"Color and texture are hugely important in my work. Applied appropriately, they can actually elicit a visceral response from the viewer," says Emily Page, a California-born, Virginia-raised artist.

Page began experimenting with different brushwork and palette knife work, scraping and overlaying, from the very beginning. At Wake Forest University in North Carolina, she honed her skills and graduated with honors with a BA in visual arts. "I learned to work in a number of media, including sculpture and photography, but my passion has always been painting. I love working with oil paint simply for the richness of it. It just feels luxurious. And it affords such workability and durability. No other medium matches it. I enjoy branching out and working with unconventional mediums and surfaces from time to time, but I'm always drawn back to oils." 

With such an expressive style, Page points to a wide array of artists as her inspiration, including Edgar Degas, Artemesia Gentileschi, Lucien Freud, Eva Hesse and Robert Maplethorpe. "I love artists who aren't afraid of color. I love artists who are as drawn as I am to how weird and wonderful the human body is. And I love artists who create emotion through texture."

At Wake Forest, Page had the distinction of becoming the first student ever chosen by the school to have her thesis project purchased. When she graduated from college, Page moved to Washington, D.C. for a year, but quickly grew tired of the cold winters. Upon moving to Florida, she picked up where she had left off, working at her art, acting and singing. "Basically I'm good at everything that's hard to make a living doing," she says with a wry grin.

After living in Florida for 10 years, Page has returned to North Carolina, where she continues to paint. She also owns two businesses: Artistic Abandon, through which she teaches and hosts art parties, and AbandonWear, a dance inspired clothing line.