Artist Bio:
Emma Tartarelli is a 20 year old illustration major that is currently studying at the University of Central Florida. Born in Italy and moved to Orlando, Florida at age 11, she's had a handful of culture shocks and insanely new interactions throughout her entire life, and hopes to channel all that she's experienced into creating things for people to both enjoy and relate to. Emma doesn't have a set plan on what she'd like to come out of her degree because she enjoys a lot of different aspects of the industry, but is considering either a concept art, merchandise design, or freelance illustrator career.
Artist Statement:
My art is rooted in the exploration of relationships. These relationships can be anything, whether it is romantic, familial, platonic, or anything in between. I think that as people we are shaped by experiences we have with others, so illustrating my feelings is somewhat of a way for me to digest both positive and negative feelings I have towards them. In a way, my art is a record book for how I feel about myself when I make the piece, as a lot of my self-portraits are interactions between myself and a mildly abstracted bug-like version of me. I love using bugs (primarily beetles) as an extension of my existence, which allows me to draw a physical interaction between the two.
