Painting + Prayer, Part 2 with Emily McIlroy
About the Episode
After such an incredible dialogue with Emily McIlroy—originally a four-hour conversation that turned into a two-hour initial episode—I decided to come back to give listeners a bonus hour of our chat because there was too much richness to keep to ourselves.
So, enjoy this extra bit of our conversation that happened "after" the interview, when we launched into some incredibly personal topics around faith, health, and art.
Episode Details
About Emily (she/her)
Emily McIlroy was born and raised in Norman, Oklahoma with her twin brother, Ross. She received her BA in Studio Art from the University of Arizona in 2005 and her MFA in Drawing and Painting from the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa in 2011. She served many years as an instructor and art educator for the Honolulu Museum of Art School and the Hawai'i State Art Museum, and currently teaches in the Drawing and Painting Program at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa. When she’s not teaching or in her studio, Emily enjoys reading, writing, and walking and swimming her way through various terrestrial and aquatic wildernesses. She lives and works in Honolulu’s Pālolo Valley with her very vocal Siamese cat, Gormaen.
Emily's large-scale works on paper explore forces and life forms of the natural world as metaphors for human experiences of love, loss, grief, and wonder. Emerging from a repetitive process of rendering and erasure, the creation of her pieces parallels an endless pursuit of reconciling past with present, duration with impermanence, the visible with the invisible. Looking simultaneously both outward and inward, she seeks to connect the realm of wilderness—its beauty, violence, power, and fragility—with our own internal territories.
Emily's work has most recently been exhibited at Dairy Arts Center (Boulder, CO), Emerson Center for the Arts and Culture (Bozeman, MT), Thelma Sadoff Center for the Arts (Fond du Lac, WI), Fitton Center for Creative Arts (Hamilton, OH), and the Honolulu Museum of Art (Honolulu, HI). She has previously been Artist-in-Residence at Glacier National Park (West Glacier, MT) and Brush Creek Foundation for the Arts (Saratoga, WY). She is a 2022 recipient of the Marianne Oberg Foundation for Spiritual Art Grant.
What We Discuss
Brandi and Emily’s early struggles in Christianity and religion and where they’ve come to now.
How choosing one discipline or tradition, like a religion, doesn’t have to mean that all the others aren’t true. In fact, it might enliven all of the other traditions even more.
The value of committing yourself to a particular tradition and sneaky ways we individually and culturally avoid intimacy.
Emily’s “Promises” blog.
Strengthening the “host” instead of attacking the “invader”—a different way to think of “health.”
The visceral nature of grief and joy.
Eve’s greatest sin wasn’t eating the apple, it was choosing the knowledge of “good” and “evil”—a dualism.
Meditation as a path to finding alignment.
Sources Mentioned
The episode of OnBeing where Krista Tippett quotes a Greek philosopher, Solon, on “myth.”
Lauren’s friend, who said “Heal the soul and the body will follow,” is named Angela Kittock. She runs a life coaching business called Moondance Wellness. I can’t remember if that quote is from the March or April episodes of her podcast, but you should just go listen to all of them.
When Emily mentions a previous conversation I’ve had about generalists vs. specialists, she’s referring to my episode with David Epstein.
Rob Bell and this documentary about him, The Heretic.
Emily’s artist talk on “The Lilies How They Grow” with our friend and Visual Curator at The Dairy, Drew Austin.
Here’s the episode of the RobCast I mention, where he interviews John Philip Newell, on the history of Celtic Christianity.
Anam Cara by John O’Donahue
Episode Transcript
Coming soon, hopefully! Would you be willing to help? Email me at brandi@thisplusthat.com!
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Credits
Podcast management and production by The Podcast Babes. All of my music is provided by the in-house musicians at Slip.stream.
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