Dear Diary, the Villagers Aren't Accepting Me

Your Name: Emily Pettigrew Your Occupation: Painter Your favorite pastime: Reading by the river or looking for early houses Something you like: My partner, Ryan Something you dislike: Just one ? Your defining characteristic: Decisiveness What would someone close to you say your defining characteristic is: Razor sharp elbows and knees Your favorite artist: A Maine painter, maybe Andrew Wyeth, Alex Katz, or Will Barnet. I also really love Horace Pippin. Favorite word or phrase: Recently, this passage from Robert Macfarlane's Underland "...there is a collapse of time, or a coexistence of multiple kinds of time, as the figures dance and flicker in the low light." What aspects of your work is most important to your: It's important to me that each of my paintings convey a particular feeling that I am always chasing in my life. I search for places and scenes with a numinous quality of beauty mixed with strangeness that seems to vibrate from behind a visual restraint. I think some people experience my paintings as creepy and some experience them as quiet and calm, but what really sustains my interest is when those two aspects are simultaneously present. Who do you admire the most and why: Boudica because I like a good female revenge story Your worst habit: Being bossy (so I'm told) The first thing you think of in the morning: Iced Tea What you have always wanted to do and have not done: Be a shepherdess on an Irish island Your best decision: Leaving my job and the city to move to the Catskill mountains in February of 2020 Your worst decision: Probably men I've dated in the past Your favorite street and why: The main street of Hurley, NY is pretty cool if you're interested in old stone houses What made you become the person you are: Ignoring everyone's advice Something that you treasure: My house that was built in 1822 What would the child you once were think of the adult you have become: I think she wouldn't be surprised. I always wanted to be a painter or a librarian and I've done both, more or less. Your greatest fear: I have an unusual connective tissue disorder that is significantly disabling and that scares me. Emily Pettigrew was born in Maine in 1990. She received a BFA from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York. Pettigrew’s recent solo and group exhibitions include "The Inside Out" at the Kunstmuseum Schloss Derneburg in Derneburg, Germany (2024); "Pablo’s Cabinet" at Pablo’s Birthday in Verbier, Switzerland (2024); "A Room With a View" at Varden Gallery in Los Angeles, California (2023); "Springs Eternal" at The Fireplace Project in East Hampton, New York (2023); "Wheel of the Year" at Halsey McKay in East Hampton, New York (2023); "Time" at Pablo’s Birthday in New York, New York (2023); "Balm" at Wilder Gallery in London, United Kingdom (2022); "Inside Out" at Scroll NYC in New York, New York (2022); "The Beauty of Solitude" at Adah Rose Gallery in Kensington, Maryland (2022); "Too Pure for this World" at the Historic Hunting Tavern Museum in Andes, New York (2021); "Odd Hours" at Monya Rowe Gallery in New York, New York (2021); "Salut 6" at Nucleus Portland in Portland, Oregon (2021); and "These Days" at Bo Lee Gallery in London, United Kingdom (2020). Emily Pettigrew lives and works in Delhi, New York.

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