Wyoming native Emily Boespflug has been exhibiting her oil paintings for nearly 20 years while living in Jackson.
With degrees in both fine art and psychology, as well as studies in art therapy, she has always had a passion for healing through art. Boespflug’s solo exhibit “Precipitous” features photo-realistic oil paintings depicting the wonder of several different natural Wyoming environments.
The collection can be experienced at the Center Theater Gallery at the Center for the Arts through Aug. 10. KHOL’s conversation with Boespflug was recorded live on July 27.
The following interview transcript has been edited for clarity and brevity.
JACK CATLIN/KHOL: You’re quoted in a recent Jackson Hole News&Guide article as saying, ‘I paint in layers. I paint what I see in a way that gives a certain feeling peaceful, velvety, romantic.’ Can you expand on that for us?
EMILY BOESPFLUG: I don’t know. I just want people to kind of calm down and relax most of the time when they see the paintings. But then I also love bright colors, so there’s kind of a combination of that. I think of painting the Grand Prismatic like I love where you can look through the fog and see the really bright rainbow colors, especially in the winter. And I love painting winter, so that kind of already portrays that peaceful feeling and calm. Painting the air, I guess the coolness we see when the air’s becoming fog and mist and all of that. So, that is kind of the emotion that I at least recently have been wanting to do. And I guess the last two years feed into that because it’s just been chaos, and all of us living as a human race have experienced things that we’d never prepared ourselves for, I guess. And I don’t know, I felt a little more stressed and isolated, and as I painted the last couple of years through that, whenever I had time, a lot of it was morning painting. And that is, I don’t know, that’s kind of how I wake up and feel.
KHOL: What do you, as the artist, hope the viewer takes away from the collection?
BOESPFLUG: Just how special it is to live here. And I didn’t get too far into the state, but my initial vision was to actually convey how special it is to live in the State of Wyoming because a lot of people focus on, ‘Oh, Jackson Hole, this is the best place. And the rest of Wyoming, they don’t have real mountains.’ I used to hear that all the time. I didn’t get too far but I do have a desert painting out there and some from the Pinedale area, Green River Lakes, because, I mean, it’s just absolutely endless. And I feel so grateful to be here. I just want to share that with people, and people that maybe don’t get to live here, and they can take something home with them and enjoy it.
Listen above for KHOL’s full conversation with Emily Boespflug.
This coverage is funded in part with an Arts For All grant provided by the Town of Jackson and Teton County.
