For Emily Isabella, her career choice came more as an epiphany than an actual choice. “I remember being in the hallway of my first grade classroom and having an epiphany that I wanted to write and illustrate books!” she recalled in an interview with Red Cap Cards.
Of course, growing up in a family of artists also helped. “As I grew older, I felt the need to have my own identity and being an artist seemed too expected,” she admits. “I finally gave in to the fact that I wouldn’t want to do anything else and went to art school but I majored in Fibers which seemed different enough.”
Endlessly inspired by her search for charm in the everyday, Isabella’s pattern-driven work reflects her background in textile design. Based in the Hudson Valley, just north of NYC., she’s always on the hunt for beauty in the unexpected. “This makes my life more interesting because even mundane day-to-day tasks provide inspiration,” she notes. “I love drawing people and watching them too. It would be nice to have a spy camera.”
Her drawings and gouache paintings have been applied to products like books, bedding, clothing, furniture, fabric, dishes, rugs, toys, and wallpaper, with clients as big as Kate Spade and Anthropologie. She’s also created quite a buzz online, with 40k fans on Instagram alone. “I remember my mom advising me and saying, ‘“Even when you don’t have work, work,'” she says. “The only way to improve is to practice.”
