Emily Edwards

Emily Pierce Edwards by day is a middle school art teacher and JV soccer coach in Nashua and a cat mom. By night she creates abstract mixed media paintings. She grew up in Falmouth on Cape Cod and was raised to appreciate nature and insects. She was fascinated by the colors and shapes of flowers and butterflies at the beautiful gardens, ponds full of koi fish, and a Japanese teahouse to hold family gatherings when visiting her grandparents. Emily majored in Oil Painting at Haverford College, received her teaching certification and a Masters in Art Education from Framingham University She has taught in three states in grades K-12 as well as adult painting classes and paint nights. Currently she lives in Manchester with three cats and her significant other. Her exhibited work was completed over the past year at the Institute of Art and Design at New England College as part of my Master of Fine Arts program. They are experiments with the combination of fluid acrylic paint, spray paint and collage paper to create abstract works that explore themes of the landscape, femininity, and pain. Each painting has some element of an acrylic paint pour which she uses to create areas of intensity and movement. The translucent quality of spray paint adds depth and drips to each. The papers she uses are from her personal collection including marbleized papers created by her father, old science photos, and her old drawings and paintings. The different papers allow her to create areas of texture to hide or reveal other areas. Cutting directly into the canvas is another technique to create depth. Sometimes the compositions grow out of paint pours and others follow small thumbnail drawings. Color choices can relate to a specific butterfly from her grandfather's collection or to her thoughts and feelings about specific life events or moments . To finish each piece, tiny details are painted on top with acrylic or added with enamel.