within a complex web of relationships.
I create to communicate, to celebrate, to play with color, rhythm and form. Like the experienced guerrilla gardener that I am, I get my hands dirty in artmaking in order to challenge with beauty the cultural norm. My goal is to create work that inspires those who experience it to reconnect with the cycles that sustain us—art to empower people, protect plants and restore dignity to our shared communities.
Bio
Emily C-D is a transdisciplinary artist originally from Maryland but with her roots in Mexico for the past decade and working on both sides of the border. Her work explores and challenges our human interaction with nature, using various materials and processes to investigate the tension between social and environmental issues. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Maryland Institute College of Art (2005) and was a two-time recipient of the Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Grant, in the categories of sculpture (2014) and works on paper (2010). In Mexico, Emily has been an artist in residence at El Centro de Arte y Ecología Guapamacátaro in Michoacán (2012), Galería Gubidxa in Oaxaca (2011) and FARO (Fábrica de Artes y Oficios) de Oriente in Iztapalapa, Mexico City (2010). Over a 20-year career, Emily has has partnered with diverse peoples in Mexico and the US to transform public spaces with murals, installations and gardens. As the visual voice of the SOMOS SEMILLA Seed Library in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, Emily’s work promoting seed saving through art has been integral to amplifying the free seed movement in Mexico and beyond.