About Emily

FAQ


Places that inspire...
(top)Grand Tetons National Park, WY, (bottom) Santa Fe NM

Q: What Inspires Your Art?
A: Nature


Q: What Inspires Your Writing?
A: Personal experiences.


Q: What's your favorite color?
A: Kelly, Sap and Emerald…has to be GREEN. Right: Cinnamon Ferns



Q: What's your favorite food?
A: Mom's everything; her pork & sauerkraut, seafood soup, asparagus fresh picked from the garden, blueberries fresh off the bush and chicken & waffles- she makes it the way grandma made it, a waffle lathered with chicken gravy.

Q: Who did you sell your first piece of art to?
A: My bus driver - I was in elementary school. If I remember correctly, he purchased "Dream Home" for $50; a charming cottage by the lake with a row of fruit trees & Dogwoods- my dream home.
Q: What is your favorite children's book?
A: There are so many. Lon Po Po by Ed Young, Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney, Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats, The Kamishibai Man by Allen Say, An Orange For Frankie, by Patricia Polacco, Owl Moon by Jane Yolen, The Clown of God by Tomie dePaola, and A Sick Day For Amos McGee by Erin and Phillip Stead
Q: Who are your favorite children's book illustrators?
A: John Klassen (Extra Yarn), Barbara Cooney (Miss Rumphius), Melissa Sweet (Some Writer), Emily Hughes (Wild), Christian Robinson (Gaston) and Peter Brown (My Teacher is a Monster).



Q: What's your favorite movie?
A: "On Golden Pond" with Katherine Hepburn and Henry Fonda.


Q: Who's your biggest fan?
A: My beautiful grandmother, Sally Nell whom is 93. Happy Birthday Grandma!
Right: my grandparents on their wedding day in Orangeville PA. Grandma and I visit grandpa's grave- he is forever in my heart.



Q: Where's your favorite place?
A: In the mountains, in the pines, where everything, including the briars and trees come alive. The forest holds such a scope for the imagination and mine  ran wild as I lay in a bed of soft ferns while looking upwards to the heavens - through the bows of the leafy foliage the sky looked such a fabulous blue.


Q: Did you enjoy words just as much as you enjoyed art?
A: I wasn’t good with words - my brother teased and my mother was frustrated as she edited my pieces. However, through continued writing, patience and persistence, I enjoy playing with words much like I do when I create a paper-cut with watercolor. It becomes a puzzle and when the words fit, they bring me satisfaction and excitement that I yearn to share.

Q: What's something most don't know about you?
A: I was once freckle faced, had curly, red hair and was an orphan when I played the starring role of Annie in our high school musical. I was a chubby 9th grader wearing a short red-white dress, but oh how I loved to sing and still do. I got the tune in my heart from grandma, a former Sweet Adeline & mom.




Now we know where my love of theater began. Get Mama on Broadway!
Dad will be there to cheer her on, just as they are there to cheer me on.

Q: Besides a teacher, did you consider any other field?
A: I wanted to be an archeologist or paleontologist. I have my father to thank for my interest in diggin' and rocks. When I was a little girl, the highlight of any weekend was my father packing pick & hammer, creek shoes and gloves, while  mom made sandwiches for a picnic.  Driving the car onto the ferry boat meant we had an hour to enjoy the waterscape and be mesmerized by the wooden stern, paddle wheel, as it pushed the water, skirting us closer to the other side.  I remember asking myself, "How  long would it take me to swim the Susquehanna River?" Navigating to dad's favorite fossil hunting spot took some time, but once we arrived, the hunt was on….for the best specimen of a trilobite, fern or other prehistoric creatures.  Needless to say,  although my eyes were sharp, my brothers were sharper and he found a beauty of a trilobite, which I, to this day have not superseded.


Ammonite hunting in Glendive MT & The Mammoth Site in Hot Springs SD; part of NDSU's continuing education course; 4 states studying biology, zoology & geology.
Q: If you could be any animal what would you be and why?
A: I have red eyes, can sing with the best of them and make my home near the water’s edge. I’m a Loon. I love to swim and sing and long to live by the waters edge. I grew up swimming in the Mahantango Creek- now 15 years later, I find myself back in Pennsylvania enjoying family and friends, making new memories.
Q: How is your art unique?
A: I incorporate my Pennsylvania German heritage with watercolor as I paint the many charms of nature. To read more, click on my artist statement.


Q: What is the distelfink?
A: Translated into "thistle finch", it is a stylized Goldfinch or Yellow Bird specific to the Pennsylvania Dutch design. Right: Fraktur Religious Text; 2 women, 2 angels and 2 distelfinks with heart pattern, cir. 1800's.
Q: Why did the Pennsylvania Dutch settle in Pennsylvania?
A: William Penn was advertising, "The grass is greener on the other side." Needing colonists, he sent agent Francis Daniel Pastorius (1651-1719) to the Rhineland, urging the habitants to settle in Pennsylvania of which they were already mobile to escape religious persecution. Relocating from areas such as Switzerland, Rheinpfalz (areas of Germany and France) and the Rhine River, they were drawn to Pennsylvania because it looked very much like their homeland; very lush and green with rich soil.