Emily Cline, etsy artist/shopkeeper interview #8

 I had the pleasure of meeting the lovely and very talented Emily Cline at this year's artfest.  I am thrilled she found the time to grant me an interview and share her beautiful work.

kt:  Emily please introduce yourself to my readers.

Emily: I'm a tall, corn-fed blonde from a small town in Iowa. I've traveled all over the world (who knew!) yet I'm living a life I never thought I'd live: I'm learning to find joy, silliness, color, and friendships in all it's unexpectedness,.. being a wife, mother, and suburbanite (gulp). Creativity has always been around me, mostly in acting and clothing; now it's in my art, and it has become my way of living.

kt: What made you open an online shop?
Emily: I opened an on-line shop because my people are all over the world. Literally. I see them when I travel and it helps us connect. By making prints and selling on Etsy (darling Etsy!), I get to reach much further than I could if I had my little lemonade stand set up in front of my house. I've found Etsy super easy -- even for a technological infant like me.

Kt: If your shop was not virtual but in a actual building what colors would the walls be painted or would they painted (collaged) ?

Emily: My studio building will be colorful and collaged! Colors colors colors! That juicy orange-red with hot pink, pale blue and eggplant. Faces, hands, children running and giggling. Soaring birds though out. And flowers. Ones that you can scratch and sniff.

kt: What types of things(people,music,etc..) inspire you?

Emily: I'm inspired by women. Period. But especially those who are alive and open. Women who share what they're learning and tell the truth about their struggles. (Let's be real: life is not always oh-so-easy!) I'm inspired by Brene Brown who speaks of her vulnerability and Anne Lamott who braves her sobriety and my mother who is still learning to speak her voice and call herself an artist, and by women like Gloria Sondheim who lights the fire of equality.

From Emily's blog emilyclineart

Kt: I have two last questions for you(extra credit:)
1)What are your favorite materials to use when creating?
and
2) What's the best piece advice you've been given?
Emily: I really like extra credit so, I'll say a lot of big flower-full blooms and birds appear in my magazine and painted collages. And the best advice I've ever been given was to be myself. I still struggle with it, even now, some 20 years later. Everything and everyone around us tells us to conform to the norm! "I gotta be me!" (says Catwoman with real claws).



kt: Thank you so much Emily for taking the time out to do this interview. I love your work it is truly beautiful!

**You can find Emily's work at her etsy store  Ruby Shea

and you can find visit her blog emilyclinart