February 11, 1993 - May 9, 2012
Art, Crafts & Jewelry
Drawings & Paintings
Emily did this painting in Kindergarten at Addison Elementary School in Joan Hobstetter's class. When I took it to be framed many years ago, the woman at University Art told me (before I told her the artist was 5) that it reminded her of works by the artist Peter Max.
Emily was about 11 when she painted this. She was experimenting with oil paint in her grandmother Cynthia's art studio in Hillsborough.
Emily made this painting with her grandmother Cynthia Schuman when she was 14, at Cynthia's house in Hillsborough. The painting is made of polyurethane resin mixed with metallic powders. Somebody offered $5000 for it, but Cynthia decided to keep it because it was Emily's first resin. When Emily found out she said, "What! $5000? Why didn't you sell it?!"
Done in thin black Sharpie pen at RISD, part of her drawing book.
Done in thin black Sharpie pen at RISD, part of her drawing book.
Done in thin black Sharpie pen at RISD, part of her drawing book.
Done in thin, black Sharpie, at RISD... Emily drew this and three other drawings using thin, black Sharpie, while at RISD (Rhode Island School of Design) in the summer of 2009, before her junior year of high school. She included the four drawings in a book that she made while at the art school.
Emily made this book at RISD during the summer of 2009. In it are her four drawings of scenes near campus, done in black Sharpie pen.
This drawing was done during Emily's senior year at Paly as part of her Drawing & Painting class, taught by Kate McKenzie. Emily's friend Ben remembers stopping in on the art class while Emily was working on this drawing. "She struggled for a while with what to put behind the main guy in the picture, and also how to capture his expression." Click the link to see more about this drawing.
Emily painted this still life at Paly during her senior year, in her Drawing & Painting class.
Emily did this charcoal still life at Paly during her senior year, in her Drawing & Painting class. I thought I had noticed everything in it but then saw more.
From Kate McKenzie, Emily's Drawing&Painting teacher at Paly: "The picture was an assignment I gave in Feb 2010. We were moving into color and studying color as light/mood/time of day. I had a number of statues around the classroom and the students had to draw one, and then color and shade it using pastels and a color scheme that created a sense of light. Emily chose a copy of Antonio Canova's "Dancer" and developed her picture in oil pastels..." Click the link to see the full caption.
This is a drawing that Emily made for Darrell for his 50th birthday, February 13, 2012. She mailed it to him from Wash U, I had it framed, and she gave it to him when she was home for spring break. She wanted him to have it as an inspiration, to hang at his office (which he did) and look at for inspiration if things ever got tough at work.
Emily drew this picture of one of her shirts, hanging, for her spring-semester art class at WashU. The assignment was to draw something ordinary, displayed in a way that reflected the object itself. The shirt hangs loose and relaxed in the drawing, just as the type of shirt it is. Click the link to see the complete caption for this drawing.
The two diptych drawings are to be displayed side-by-side, with the vertical drawing on the left and the horizontal on the right. Click the link to learn more about the diptych drawing pair.
The two diptych drawings are to be displayed side-by-side, with the vertical drawing on the left and the horizontal on the right. Click the link to learn more about the diptych drawing pair.
Jewelry
I love citrine and bought a citrine bead, which Emily wire-wrapped into a necklace for me.
We went as a family to Glass Beach near Mendocino when the kids were little. We collected tons of beach glass, some of which Emily made into jewelry, like this necklace.
One morning I was getting ready to go to work and really wanted to wear a simple silver chain necklace with my outfit, and it had to be a certain length. Even though she was getting ready to leave for school, Emily ran down to the basement, pulled out her jewelry tools and in just a few minutes connected whatever silver chain she could find to a clasp and made me a necklace that was the right length. I wore it frequently.
We saw these crystal hearts at a bead shop, so Emily made necklaces from them.
Emily and I once saw a super-expensive necklace similar to this one, and she said, "I could make that for you!" So she ordered all of the supplies and made me this necklace, using stones colored perfectly to go with things I wear a lot.
Emily made me this necklace using amber beads to wear when I taught "Electricity & Magnetism" to 4th graders at Escondido Elem. School, because the Greek word for amber is "Elektra." (All of our words relating to electricity are derived from that root since the Greeks first discovered static electricity when polishing amber with fur, which caused small things to stick to the amber, like when you rub a balloon on your head and things--like your hair--stick to the balloon.)
Isabel wore this pink necklace to her Junior prom.
I call this my "candy" necklace and wear it with white T-shirts and blouses.
Our family friend Kathleen had a turquoise bracelet that she got the idea for in "In Style" magazine. Emily made one using beads we purchased on a family trip to Oregon, at a Native American bead shop.
Pottery
Emily gave Lisa this Berry Bowl as a birthday present in October 2011. She made it in a pottery class she was taking at a ceramics studio located off-campus near WashU, on "the Loop." Click the link to read the story behind this Berry Bowl.
Emily made this cereal bowl for Isabel at Paly during her junior year, while she was taking Ceramics.
Bottom of the cereal bowl Emily made for Isabel at Paly.
Emily really wanted to get brightly colored Fiestaware dishes to put on the open shelving of our new kitchen. We went to Macy's and picked out the dishes, and Emily unpacked them all and set them up on the shelves.
Emily made this in her Ceramics class at Paly, 2010.
Emily made these in her Ceramics class at Paly, 2010.
Ceramics class at Paly, 2010.
Ceramics class at Paly, 2010.
Ceramics class at Paly, 2010.
Knitting & Crochet
Emily loved to crochet and made several wash cloths.
Emily's great-great Aunt Lou made this wash cloth. Emily's Grandma (Lisa's mother, Kathy) gave Emily the wash cloth to take with her to Nicaragua, telling her to be sure to bring it back, which she did.
Emily got the yarn for this pink wallet when we were skiing in Utah. We had taken an excursion to Park City and we went to a yarn shop so that she could get supplies to try a new crochet stitch she had come across. Once we got the yarn she whipped out this pouch in a couple of hours.
Emily was so excited when she found the crochet pattern to make this produce bag. She also whipped out many sewn produce bags from cloth scraps to avoid using plastic bags at the grocery store, and she had the idea to give them away at the Farmer's Market where people were still using plastic bags.
Emily loved to knit--she learned to knit hats when she was 9, from Sandra Tucher, on a bus ride to Yosemite for a Girl Scouts trip.
Emily learned to make "rosettes" on wash cloths when she was 11 from our neighbor, Fran Forsythe. Emily would head over to Fran's house to chat and do projects. She made this wash cloth for Darrell.
Schoolwork and Booklets
If there was ever a way to turn an assignment into an art project, Emily would find it. Click the link to see this booklet Emily made in 7th grade.
Emily chose to make a booklet for this History assignment in 9th grade. Click the link to see the story she wrote and illustrated. Her teacher clipped on a note that said: "Can I keep this?" but we kept a copy, too.
Emily created this booklet for Maya as a birthday present--the idea was to give Maya ideas for things to do "when you're bored instead of TV or computer!" Click the link see the pages of the booklet.
To Emily, doing make-up was like art. She made this handbook and gave it to a friend for her birthday, along with some make-up. We also found a copy in the girls' bathroom make-up drawer. Click here to see the whole book.
When we built our home in 2007, Emily provided a lot of help by drawing "interior elevations," or drawings of various rooms, which helped us all visualize what that room would look like when done. Click the link to see her drawings of views inside the living room, kitchen, kids' bathroom, office, basement, and her window seat.
Even class notes can be art
