EMILY O'GRADY: GIRLS IN REVERIE
ARTIST EMILY O'GRADY ON GIRLHOOD, INSPIRATION, AND FINDING FANTASY IN REALITY
So, you are from New England. Have you always lived there? How would you say that your surroundings influence your work?
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Yeah, so I grew up in a town outside of Boston, and while I have moved quite a bit, it has never been outside of New England. There is something about the changing seasons and charming small towns that keeps me here. I think my work speaks more to a type of nostalgia for the New England I knew growing up, as well as a view into a different side of New England.
A lot of the time we go into a gallery and see boats and fishermen and landscapes. I want to show my experience of being a young woman growing up here, and what that has meant for me.
You have stated that your pieces often revolve around female subjects. Has this always been your inclination?
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I love women. I love all femmes. I love our minds, our creativity, our resilience and strength, and just how much joy can be found in femininity.
I would say it's shown more in my work as I've grown into adulthood. I believe it really started for me when I suffered from an eating disorder in college. I ended up going to an intensive program, and I met a lot of women of different ages and backgrounds. We all became so close, all fighting through a similar battle, it really taught me to see beyond the superficial I had been worrying so much about, and instead see each of us, including myself, for the deep and complex beings that we really are.
Your work features intimate scenes of everyday life. Why do you feel you gravitate towards these subjects?
​These moments often get overlooked or underappreciated as they're happening, but when I look back at my fondest memories, I'm often brought back to these little snapshots of everyday life and little beautiful things I experienced. We only live these moments once, and I want to capture and portray what it felt like to be 18 driving in my first car, or doing my nails in my first apartment, or holding a stall door for a friend at the club. It would be a tragedy to have this all disappear into just time.​
​WE HAVE TO ROMANTICIZE AND CHERISH THE LITTLE MOMENTS.
What do you want your viewers to take away from your artwork?
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I make my work, mostly to share the same joy and freedom I feel making it. I hope that it opens the viewer up to seeing the same beauty in the mundanity of their own life. We only have this one life to live. We have to romanticize and cherish the little moments.
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Your pieces feel very cinematic. Would you say you are drawn to storytelling in your work?
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Absolutely, I grew up loving animation, reading graphic novels, any piece of art that sucked me into a narrative with my own work. While I'm drawn to creating still images, I want the viewer to linger and create a narrative in their head of what is going on beyond the frame.
It may just be a snapshot, but it tells a bigger story that the viewer can piece together the longer they look.
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Your illustrations contain a lovable and palpable grit, however they have an element of fantasy as well. Would you say your illustrations are studies of realism, escapism, or maybe both?
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I think if my work remained too heavily in realism, it would be inauthentic to who I really am. I'm definitely a daydreamer. Definitely have my head in the clouds, and I refuse to fully live in the reality of the real world. To me, the experience of being in those moments as they're happening can feel fantastical.
The way I remember it in my mind, is far more vibrant and whimsical than what a photo could have captured in the moment. And I think that's what I love about illustration. It may tell a literal story, but through the ability to draw what can't be seen by a camera, I can capture more of the magic of that moment as it felt when it was actually happening.
I REFUSE TO FULLY LIVE IN THE REALITY OF THE REAL WORLD.
What would you say are your greatest influences? There are definitely connections to early 2000’s Steve Madden ads in your latest collage and mixed media work. Are you inspired by subjects of nostalgia or fashion?
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You got me there. The Steve Madden Big Head ads have definitely been a stylistic inspiration for me. While I love illustration, I also have been infatuated with fashion and self-expression through clothing my entire life.
I think there's something so powerful about someone who is confident in who they are and in their creativity to the point where they will experiment with clothing and be unashamed to stick out from the rest.
It also is definitely a point of nostalgia for me. I have all sisters who are all artists. And growing up, my life was filled with the joy of creativity through clothing, crafts and imagination, making clothes for our Barbies, writing stories and acting out our own little movies on my parents' camcorder. I'm so grateful, nostalgic for that time and the time I still share with them because I truly believe it has made me the artist that I am.
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As an artist in 2025, how do you feel that craft work is valued today? Is it more important than ever?
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I personally, I believe it's essential in today's world, at least for my own sanity.
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When I started letting myself include collage and crafting my work in a serious way, it made art feel so unserious again, like it felt when I was a kid exploring it for the first time. I went to both a private Arts High School as well as college, and while I'm definitely grateful for my education, I think by the end of it, I really took myself and my work way too seriously. I lost what it really is to be an artist, and the most important part of it, in my eyes, which is the creativity and joy that it brings. It feels so right and freeing to pick something out just because I think it's pretty or to make a piece of art, not for the meaning behind it, but just because it brings me joy.
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The World is really scary right now, self expression feels like it's out the door. So, I take the moments I can to engross myself and the freedom of art, there's something so powerful in knowing I can make whatever I want simply because it's what I like.
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What do you think is the greatest obstacle for artists to overcome? What advice would you give to someone looking to pursue creative work?
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For me, the greatest thing to overcome, and something I definitely still work on, is fear, fear of what others will think, what they will say, and how that will make me feel about my skills. Personally, things did not start happening for me in my career until I started doing things that did scare me. I know I'm simply like reiterating what many have probably heard elsewhere, but I really do believe in the mantra of fake it till you make it. There's a lot of artists out there who are also incredibly talented, staying within the bounds, while hard to break due to fears of what might happen or the unknown, just limits you.
It may seem silly, wacky or just dumb but why not try every crazy idea you have because art isn't about perfection, it's about exploration and having fun.