I have always been fascinated by the arts, whether it is drama, art, or music. There is something that is inherently powerful about people that can put their emotions into a character, song, or picture. Even if you can’t connect with people through what they say... there is definitely a song or a movie that can take you to that place that can help you heal, break down, or reminisce on a happy time.
That is one of the reasons why I wanted to interview Emily Perez, I wrote about her art for one of my favorite blogs: Click {latina}. However, I wanted to talk about what drives her personal life because there are two very awesome parts to her. She is obviously a wonderful artist but she is also a wife, mother, sister, and friend. Like many of us, there is a very fragmented person living inside of us. We go to work and we know what the workplace expects of us, then we go home and we know what our loved ones expect of us, and the list goes on…
However, Emily chooses to allow her lives to intertwine, if you will, because her art fuels such a huge part of who she is. She isn’t a pretender, what you see is what you get with her. She is passionate and smart and that doesn’t change whether she is home or at a shoot.
When she quit being a line producer and took up photography she was not new to the art scene; she had attended art school on a scholarship while pregnant with her first child. Not impeded by her upcoming role as mother, she embraced art school. Artist always see things so differently and an example of this is that even back in high school her love of Doc Martens ended with her decorating them because they used to be her palettes as she crisscrossed her legs and painted. One day, not long after ending her job being as line producer, one of the pairs she had decorated for somebody, ended up on her doorstep. The person who sent them wrote Emily that she no longer wore them but she didn’t have the heart to throw them away because they were a work of art. She was reminded of what her art used to look like, and I think that it was her past reminding her that above all she was an artist maybe life giving her a little nudge. She never knew how the person who sent her the shoes was able to find her after all those years…
We also bonded over coffee that day because she is also a mom to two boys. We laughed over their antics and of course we shared pictures. She is an incredibly hands-on mom and has a tight bond with both of them. It is hard to say that we have the same bond with all of our children. It is hard to do that because they are individuals in their own way and that influences the bond we have with them.
She believes in letting her kids be individuals, and I definitely agree because if we try too hard to make them what we want them to be, we take a part of them that is not ours to take. As parents we are there to mold, to guide, and to just be present in their everyday lives. She remembers back when her youngest said something to her and she stopped for a second to think “wow... when did he learn that word?” That is when she began to open her eyes to the 18-hour days of line producing and what it was doing to her… seeing her life just blur into one scene... we have all been there... I think... that time in your life when a small thing wakes you up and makes you wonder “How did I get here? Where did the time go?”
By the end of the interview, over burgers and wine, we talked some more about the challenges we have of balancing life and work and what we universally agreed on was that if you are doing what you love professionally it balances out with your personal life because it enhances the happiness that you have within your home. She has an amazing husband who supports her, children who she is close to, and a professional life that allows her to find beauty in the world around her. Truly she is inspiring because above all …. in pursuing her happiness she is an example for any woman who has ever stopped to think: Can I really do this? Can I get paid to do what I love? When I was younger... I used to {fill in the blank} ... Can I go back to it NOW?
Yes... you can if you have the dedication, drive, and passion... she did.
