Emily Richards will receive her BFA in Studio Art with an emphasis in Painting and Drawing in May 2020 from Arkansas State University. Her media of choice is charcoal. She likes to combine charcoal and micron pens for detail. Her work has been shown across the state of Arkansas. She has been featured in the Arkansas State Art Student Union Juried Exhibition, the Henderson State Student Printmaking Invitational and Arkansas Young Artist Association. She has received an art scholarship through Arkansas State in 2019. She has been a participant in the North East Arkansas Artist Association and has shown work through their shows.
Her work began with the fact that she hated self-portraiture. She turned that into a challenge to accomplish. She uses her face as a canvas to either add on to or manipulate. Her goal for each drawing is to make them look as different as possible. Each piece acts as a mirror for the viewer to see themselves and not take themselves too seriously. Each piece is very meditative. Every hair is drawn individually down to the eye lashes. With each piece she becomes more confident in using self-portraiture as a means of expression. She is heavily influenced by artists like Chole Wise and Kehinde Wiley for their realistic style. She also looks to portrait photographers like Cindy Sherman for her use of self-portraiture and Martin Schoeller for his portraits that celebrate flaws.
