The Art of a Journey
One of the first graduates of BU’s new print media and photography program, Emily Taylor Rice (CFA’21,’24) hopes to inspire others who face difficulties on their own journeys. A truly passionate artist who brings her life’s challenges and experience to her craft, Rice’s work emphasizes empowerment, expressing her belief that facing fears and taking positive action can lead to positive change.
“As a woman in long-term recovery from alcoholism, the complicated narratives and often serious realities surrounding mental health and substance-use disorders are what lie at the heart of my work,” says Rice, in an interview with Vicente Cayuela at the Griffin Museum of Photography. “There is beauty in damage, so I create visual metaphors that illustrate emotional complexity, struggle, growth, and strength.” To show the emotional turmoil of substance-use disorders, she uses found textiles and colored pigments to reflect the chaos of alcohol dependence.
“I hope that my work might be impactful in reducing the stigma surrounding these topics as they become a part of a larger discussion.”
—EMILY TAYLOR RICE
A close look at her work reveals embossing techniques Rice applies to replicate emotional scars and ripped-and-torn sections that represent deconstruction and rebirth. “The processes of embossing and printing leave behind evidence, much like emotional upheavals leave scars that cannot be erased,” she explains. “In my prints, pigments can act as a collision on the paper, but they can also delicately caress the paper’s surface, emulating feelings of both desperation and relief.”
You can see her convictions reflected in the titles of some of her most arresting pieces: Something Must Give (2023, monotype), The Gift of Desperation II (2023, monotype), and Standing Smack in the Middle of the Truth about Myself (2023, silkscreen on found fabric).
Rice firmly believes that “mental health disorders do not discriminate” and wants her printmaking to be seen as an artistic means of communication and activism. “I hope that my work might be impactful in reducing the stigma surrounding these topics as they become a part of a larger discussion.”