By Robin Milligan
Emily Flynn-Delay is an artist of vivid and intriguing portraits living in Rosalia, Wash. While she mostly works in acrylic and oil-based paints, she actually began at a young age as a watercolor artist.
Emily focuses on detail and color in her imagery; so much detail that you can count the eye lashes on her subjects. Her paintings are somewhat realistic except they contain something a little more. Her color choices are stark and contrasting and seem to open up more complex thoughts and feelings for the viewer than a traditional portrait. They are captivating, interesting, and intense.
Emily said she is constantly inspired by people as well as mythology and fables. “I am inspired by the stories of bravery and perseverance in the news and media, stories from people around the world. The quiet and normal lives of my neighbors and friends. The love and support from my family inspires me daily. I think there is not enough time in the day to create everything that I’m inspired to make.”
She continued, “I love the work of modern expressionist style portraits, and I know they have influenced my own style pretty heavily. My mother remains the biggest influence on my art, considering my entire foundation and way of thinking about art I learned from her. The eyes in my paintings are something that is always complimented and my mother is the one who taught me how to draw eyes.
“I was deeply inspired by the story of Artemisia Gentileschi, an amazingly talented and successful female portrait artist who stood up against her abuser even when she knew it would be the end of her career,” Emily said.
When asked how she got into art, Emily said, “I don’t think I have a single moment or memory that I can say my journey began, I think I have always been on this path and I just naturally followed it. It was kind of a running joke in my family that they didn’t need to ask what I wanted to be when I grew up because I was always going to be an artist.”
She continued, “I think I was incredibly lucky to be born into a family that not only encouraged artistic thinking but pragmatic problem solving. They were always very clear that no amount of ’talent’ makes up for hard work, so I still think of myself as a student of the arts first and enjoy talking about and learning from other artists in every medium.”
Emily said she loves exploring new and different mediums as well. Her drawings are incredible and lifelike, and she is known for her plaster body casting; Emily has hosted workshops to teach others plaster body casting as well. Most recently she picked up an iron for wood burning. When discussing her creation process, Emily said she makes a mockup drawing first, then projects the original photo image onto her canvas to get the key points and proportions just right. Then, she paints in blocks of color, starting with mid tones, then into darks, and then brings out the highlights last. She draws in all of those little details by hand to get the images to really pop.
Emily said, “I was extremely lucky to have a creative mother who fostered an artistic eye in me and my siblings, as well as a very supportive extended family. My older sister pursued culinary arts and my younger brother is a professional makeup artist. I always used to say my mom taught me everything, but she has said I had ‘talent’ before she ‘got her hands on me’ our family didn’t really put too much stock in talent in a traditional sense, but she always said I had a sense for the world, like seeing details and patterns where others didn’t.
“I think there are always obstacles in life and everyone has their own struggles,” Emily said by way of explanation for one of her major struggles of finding her own voice in her art. She found that making more genuine choices led to feeling more fulfilled, satisfied with the outcome, and enjoying the process more. “I took a break from the art world for some years due to the pressure and politics involved,” she said. “I let too many opinions influence my art and it wasn’t mine anymore. It took me some time to get my love for creating back and find my own voice.”
Spending time with her three dogs is a big part of Emily’s life and joy. They follow her around whenever she is home, acting as her shadows. She also has lots of hobbies and interests, like video games and watching foreign dramas. She is constantly listening to something and loves music, audiobooks, podcasts, and comedy shows. She enjoys studying languages and cultures as well.
“I think success is a very momentary state. I don’t think that because you achieve something specific, it labels your life as ‘successful.’ I believe that things I have done in my life were completed successfully, but I don’t think of my art in a state of pass or fail. I love to create and the dialog that accompanies my art is the only outcome I pursue through it. I hope to communicate and connect with people through my art, and as long as I’m doing that, I would consider it successful,” Emily shared.
“The artist career was never a romantic fantasy, and it wasn’t a scary nightmare either. I always had very real expectations of what being an artist meant, and I explored a lot of creative jobs before pursuing traditional art as a career,” she said. “My mission is to make a living from my art and my goal is to have more happy days than sad ones in my life.”
The most exciting gig she took part in so far was at an art studio and gallery space called Art Seed. Emily said, “It didn’t matter where you were from or what art you made, they would curate a beautiful amalgamation of artworks. I was lucky to be able to show my full collection of sculptures with them before they got shut down.”
It was also the largest show she has been involved in, showing nine sculptures in six rooms for three months within a rotation of up to 50 other artists. She continued, “It was spectacular. It was my favorite. It was such a cool space in a historic building with such cool architecture, it was a joy to show in. It was a beautiful collection of people and artists of so many different mediums and I was sad to see it go, but fortunately I have found a wonderful group in the Artist Collective in Spokane with equally inspiring people and artists.”
When I met Emily, she was hanging a show of her artwork at a location I was curating. She brought in these hauntingly beautiful paintings representing the Seven Deadly Sins. Perfectly odd, they bordered on realism with intense colors and concepts that she said were made of tidbits of conversations with friends. The mysteries of each painting and character attracted and held my attention. They were beautiful, inspiring, and maybe a little disturbing. The colors were vivid and strange, the detail a bit unnerving.
Emily’s newest artwork is part of a group exhibition curated by Kelly Baker at the Chase Gallery in Downtown Spokane City Hall called “Portraits from Within.” This show will run from May 2 – June 27, with an artist reception on May 2, from 5-7:30 p.m.
The work being shown there is from her never seen before “NAME” series. It is a collaboration with the models to work backwards from titles Emily came up with to create the imagery. She said, “Unintentionally, a lot of the concepts ended up speaking about female confidence and self-esteem and explore concepts surrounding uniquely female experiences. We talked a lot about extreme emotions and inner thoughts during the concept phase of the project, so the best way I found to portray that visually was with intense, almost painful color.”
Website: emilyflynndelay.com. Instagram: @emily.flynn.delay. Tiktok: @emilyflynndelay.
Robin Milligan is an artist and entrepreneur living in Spokane, Wash. She curates art shows, runs an IT company, and teaches ceramics and painting from her home studio. When not working, Robin spends her time with her three children exploring nature, rockhounding, making art, and swimming.
