Artist: Emily McQueen
Title: Conditioned to Thrive
Medium: Block Print and Oil Paint on Canvas
Unframed Dimensions: 30 x 24 inches
Price: $1,000
Artist Statement: Amidst scorching heat and arid stone, the plants of the Sonoran Desert accomplish the improbable, producing vivid bursts of color against extreme adversity. This piece examines their capacity to adapt and persist—a study in resilience and the quiet power of conditioning oneself to thrive.
Artist Bio: Emily McQueen is an Arizona-based mixed media artist whose work investigates the dualities of the human experience. Inspired by botanical illustrations of the 19th century, her work features oil painted florals over a background of hand-carved block print patterns, generating a tactile push-pull between meticulous repetition and expressive brushwork. This visual tension directly mirrors McQueen’s decades navigating life as a wheelchair user with a permanent disability, where she finds profound beauty in the coexistence of opposing forces: fragile and fierce, mundane and remarkable, subtle and bold.
