Emily Gray ‘22 courts intention. Creativity weaves itself through her life, manifesting itself in the art she creates and the stories her art tells. She is constantly creating—curating playlists, writing poetry, constructing outfits, creating jewelry, producing films, down to classic visual art.
An English and History of Art double major, she is fascinated with the stories that art can hold. Her creative process is emotional—she describes her “frequencies,” explaining that her low frequency ties into the weather, laced with contentment and creativity. “It’s when I write poetry,” she expands. When she’s in a high frequency, when she is hyper and active, she creates visual art. “Writing is harder, I think, because it’s so enmeshed in academia,” she says, expressing her view of visual art as a more easily accessible medium. In her opinion, visual art allows the artist the space to tap into their psyche, and flow into a more comfortable, childlike state.
“Love, creativity, and gratitude,” Gray smiles, when asked about her core values. To her, all of art is about love, about sharing—open doors and compassion. “I love cross-contaminating art,” states Gray, reminiscing about a recent collaborative creation with Caroline Chaffiotte ‘22, a short film titled “clementine skin.”
In person, Gray is purposefully radiant. She chooses her clothes with the intent that she creates art, insisting that every day warrants a new outfit, even if it is just pairing one she’s worn before with a different layer or a different pair of shoes. “I dress for myself, and always will, but I also want to be a person people look at and think—she looks interesting. I want to talk to her,” says Gray. She continues, speaking of the assumptions people make from the first minute they see the way a person is dressed, suggesting that she chooses to make that assumption fascination.
“I admire people who can have one specific style, but I need to be all over the place,” she says, referencing an Instagram page she draws inspiration from, @nyc_looks. It ties into her love of a good story, pairing outfits worn by people the account owner encounters with stories about why they chose it. She describes the profile of a man named Bruce, quoting him—“people will stare, make it worth their while,” and remarks that she hopes she’s doing just that.
Happiest in the present moment, explaining her gratitude as having an exponential relationship to how present she is being, Gray claims a “love-hate” relationship with social media. She acknowledges the toxicity, and attempts to take breaks from it, viewing it as an odd mode of communication. However, she also uses it as a tool of creation and inspiration. “I love the Instagram feature that allows me to save things—I make vision boards of art and fashion—I’m currently obsessed with stop motion.” One of her favorite artists is @deborahsheedy on instagram, whose art she classifies as “spooky” and “interesting”.
Gray’s radio show, “Get Jiggy, Get Real” is at 12 to 1:30 on Fridays, on wccs.tk, where personality continues to shine through as refreshingly extraordinary and optimistic. Her art can also be found @the.creative.wasteland on instagram, and her fashion on @the.gold.dust.woman.
