Colorful Impressionist Mom on the Street: EMYO

Our Colorful Impressionist Mom on the Street Emily York Ozier—or EMYO—is a painter whose life and personal style resemble her art: loose, lively, and full of color!

Meet EMYO

Artist Emily York Ozier loves helping people put Light + Life on their walls. A Memphis girl with Cuban roots, Emily and her husband John live on a big grassy piece of land in Tennessee where their six children roam loud and wild, making all sorts of art themselves. Emily has studied the technique of John Singer Sargent in Italy with an impressionist master, and she also trained at Harvard to deepen her understanding of how learning takes place in and through the arts. Her work can be found in public and private collections throughout the South, the United States, and internationally.

Emily’s favorites include: To Kill A Mockingbird, espresso, reading aloud, and capturing the “Messiness of Togetherness.” How perfect is that phrase to describe the beautiful mess of family life!? To learn more and see Emily’s beautiful paintings and glimpses into life at home, visit her website and follow along on Instagram: @emyoartwork.

Colorful Impressionist Style

Which three words best describe your style? As the mother of a big family, I say that my style also reflects the Impressionism that I paint. I’m loose, lively and full of color.

What are your favorite places to shop? Anthropologie, TJ Maxx, and any global local artisan from adventures abroad—some of my favorite shoes are made of recycled tires from Ethiopia; another pair from a local artisan in Cuba.

What’s your best style advice? I like to have my dependable basics in neutral tones and then I love to bring on the bohemian with a wrap, a bright sweater or a hat—always, always a hat.

What article of clothing would you not want to live without?
I pretty much wear my Birkenstocks year round and I’m a Chacos girl too. I guess I love bare feet and sandals as much of the time as possible. It must be my Cuban blood!

What style did you love at the time, but now cringe when you see old photos? My feathered bangs circa 1988.

Stilettos or flats? While I’m chasing six kiddos around, flats, flats, of course, flats.

Colorful Impressionist Family

What’s your favorite way to spend time with your family?
We have built a family culture around books by sharing many stories together by reading aloud. I always pick good books that I wanted to read anyway! We also love all things THE ARTS: So I love to go to see a play or make some fun project ourselves. I buy hot glue sticks in packs of 80 so we can always build things around our kitchen table. Family motto: Let’s get our hands dirty and Make Stuff.

Photo by Emily Holmes of @emilyholmesweddings

Best advice you’ve received:
To quickly use the phrase, “Oh, you didn’t mean any harm”. . . whenever a child does something accidentally (a spill, breaking something, etc.) to immediately cut down on any shame that kid might feel.

What’s your go-to family dinner?
Cuban black beans, rice with lots of different toppings so different kids can build their own bowl. Hog and Hominy is my favorite spot for date night.

Colorful Impressionist Life

What’s your favorite show to binge watch? I’m a huge Call the Midwife fan.

What’s your favorite beach read? Rebecca is the BEST book. My husband refused to read it for years because the cover is deceiving, but now he also agrees that it is SO good!

If you could spend a day with anyone from history, living or deceased, who would it be?
I’d love a day with Maya Angelou. I’m particularly interested in how women overcome adversity and then create beautiful art to share with others: in her case, her beautiful writing has been a gift to so many people of all walks of life.

What’s at the top of your travel bucket list? I’m hoping to make a Literary London and Surrounding Areas trip soon to see the haunts of Dickens and Austen.

What’s your favorite way to unwind at the end of a long day? Glass of wine, sitting on our Tennessee porch, kids running around happy in play on the big swing or trampoline.

Your Colorful Impressionist Style

Emily’s paintings adorn walls to make places warm and welcoming, full of life—and her personal style accomplishes the same! We love her combination of neutral and bohemian; barefoot and messy, yet intentional.

Each of us may not have wide open space for our kids to run—much less the patience to provide them unlimited glue sticks—but we all can be inspired to embrace a life that’s loose around the edges, and more beautiful because of it. With colorful impressionist style, we’ll be learning together as we share stories, create, and get messy. Thank you, EMYO!

For more style inspiration, check out FamilyApp’s Mom on the Street channel!

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