Photo: Art by Emily Grugel
Emily Grugel is a member of the Olympia community who finds a great deal of reflection and expression through art. She is a member of the band Defect Play, which is one of her key focuses in the arts; she also makes collages, as well as a variety of art and zines to supplement and support her music. I’ve been fortunate enough to cross paths with her through my wandering path in Olympia; apart from our shared interest in particular musical artists, she has also come across to me as someone who finds artistic meaning in aspects of life that I would not have. Her art communicates that even the bleak and menial can be transformed into something profound and impactful, and the art of collage making in particular is the exaltation of images otherwise disregarded.
Last week, I had a chance to ask her a few questions about her art.
In a few sentences, can you describe your art, both visual and musical, and the purpose you see in them having?
“I think the visual art is very similar to the musical art, because they’re both very free-form and involve combining a lot of different textures into one thing that I enjoy.”
“As far as a purpose, I think it’s healthy for me to do art and music. It really helps with my anxiety by organizing things onto paper, as well as organizing music.”
How does your expression through visual art differ from your musical expression?
“In my visual art, I’m communicating the most clearly. In my band, you get the sense of all of the instruments combining at once. You can hear my guitar, but it’s meant to be playing with everything else. So I think the visual stuff is more of just the inside of my brain. Both of them are a way to scratch a weird part of my brain that needs to talk.”
So in what ways is the art that you make a reflection of yourself, and where does it depart?
“The reflection aspect is that a lot of it is stuff that I think of throughout the day and the things that I relate with a lot. Often it’s different shades of gray. I use a lot of images with destroyed buildings, destroyed cars and so on, so I think in a way that it reflects me. I find ways to relate to it.”
In what ways does living in Olympia help bolster your art and in what ways is it a setback?
“Olympia is fantastic for inspiration. I walk to the transit center from my house like every day, and I always walk by different construction sites and things like that. I guess it sucks that I get inspiration from that. But it’s just very bleak downtown; buildings are going up and it’s just getting more and more gentrified, and you hear different sounds bouncing off of concrete and cars going by.”
“Generally I like living here in regard to my art; it’s so cheap and I feel like I have a lot of time on my hands. As far as setbacks, the bleakness is inspiring, but also a setback. It’s a little bit suffocating sometimes. So I think living in Olympia and doing art is like a good balance of gaining stuff but also trying to stay above water.”
You find a lot of inspiration from Olympia’s scenery. Besides that, where do you find influences?
“There are a lot of movies that inspire me, being that it’s a type of visual art. One example of that is Eraserhead. It’s kind of similar to walking around Olympia in a way, in the sense of the white noise in the background and the general grayness. That movie does a lot for me.”
“As far as musical influences, a huge one is definitely the very early start of industrial music in the ‘70s, bands like Throbbing Gristle and SPK. Another big one that came later on but still used the minimal ideas of that early industrial music is a band called Missing Foundation. They use a lot of machinery and metal to make music, which is super inspiring for both my musical and visual art. They’re all also very DIY, which reflects parts of my art as well.”
“Also, my friends are huge influences. There’s not very many industrial or noise projects right now in Washington. So when I do have friends that do that art it’s extremely inspiring and amps me up to do what I want to do.”
What things does your art express that you feel like your words cannot?
“I sometimes have trouble with my words and talking, so it’s much easier for me to flip through books and find images that connect with my brain. They express aspects of my coping mechanisms and my reality involving things like that.”
“It’s kind of hard to answer that in words [laughs].”
