Facebook: Emily Wood Art • Instagram: @EWoodArt • Pinterest: EmilyWoodArt
 
I am primarily a painter who focuses on painting people. I paint almost every day and also work on getting my pieces out to galleries and other venues, where they can be seen. In addition to my own work, I also stay busy with commissioned work. I have been teaching art to children and adults for eight years, the most recent five of which have been at the Arkansas Arts Center Museum School, where I am now the chair of the Painting and Drawing Department and teach painting to adults.

PRESSING QUESTIONS:

Why do you love your career?
I love the process of making a painting or a drawing, as well as teaching others how to do the same – especially the challenge of capturing a likeness and personality of someone and then sharing and communicating it to the world.

What are your goals for the future? 
I would like to get my work into larger markets beyond Arkansas, like Atlanta or New Orleans, in order to become a more regionally, and eventually a nationally recognized artist with work in major museum collections.

What’s a fun fact about you that would surprise people?
I was obsessed with sports in junior high and high school. I was an all-conference softball and basketball player at Camden Fairview, and I played on the boys’ soccer team because we didn’t have a girls’ team.

Who is your role model?
Some of the relatively few famous female artists that left their mark on the art world, like Frida Kahlo. There are also some great local artists here in Arkansas that I really look up to.

What has been the greatest moment in your career?
Recently, a curator from a regional museum visited my studio because she had chosen me to represent the great state of Arkansas in an exhibit this fall. A curator from Crystal Bridges had recommended me to her!

PERSONAL FAVORITES:

Restaurant: Boulevard Bread – it’s my “go-to.”
Song: There are so many! Anything from Nina Simone to Iron & Wine.
Book: The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp.
Gadget: iPhone – the camera to be specific.
Vacation Destination:  Paris – I think I was supposed to be born there.