MEET OUR GRADUATES: Emily Sorlien

Sorlien’s oil paintings, intaglio prints, woodcuts, lithographs, drawings and digital images have been on display in shows and galleries throughout the region.

Her most talked-about oil paintings are a disarming series of still-lifes titled “Fowl Play” that depict bound and slaughtered chickens that appear anthropomorphically human.

Sorlien said, “There’s something about oil paint and its ability to depict flesh and become flesh that is stunning. You see this plucked and naked flesh before you and it appears so human, but it’s not, and so there’s this weird familiarity and yet otherness to the image.”

“Fowl Play” was created to fulfill her RIC departmental honors project. She said she was introduced to oil painting when she came to RIC and she credits Associate Professor of Art Richard Whitten for training her in the technique and the college for giving her the foundation to push her talent and improve her draftsmanship.

“I am also greatly indebted to my Honors Project Advisor Stephen Fisher,” she said, “who, when I first timidly began this honors project, encouraged me to draw what I know. It’s such simple piece of advice, but it was so important for me to internalize.”

In her four years at RIC, Sorlien has held 16 regional group exhibitions and earned 20 honors and awards, including RIC’s presidential scholarship, college honors, general education honors, honors in art, the Studio Art Award for excellence and first prize at the Newport Art Museum’s Annual Members’ Exhibition. One of her digital media works is currently on view until July 6 at the Bristol Art Museum’s exhibition, which celebrates 50 years of supporting Rhode Island artists.