CRANBERRY JOURNAL N.4

with Emily Labowe

Emily has a certain je ne sais quoi that photographs can’t quite do justice, which is really saying something because she’s been a bona fide It girl for over a decade.

She is incredibly smart and well-spoken, with a way of moving through the world that feels entirely her own.

There is a freedom to her that I find particularly compelling. You get the sense that she knows herself, or at least has spent enough time getting to know herself that she isn’t terribly interested in performing some more palatable version for everyone else.

Having both come from fashion, I’ve loved watching Emily's path unfold. From modeling to Poppy, her wildly popular brand of hand-embroidered cotton panties and T-shirts coveted by all, to the deeply personal paintings that now make up so much of her practice, she has allowed herself to follow what interests her without needing to abandon one identity for another.

I think we need more examples of that, particularly as women. Not so much “doing it all,” but allowing ourselves to do what we feel called toward, and to change direction when something no longer feels alive.

Before sitting down for this interview, Sara, our photographer and dearest friend, Emily and I meandered through conversations about dating, spirituality, and a trip to Spain she had just returned from with her dad, who travels the world with her mother to watch total eclipses (!).

This is perhaps the thing that is hardest to capture about Emily. There is an appetite for life in her. An interest in things, in people, in connection. Spend enough time around her and whatever part of you has become a little cold or jaded starts to thaw.

I hope you’re able to pick up on even a hint of what it is like to experience her here.

-Alyssa

Photography by Sara Byrne

  • MOVING THE ENERGY


    AM - What does your morning routine look like? What’s the first thing you do when you wake up?


    EL - The first thing I do when I wake up is shake my entire body. I get out of bed and do a somatic shake for about three minutes straight and just move all of the energy out of my body.

    Sunlight is so necessary for me, too. I open the windows, go downstairs, get outside for a second, and then start painting.

    I do a morning watercolor every single morning. It gets my brain going, and before I look at my phone or even have tea or coffee, I just get my first thoughts out.

    Sometimes I’ll get out of the routine and think, okay, I have to answer these emails or do a self-tape or something. But if I don’t start with those few things, moving my body, getting sunlight, moving my wrist and hand and getting something out, even if it’s shitty, I feel stuck.

    Lately, I wake up with so much cortisol in my system that needs to go. It’s like stagnancy. Moving has become something I need to do to get that stuck energy out.


    BEING EXCITED TO BE ALIVE AGAIN


    AM - When did painting become a serious part of your life, and what does it give you that your other creative work doesn’t?


    EL - I started seriously painting about five years ago. It was kind of a dreamy, magical time in my life. I was shifting away from production and doing Poppy, and I had always done something with my hands.

    I think the biggest shift was going from actually embroidering and designing into the business side of it so much more. That drained me.

    I started painting with an ex-partner of mine, and it became my daily practice. If I wasn’t doing it every day, morning or evening in the studio, I felt like something was missing. It gave me purpose and made me feel excited to be alive and passionate again.

    It’s a time when I feel super joyful and don’t feel like I’m having to perform for someone. I don’t feel like I have to make something for an outcome. I’m able to just let myself flow.

    Mind you, it’s not like that all the time. Looking back at how it started, it started in this very romantic way. Now it can be hyper-frustrating. There are so many times when I have to force myself to sit up there and say, okay, make one mark. That’s what you’re doing today. I get stuck in my head and can’t flow.

  • GETTING SUPER MICRO


    AM - What does the beginning of a painting look like? Do you start with an image or an idea, or is it more intuitive?


    EL - It usually starts with an image in my head, but then it inevitably shifts as I’m going and becomes something completely different.

    Once I start getting into the piece, I get super micro. I don’t step back very often, which I know is a very classic thing and important to do.

    I start seeing shadows on the canvas or weird dots just from my eyes being open for too long, and then I’ll use that. That starts flowing the thing in another direction. It becomes something else once I start working.


    RELEASING WHEN IT FEELS GOOD


    AM - You mentioned Poppy. Tell me about the journey of starting it and what it looks like now.


    EL- I started Poppy in 2020 during COVID. My mom had taught me how to embroider a couple of years before on a cover for a Shabbat dinner, and I got obsessed with it.

    Then I started doing underwear and making merch for friends’ bands and things like that. When COVID happened, I decided to fully immerse myself in that world and learn production and development and SEO and all of the things that go into it.

    I created this amazing world and did that for about three years. Then, to be honest, I got very burnt out from doing it as a one-woman show. That was around the time I started painting.

    This last year I did a rerelease because I have a really beautiful community of people who have followed me and helped build this world up. I’ve done a couple of small releases since then, and now it’s become something where, when I have an idea, I release a small batch of pieces.

    It’s alive in this iteration until it doesn’t feel good anymore.

    As a creative, you spend all this time creating the product and then the shoot and the concept and the video, whatever it is, and then you release it and people are immediately like, what’s next? What’s next? What’s next?

    Not having that pressure and being able to release when it feels good brings me back to myself.


  • THINGS THAT HAVE FEELING


    AM - You work across art, fashion, design and business. Do those feel like different creative outlets, or are they all part of the same world?


    EL - I think there is an overarching through line.

    A lot of the work that I like to do is super textural and layered. I’m really turned on by homemade and handmade elements, things that have mistakes and have feeling to them.

    A lot of my paintings are reminiscent of topographical maps or embroidery or weaving or stitching. In terms of the marks and the materials that I use, there’s a through line aesthetically.

    Beyond that, I would love to do pieces on printed linens and kind of create a world. The idea of integrating my artwork with textiles, home goods, fashion, or other objects is really exciting to me.

    It’s something I’ve done before with Poppy, and I’d love to keep building on that, collaborating with other artists and brands and creating something new.

    There’s a vulnerability there, but there’s an excitement in combining the two as well. When you’re on your own in your studio doing this stuff, you’re your fully raw self. It’s such a vulnerable but beautiful thing to share those pieces.


    ADDING TO THE PICTURE


    AM - Modeling has been one of the primary ways people have seen you for so long. What has it been like to expand that and show these other parts of yourself?


    EL - Since I started modeling, I’ve always done something else as well. I do love modeling, but my hyper-aroused brain needs projects and creative outlets and things to do.

    The ups and downs of the industry can be difficult, and creative work has its own version of that because there isn’t consistency in either of them.

    I’ve thought a lot about making these shifts and watching other people do the same, but it was important to me that, regardless of what other people thought, I stayed true to myself.

    It’s easy to get put in a box as a model. It’s something I’m proud of, but I wanted to add to that identity rather than necessarily shift away from it.

CURRENTLY

AM - What are you listening to, what are you reading, and what are you wearing? What’s your comfort item?

EL - I’m listening to Egyptian jazz right now. A friend of mine recently sent me a playlist and I’m really inspired by the eclipse that’s going to be happening in Egypt in 2028. I usually start my morning with some sort of jazz or ambient music. I like background music, but something that’s not going to distract me from my work. This music is distracting, but in a really lovely way. It just makes me want to dance.

I just finished Heart the Lover, which was beautifully heartbreaking and amazing. I highly recommend it. I sobbed on the beach. It really hits in a beautiful way, and the way she writes is wonderful. It kind of goes back and forth between present and past and future and this family and relationship.

And clothing-wise, linen. Just lots of linen.


Big thank you to Emily for sharing her thoughts here, you can follow her work on instagram and at www.emilylabowe.com