By Alicia Stemper/Vitamin O
Emily Eve Weinstein lived in a van for three years during her twenties, painting outside wherever she was. Other travelers would show interest; Emily found herself invited to at least one meal a day, often in exchange for a sketch. This worked out well, as Emily’s creative talents do not extend to the kitchen. “I don’t do anything but tea and popcorn.” Luckily Emily’s husband does the cooking.
When they married in 2009, Emily basically said, “If I move in to your house, I have to be able to do what I please.” The result is an incredible hybrid of gallery and home where art adorns all surfaces. Primarily a portrait, mural, and fine art painter, Emily embarked after the wedding on a quest to produce a handmade book every year for 25 years. The project started as a way to chronicle her art and decompress from the challenges of planning the wedding. Like her home, the books are a hybrid – a merging of art, craft, ingenuity, and memoir. Emily makes fifty of each edition; she sells them individually or on subscription. For year six (pictured), Emily produced fifty 6×6 inch paintings. In the back of each painting nestled a 3×3 book, illustrated with all fifty paintings. The book’s cover featured a six-sided star symbolizing the color wheel. This was accompanied by a larger book reflecting on the decline of her father’s health, the death of her dog, and the production of a 12 foot mosaic backsplash. “It is a lot to deal with because it is a life.” Emily finds her project “an incredible way to keep track of all the art I’ve done.”
