Today we’d like to introduce you to Em Hagen.
Hi Em, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I was born and raised in the Valley by two middle-class actors. You could say that from the beginning, my life has been full of creativity. Storytelling was the backbone of our household. It was quite literally how my folks put food on the table. I would come home to my mom transforming herself into someone new. If she was not recording lines in our closet, she was digging through a costume box for the perfect outfit for an audition. I got to help her in this transformation by reading lines with her. Some nights, I’d be her boss; others, I’d be the estranged uncle. I learned how to step into the mindset of different characters as I tried my best to make them come alive even if they were for a detergent advertisement.
Still, I never quite wanted to follow my parents into an acting career. There was something too intimidating about walking up on stage. Instead, I found my creative inspiration in comics. I remember sitting on the couch with my brother, curled up with my dad in the middle of us, reading stories like Tintin together. My dad always made sure to do the voices of the different characters and explain a bit of the world history that helped make the comics make sense to a 10-year-old. My grandma would save the Sunday funnies for me so the two of us could read the newspaper together. I made sure to cut out and save my favorites for later. I saw comics as a way to connect with people.
That desire to connect with people translated into a cognitive neuroscience degree when I headed off to college. In the margins of my science notebooks, I drew characters I had created. I made study guides that doubled as little comics. I sought out art clubs and organized student art shows. Though art was becoming a larger and larger part of my life, I feared calling myself an artist. I clung to the certainty that a career in science promised me. Art was meant to stay in the background, a hobby. As I got further in my cognitive research career, my love of art could not be contained to the sidelines. Instead, it guided me to a career in animation production. I got to work with artists on a daily basis. I began taking night classes at a local design college. I attended figure drawing sessions. I even began writing and digitally publishing my own webcomic, Juxtapose.
It wasn’t until I began my job as an art teacher at a private school that I claimed the title of artist. In order to inspire kids who were too nervous to recognize their own creativity, I had to truly embody my own. I completed a summer artist residency with the Queer Bureau of Art and exhibited my work for the first time. I taught myself how to paint and apply gold leaf. I allowed art to take center stage in my life. I carry a sketchbook with me wherever I go. I teach classes in comic making, photography, and film. I now proudly call myself an artist.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Creating a stable yet fulfilling creative career has been anything but easy. Seeds of doubt have followed me for years. I had an art teacher tell me that comics and animation are not ‘real art’ because they are not fine art. He urged me to take oil painting or ceramics instead. I had a boss tell me that my work was not good enough to make a career out of. Though I now understand she was trying to protect me from the brutality of the professional art world, it left me doubting my own abilities.
It has taken me years to figure out where my work belongs. If it does not fit neatly into a fine art major nor into a graphic design career, where was it meant to fit? Connecting digitally with my audience has changed my life. My commission clients have shown me that my work is desirable. My show at the Damas Gallery showed me that my work resonates with the SoCal community. My comic subscribers have shown me that my stories mean something to others
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
As a non-binary lesbian, I grew up in a world that struggled to see me. The parts of me that did not fit into preordained boxes were often discarded. In my work, I hunt for those abandoned pieces of identity and bring them into the light.
My comics explore what queer identity means. I write stories that I needed to see growing up. I want my readers to be able to see themselves in my work and realize their experiences are not isolated ones.
As I paint, I return to the freedom of childhood, asking myself who I was before I was my parents’ “little girl.” Bright colors, textured paper, and aquarelle paint allow me to translate this form of play into art. In a violent society that often removes our power of identity, self-portraiture places that power back into my hands. With every brushstroke, I am literally constructing my body, my face, my being. I reclaim the very religious symbols I grew up seeing applied to bodies I could never inhabit. The inclusion of both masculine and feminine energies tap into the principle of gestalt perception, creating something more than either masculinity or femininity could ever be in isolation.
Through the playful authenticity of my work, I encourage the viewer to witness me and, in turn, witness pieces of themselves. The direct gaze allows my work to stare back, giving each viewer the experience of being gazed upon. In this witnessing, both portrait and spectator are realized as embodied forms. My work begs the question: I am me, who are YOU?
Can you talk to us a bit about happiness and what makes you happy?
Where I find the most joy is in community with others. Whether I am volunteering at a museum or attending a late-night drag show, I love connecting with people. In my often hectic schedule, I make sure to make time for weekly dinners with friends, long phone calls home, and even my 7-year-long DnD campaign. I love swapping stories of our days or our musings about the world around us. The desire to witness and be witnessed feels so innately human. So much of my work is inspired by my loved ones and the conversations I have with them. They were my first fans and continue to be my most avid supporters.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://jozelda.weebly.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/em-hagen1818/
- Other: https://tapas.io/series/JuxtaposeComic/info
