![\"painting](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1782774199_895_.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\nPainter Emma Florance grew up in England and Switzerland \u2014 very different parts of the world from Phoenix. So now, living in Arizona for the first time, she\u2019s got mixed feelings about this desert city.<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s what she tackles in her first solo art exhibition at the Shemer Art Center. It\u2019s called \u201cDesert Fairytale.\u201d <\/p>\n
Florance came to KJZZ’s studios to talk about her show, and she said she moved to Phoenix after graduating college at the Rhode Island Institute of Design.<\/p>\n
Full conversation<\/p>\n
EMMA FLORANCE: And I felt like I was working so hard to graduate, and I finally did, and then I got here and I like was wiped out.<\/p>\n
LAUREN GILGER: Yeah.<\/p>\n
EMMA FLORANCE: And I think it took me like six months to really want to paint again. I was like trying to do it, but I wasn\u2019t really enjoying it. And my mom kept being like, \u201cJust paint a cactus. Everyone wants to see like a cactus painting.\u201d I was like, \u201cMom, no, like I can\u2019t. I can\u2019t just like suddenly start painting like desert stuff and just like call it that.\u201d <\/p>\n
Because you\u2019re here. That\u2019s not what you painted before, I\u2019m guessing?<\/p>\n
EMMA FLORANCE: No, not because I don\u2019t like it, because I do like it. I mean, clearly I like it. But, um, yeah, I don\u2019t know, it just it didn\u2019t really feel organic because I hadn\u2019t lived here before. But, of course, she was right. Because, I don\u2019t know, my mom is always right. <\/p>\n
And I did, I started painting. I did like a really big painting of a saguaro with a girl inside of it, and it just, I don\u2019t know, something about it was really resonating with me because I was thinking about how it was living here and like it felt really, really different to me because it is really different to anywhere else that I\u2019ve ever lived.<\/p>\n
LAUREN GILGER: Yeah, it\u2019s a very unique place. <\/p>\n
EMMA FLORANCE: It’s so weird.<\/p>\n
And you grew up, we should say, out of the country\u2014Switzerland, England, right? So, you\u2019ve been kind of all over the world and in very different parts of the U.S., but I know you\u2019ve always had family here. So, you\u2019ve you\u2019ve spent time in the desert, but never really lived here.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
“Phoenix Lights II,” 2023, by Emma Florance.<\/p>\n
EMMA FLORANCE: Yeah, I spent a lot of time like during summer vacations here, which, I think made it feel really special to me because it was like always I was seeing like my grandma and my grandpa and like, you know, going to the pool and hanging out and not like doing schoolwork. <\/p>\n
So, to me, Phoenix was always just fun, and like a little bit magical because I was a kid and it was so different and like all the plants are kind of weird and they, it looks like you\u2019re under the ocean, but it\u2019s dry.<\/p>\n
LAUREN GILGER: That\u2019s a good way to put it. Let me describe that that saguaro painting you\u2019re talking about, because I\u2019m looking at it now and it is, like it\u2019s a large saguaro that goes off the frame, right, and then there\u2019s like a girl peeking out of a hole in it, and you see one of her hands wrapped around one of the arms, and you see her feet actually at the bottom by the roots. And behind her is like the grid of like the Phoenix city lights. <\/p>\n
Talk a little bit about the kind of contrast that you\u2019re drawing throughout this series of paintings, which is sort of about not just the city, but the the natural environment colliding with it.<\/p>\n
EMMA FLORANCE: Yeah, I think it\u2019s so stark here, the contrast in comparison to anywhere else that I\u2019ve spent time, because you\u2019re like looking at a mountain and then you turn the other direction and it\u2019s just like this huge city. And I never realized growing up how big Phoenix is, and like how vast and wide it is and how much concrete it is, and I think when I first moved here, I was like, oh my gosh, like it\u2019s so like dusty and gray and like, you have to drive a car to get everywhere, and I really was sort of like fighting that. Because I didn\u2019t like it. I was like, oh my gosh, this place.<\/p>\n
LAUREN GILGER: I think I had the same reaction when I moved here as a middle schooler. <\/p>\n
EMMA FLORANCE: Yeah, like it\u2019s, it\u2019s really overwhelming, and there\u2019s sort of this feeling that there\u2019s no nature, but then, as I\u2019m living here and I\u2019m like walking around when the weather is nice, like there\u2019s a lot of nature. There\u2019s a lot of plant life and creatures that live even in the city, and I was so surprised by it and just like it\u2019s so magical to see like all of a sudden a huge cactus and think that like how much water it holds and it\u2019s just like growing next to the sidewalk or next to the highway or something.<\/p>\n
LAUREN GILGER: Yes.<\/p>\n
EMMA FLORANCE: Especially the saguaro, that they\u2019re so regal, and they have to be really old to get that big, and I just think it\u2019s incredible that they\u2019re just there. Like it\u2019s just there. <\/p>\n
LAUREN GILGER: Amazing the the perspective an outsider can give us on our own place, yeah. <\/p>\n
EMMA FLORANCE: I know, like it\u2019s so strange, the contrast.<\/p>\n
LAUREN GILGER: I mean, you really hit on that here, and you you use your own likeness in this, right? Like, the little girl or the the woman in these portraits is often you \u2014 like these are self-portraits, in a way.<\/p>\n
EMMA FLORANCE: In a way, I didn\u2019t mean for them to be initially, but it was sort of like lack of another subject, like another person to paint. Like, I didn\u2019t want to paint a portrait of someone else because I didn\u2019t want the story to be about like a specific person, but rather an experience or like she\u2019s sort of like a conduit for like anyone. Like, if you can see the figure in the painting, like you can sort of imagine that you\u2019re her or like you\u2019re watching her experience something, but they all do sort of look like me.<\/p>\n
Because I think \u2014 I think you\u2019re the easiest person to paint is yourself, because you know your face really well.<\/p>\n
LAUREN GILGER: That’s really interesting.<\/p>\n
EMMA FLORANCE: At least personally, like all the portrait practice I did, not all of it, but a lot of it was like in a mirror, because it\u2019s just you\u2019re the only person that\u2019s always available, always there.<\/p>\n
LAUREN GILGER: Always there. I would have thought it would be almost harder to paint yourself in a way, because it\u2019s you. Like, do we have any objectivity when it comes to yourself?<\/p>\n
EMMA FLORANCE: I think you have to, right? <\/p>\n
LAUREN GILGER: Maybe as a painter you do, yeah.<\/p>\n
EMMA FLORANCE: Like, really, I think it\u2019s easier, because when you\u2019re painting someone else, you want it to like look good. <\/p>\n
LAUREN GILGER: That\u2019s true. <\/p>\n
EMMA FLORANCE: Because you want to show them and be like, \u201cHere, like I did this of you,\u201d and not have them be offended. But if I\u2019m painting myself, like I can\u2019t really offend myself.<\/p>\n
![\"painting](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1782774200_514_.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
“Desert Dracula,” 2025, by Emma Florance.<\/p>\n
LAUREN GILGER: Fair enough. <\/p>\n
So you\u2019re in these pieces, a lot of them, or someone who looks like you. I want to talk about the process of this, because these are oil paintings. They\u2019re often very realistic, but they all have this kind of mystical, magical kind of energy about them. <\/p>\n
And since this is radio, I\u2019ll try to describe them. They\u2019re all, most of them at least, pretty dark, like almost twilight kind of feeling to these, and then lots of them have like these bright lights, whether it\u2019s the city lights or in one of them you have like the cactus flowers like lit up. And they look glowing, like it it doesn\u2019t look like a painting in that way. How do you do this?<\/p>\n
EMMA FLORANCE: Lot of layering. Yeah, I would say so. I work really slowly, so I\u2019ll start with a drawing on paper, and then I\u2019ll do a drawing on the canvas, and then I\u2019ll do multiple underpaintings, multiple layers. <\/p>\n
LAUREN GILGER: Those are literally just paintings under the actual painting. <\/p>\n
EMMA FLORANCE: Yeah, correct, yeah. It\u2019s just like, like thin layers underneath, and then like with every layer it gets a little bit thicker, the paint gets thicker, the colors get more opaque. It\u2019s really slow.<\/p>\n
LAUREN GILGER: How long does it take you? Like, if you start that that saguaro painting, how long did it take you to finish it? <\/p>\n
EMMA FLORANCE: That painting took me about a year, but I wasn\u2019t working on it like constantly every day. I would say that was like a few hours every day or a few hours every other day.<\/p>\n
LAUREN GILGER: Yeah. Do you think, as you\u2019re looking at that interplay between the urban landscape and the kind of natural environment, those, you know, cactuses in the middle of the desert by a sidewalk on the street, right, or on the highway, do you think that the the urban landscape this city is, is stifling out that kind of natural landscape, or do you think there\u2019s something really cool and interesting about them both being there and together?<\/p>\n
FLORANCE: I feel both ways. When I first moved here, I \u2014 and I think you can tell in my paintings because a couple of like or like the saguaro painting, for example, it\u2019s kind of bleak. Like, it\u2019s very gray, and I was really concerned about like pollution and light pollution, and just like all the gas fumes and the dust and everything, which I\u2019m still concerned about because I think, you know, those are bad things. <\/p>\n
But the longer I stay here, the more I realize that they\u2019re kind of coexisting. Well, a good example would be Camelback Mountain. I think it\u2019s a shame that the roads are so close to it and that houses were ever allowed to be built on it, because it\u2019s beautiful nature, and I think it should have been protected. <\/p>\n
However, I\u2019m grateful that I get to drive so close to it, because it\u2019s so cool to see it, and I there\u2019s I think it\u2019s 44th Street, where you\u2019re driving past it and you\u2019re just so close to the rocks.<\/p>\n
LAUREN GILGER: Yeah.<\/p>\n
EMMA FLORANCE: And it\u2019s so beautiful to see it like that. <\/p>\n
LAUREN GILGER: It\u2019s right there in the middle of everything, yeah. <\/p>\n
EMMA FLORANCE: Yeah, like it\u2019s so audacious that the city was built like up onto it. <\/p>\n
LAUREN GILGER: Audacious is a good word for it. <\/p>\n
All right, we\u2019ll leave it there. Emma Florance, an artist and painter. Her current solo exhibition, her first in fact, is called \u201cDesert Fairy Tale.\u201d It\u2019s available now until July 9 at the Shemer Art Center. Emma, thank you very much for coming in, I appreciate it very much.<\/p>\n
FLORANCE: Thank you.<\/p>\n
KJZZ’s The Show transcripts are created on deadline. This text is edited for length and clarity, and may not be in its final form. The authoritative record of KJZZ’s programming is the audio record.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Painter Emma Florance grew up in England and Switzerland \u2014 very different parts of the world from Phoenix.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":733723,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[228,226,227,229,88],"class_list":["post-733722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/733722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=733722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/733722\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/733723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=733722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=733722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=733722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}