Join Us for the Downtown Springfield Second Friday Art Walk

On November 8th from 5:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., Downtown Springfield businesses will be open late, sharing the work of local artists for the Downtown Springfield Second Friday Art Walk. Memento Ink will be featuring the art of Emily Brandridge: eeb. We will be offering refreshments and hosting a mini craft faire.

eeb is the art of Emily Brandridge

“My name is Emily Brandridge, but my artist name is eeb. I am a 22 year old artist of all mediums with a specialty in oil painting and drawing. I have been a creative since I could hold a pencil: it is my first and truest love. While my hands may create what shows up on the page, I think of myself as more of a vessel than an artist; it often feels as if my ideas and creations come from something other than my physical being as they unveil themselves on the page. 

I strive to depict truths of human life by creating images that flow from my subconscious. Although I sometimes use reference photos and inspirations, I rarely create knowing what exactly will reveal itself and what does is almost always surprising even to me. In this way, through creation I learn more about the complexities of my own psyche, experiences, and the world around me through interpreting my own art, even if the meaning comes weeks or months later. 

I majored in anthropology and sociology and Lewis and Clark college with an art minor, and my knowledge and passion for social justice and collective experiences often shows up in how i interpret my work. This, combined with my own experiences with mental illness and interpersonal struggles, informs the content of my work. I believe that personal struggles never exist in a vacuum: my experiences, while they are my own, always speak to the context of my environment and a larger truth about the world. additionally, many of the feelings that I depict are universal in some way, and i love to see how others relate and feel when they look at my paintings. 

One of the things I love about art is how it fosters connection and knowing the experiences of others. I encourage conversation that highlights viewers diverse interpretations of my work in relation to their own life and worldview. My work never has one meaning: it shifts and changes in relation to time, context, and the viewer. I believe all art is this way; art can be seen as truth because it transcends context, individuality, and time. Even if a viewer interprets my art in a completely unintended way, it speaks to the truth of each individual. 

My style is ever-evolving and takes form based on a multitude of factors. my inspirations are always changing based on the content i consume, artistic movements i am studying, what i am pondering about the world, or interpersonal work through therapy and journaling. I have formal experience in realism and have taken many figure drawing and painting classes. My drawing teacher in high school said that “you have to know the rules in order to break them intentionally”; this phrase rings true to my style. I love the way that anatomy and shadow and light can be used and distorted in order to make images that are impactful yet not straightforward. I combine inspiration, passion, and technique to experiment and express myself. As these factors are always changing and growing, it allows my style and content to continuously evolve.”