Emily Edelman
Bottoms, Bright Moments, Onigiri, UFOs
Today’s guest is Emily Edelman, an artist, designer, and conjurer of interpersonal joy.
Stat sheet
💼 Occupation: Artist, Designer, People-gatherer
🏠 Neighborhood: Gowan-ish
🌎 Origin: Born in Manhattan (trying to make “The Hat” a thing), NJ-raised
💪 Notable work: Asemica || Monospatial || Cosmico || 10+ years of event design
🪜 Socials: Twitter, Instagram, Personal site
So how’d you end up here, doing this interview?
The wide windings of my art and design life brought me to a croquet match hosted by StevieP. There I met Kevin, the host of TMI, the interview you are reading.
Let’s check in with where your head is at right now. What tabs do you currently have open on your phone?
Total number: 93
Some examples:
Always at the top: NYT Spelling Bee in multiple tabs for satisfying brain workouts.
Lost in the middle: Google searches like where is gina grant today, miami art basil dates, shmoke and a pancake, is performatively a word (kind of), and how many types of horses are there to settle a bet. Also: Eames Powers of Ten video (to link for a friend), and a couple partifuls for halloween parties and generative art events.
Somewhat constant: A great source of visual inspiration
Most importantly: A Sporcle name-every-country quiz, which I revisit often to stay fresh
How about the Platonic form of Emily—what people, places, or activities make you feel most yourself?
Small group, good conversation, and inspiring atmosphere is a perfect trio. (I love a good trio). I feel most myself when I’m either with brand new people or my oldest friends and family.
What do you do in your spare time?
I like a busy and inconsistent schedule. Some months I work 7 days a week and only plan social occasions in advance. Some months I sleep late and fuck around with the to do list and go out late without much of a plan. The only constant is change, and this schedule feels the most natural.
What makes you forget about checking your phone?
Being with people.
Wind it back. What’s your favorite memory from the past year?
I’ve had the same birthday party for 10 years in a row: Birthday Wine Picnic. It’s not for me - it’s for you, it’s for us, it’s for wine, and it’s for gathering. I’ve been out of town a lot recently, so this year’s BWP was an amazing reunion of the many people I love and did not see enough of this year. I got to watch them reunite or meet for the first time, drink wine, and witness a mystery in the sky - an actual UFO.
Now fast forward. What are you most looking forward to in the next month?
These will be the first 4 weeks straight of being home in a year, and I’m re-entering an intense work phase. I have 3 big projects I’m really excited about and a dozen small ones. I can’t get enough of it all.
Time to get weird. What’s the weirdest thing you believe?
I can ignore my way out of being sick.
Back to normie questions. What’s your dream job?
The idea of a dream job has always been in flux for me. My current job is a dream, but I know my dream or my job might change, and I just hope they continue to change together.
For now, I’m so aware of my luck in finding a way to make art, make friends through art, and build experiences for those friends.
What work of yours are you most proud of?
Probably my latest art collection: Cosmico. It builds upon my past work in that it’s typographic and textural, but it’s the first whose text actually says something. The something is all about getting outside of this very specific moment in time so that we can behold and appreciate it with acute awareness. The series is meant to be both massive and minute, personal and universal, and I feel those things from it. I hope others do, too.
What are two goals, one personal and one professional, that you have for the next year? For your lifetime?
Personal and professional are closely tied for me. I want to do and be the best I can be. I want to feel alive in every possible moment. I want to make connections and build things that others feel too. I want to see how far I can get, in the way you can only measure once you look back.
Last few questions, focused on mapping your socio-creative world. Who are your creative inspirations?
Comedians. Comedy is the hardest and IMO most important form of creativity. It gives us common ground to better understand each other. It shows us we’re not alone. It provides therapeutic levity in the dense soup of life. A genius bit of stand up. A perfectly crafted movie. A perspective on what humans are made out of.
Text-based artists. Text is an ancient and still-so-relevant human invention, functional and familiar but with endless possibilities. Sasha Stiles blends something so ancient as poetry with something so future as AI and finds a lot of humanity in between. Jasper Johns and Robert Indiana behold typographic characters as objects and reframe our relationship to the recognizable everyday. Jack Stauffacher believed deeply in constraints and in them, found jarringly simple but brilliant relationships using block printing letters.
How about among people you know or are friends with?
Some artists whose typographic work I admire, many of whom I love personally, are StevieP, Klahr, Mark Webster, Maya Man, encapsuled_, Alida Sun, Nathaniel Stern, Martin Grasser, Kalen Iwamoto, and of course the conceptual artist who sometimes gets text-y, Kevin Esherick (editor’s note: I did not put her up to this).
Besides my most creative friends, my dad and brother have an absolutely unwavering commitment to their crafts (guitar and percussion, respectively).
What creative scenes or movements are you most excited about right now?
There is a really special IRL thing happening in crypto art. We realized we didn’t need the resources or expense of DAOs to find like-mindedness and have taken full advantage.
And: The intersection of generative art making and human experience having is a special slice of possibility being pioneered by Bright Moments, who I will follow around the world for as long as they bring people together through experiential minting events.
Who’s the next big thing?
Linda Dounia is a vibe. A smart and creative vibe.
If you could have a sleepover with anyone in the world, who would it be?
Trevor Noah. We’d laugh, we’d banter, we’d…
Send the last pic in your camera roll, no context.
Wow! Okay, who should we have on next?
Kcdilla or j4ck or Linda Dounia
Emily’s List
Five recs for right now
🎧 The Bottoms soundtrack is nostalgic, energetic, cathartic.
📺 Cunk on Earth. A dry, smart, and hilarious mockumentary on human history.
📺 Dave. A jewish rapper tells a human story about hard work, failure, friendship, and penises.
📚 Arbitrary Stupid Goal by Tamara Shopsin, a book of tiny moments that illustrate the massiveness of being alive.
🥙 Onigiri for life - cheap, convenient, playful, and delicious.
Want more? Go follow Emily at the links above. To collect Emily’s trading card, find her IRL and ask to scan.