A first-semester senior in the drawing and painting major at Purchase College, Emma St. Jacques spends almost all her free time in the Visual Arts building honing her craft. In a sense, however, she never truly leaves the mentality she has there. Even bedroom is reminiscent of her studio, filled with macabre self-portraits and renderings of the female form in charcoal, oil paint, and water colors. Much of her work emphasizes high contrast, and she typically works in black and white or glaring neon colors. Even her body is an art gallery of sorts, housing six tattoos and fifteen piercings.
"My artwork explores themes of PTSD and trauma through realistic and accessible situations," says the 21-year-old. "I often photograph my roommates doing mundane tasks or acting out feelings like when you just want to go home and cry and stuff your face with chocolate and never get up off the floor."
Raised by her artist grandmother and a fan of anime from an early age, she has art running through her blood. Prior to coming to Purchase, St. Jacques received her cosmetology license in high school before becoming an art major at Buffalo State University. At the end of her sophomore year, the Bethlehem, NY native transferred to Purchase, where she feels glad to be inspired by talented female teachers. In the future, she hopes to work on graphic novels as an illustrator.
As far as her moral philosophy goes, St. Jacques tends to consider herself more of an equalist than a feminist, in keeping with her vegetarianism and love for the environment. Even still, she has found that most of her work deals with feminist topics and utilizes female bodies.Ā
"Pretty much all of [my art features] women because Iām a woman and I feel like thatās how I relate most," she says, looking up at the skeleton depiction of Marilyn Monroe hanging above her bed. "Thereās a common struggle with being a woman that men donāt really have."
As far as the struggle for women artists in particular goes, St. Jacques maintains that she is lucky to be working at a time where women even have a chance to express themselves in this way.
"Looking back through history, there was a primarily male influence," she says. "Women artists can do anything now and cover any topic whether it be feminism or otherwise."
Sitting on the floor with her sketchbook in hand, St. Jacques works on a sketch of one of her roommates dressed a zombie.
"This is my life as a woman, these are my experiences, this is what Iāve seen," she says.
(Emma dressed as a zombie for Zombie Prom, having used her cosmetology know-how to create a gruesome look.)
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