ABOUT

Artist Bio:

Ember Hasty is an artist born and raised and currently living and working in the heart of South Minneapolis, Minnesota on the traditional and present day homelands of the Dakota and Anishinaabe peoples. After graduating from Perpich Center for Arts Education in 2012, they studied printmaking at the Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland, Oregon until 2014. After a hiatus from traditional education spent working, adventuring, learning, and gathering memories around the world, they returned home and decided to finish their Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Minnesota in 2020. Ember graduated in 2022 and is now forever busy drawing, playing music, loving plants, reading poetry, connecting with beloved friends and family, and organizing creative community projects and events in their studio space at the Ivy Arts Building.

Artist Statement:

The cosmos, alchemy, mythology, punk and goth countercultures, and the flora and fauna of the natural world inspire me to make my pen-and-ink drawings. These illustrations are the bones of my prints, zines, installations, paintings, and collages. Using intricate line work, elaborate detail, and high contrast imagery, I create visual artwork that explores how images can become altars, spells, or talismans. Drawing deeply from the realm of the underworld, the depths of the subconscious, and the world of dreams, I use symbolism to craft portals and offer protection charms for witches, healers, soothsayers, activists, misfits, outcasts, travelers, or anyone with a true desire to engage with their own unique magik. Through visual storytelling, I want to conjure tools and opportunities for exploration and healing to occur.

A love of structure, ritual, and multiplicity drives me to rely heavily on printmaking techniques. The richly intertwined history of printmaking and socially engaged practice inspires me to honor these ancient methods and find new and exciting ways to bring prints into the world. Because I believe art is most powerful when it is inexpensive, authentic, abundant, and accessible, I print on thrifted or found fabric and make patches that can be sewed onto clothing or other textiles. With my installations I use discarded objects as well, celebrating a trash-to-treasure ethos. I make zines to bring d.i.y. media into community, hoping to create genuine connections through the sharing of information. I often present my art as my own creative, non-monetary medium of exchange, so in this way, my work encapsulates an anti-capitalist dream of a gift economy.

My process is one of gathering raw and wild moments and alchemizing those memories into an archive of inspiration and wonder. In my drawings, I honor the beloved places, people, guides, and stories that have enchanted me throughout my life -- they have become the sparks that light the fire of my art practice. With this in mind, even though I draw in solitude, I experience my art practice as inherently collaborative. I aspire to collect and reflect beauty and pay it forward. Creative transformation is my way to learn and unlearn, challenge myself, challenge the world around me, and imagine and reimagine infinite liberatory possibilities.

Boundaries:

Please do not use, copy, or reproduce my artwork without my consent. For connections and collaborations feel free to send me a message through this website or email me at emihasty@gmail.com. Thank you ♡