Emma Freeman Art

Emma Freeman Art I’m a contemplative, joyful mixed media artist & teaching artist in Wisconsin. I love teaching art classes & creative retreats. Come create with me!

I love textiles, slow stitching, painting, collage, nature, heartfelt stories & expressive words! www.deep-rooted-healing.com

Notionsby Paula Gordon LeppLook at the silver lining, they say.
But what if, instead,
I pluck it off
and use that tensil...
08/17/2026

Notions
by Paula Gordon Lepp

Look at the silver lining, they say.
But what if, instead,
I pluck it off
and use that tensile strand to bind
myself to those things I do not 
want to lose sight of.
Families knit together by evening walks,
board games, laughter. 
The filament fixing us to friends
no matter the distance apart.
A braid of gratitude for small kindnesses.
The thin gauge wire of loss.

Let me twist that lining 
around my finger, 
it’s silvery glint a reminder 
of just how quickly life can change. 
I will remember to love more.
I will remember to give more.
I will remember to be still
I will knot the string tightly. 
So it won’t slip away.
So I won’t forget.

……..
I found this incredible poem recently in one of my favorite books of poetry called, “How to Love the World: Poems of Gratitude and Hope.” It feels perfect to read again as I make a new set of nature printed prayer flags this morning. My focus as I stitch is on feeling gratitude for the loving relationships in my life and the precious meaning of each of our unique connections that I hold in my heart that are all woven together to create a strong, resilient tapestry of love and support in my life.

These flags are made from a fabric meditation book I took apart last night that I made maybe 4 or 5 years ago. I gathered each of the flowers and leaves I printed from my mom’s garden and the white linen was from her fabric stash too. The strand is from a blanket a dear friend gave me. I love making these prayer flags, the personal meaning grows and deepens as I work on each set. May we all feel loved, supported and held by those who love and care for us and may we do the same for them.❤️

I finished this fabric meditation book and love it so much. Just like all of the other books I’ve made in this series, I...
08/14/2026

I finished this fabric meditation book and love it so much. Just like all of the other books I’ve made in this series, I never know what they will look like or what materials I will be drawn to use in them. They each evolve slowly and intuitively as I sit with what I’m drawn to in the moment and the experience of making them is so calming, peaceful and engaging. This one has such a lovely essence with it’s simplicity and poetic little moments, it makes me smile.

For this book, I was inspired to work with vintage fabrics including a soft linen tablecloth I cut and used for the pages, a cross stitched embroidered tablecloth I cut and added to the pages and a piece of vintage red cotton that came from a Peruvian wall hanging I found at an antique store in Oregon City, Oregon when I was teaching a prayer flag retreat with Minette Riordan at Andrea Chebeleu’s amazing home! I also included some batik fabric scraps from a bandana from India that I had worn for a while, white sewing thread from my mom’s stash and hand dyed linen thread from Maiwa School of Textiles.

I love making fabric books that hold layers of meaning and stories within them, it just seems to happen naturally as I work. All these stories that I love to contemplate as I make them are here…stories of human care and touch, tactile presence, love, emotional connection, slow skills, the power of subtle beauty and the historic joy and need to make things with our hands weave together and are what make up the meaning of this little book for me.

I’m going to let it live with me on my art table and then bring it to my upcoming in person classes and retreats where I get to share this practice with people. It will be so nice to watch people hold this one and the others I’ve made and add their touch and their presence to it and see how they respond! I love that these precious books get to travel with me and gather more good energy and then that all becomes part of the book too. ❤️

You can see more of my fabric meditation books and upcoming classes at www.emmafreemanart.com.

08/12/2026

This Saturday, August 15th, I’m teaching a fun workshop on Zoom on how to make a hand painted joyful banana like the one I’m wearing! We’ll play with textile paint, explore the art of simplicity and the meditative quality of making repeating patterns by hand and how we can see our own touch in the expressive marks we make in the moment. Making wearable art is so fun and something I’m loving exploring and sharing with people as I learn! If you don’t want to wear the bandana, you can also use them as altar cloths or mini tablecloths for picnics or many other textile projects!

The workshop is $30 inside my new online art community, Cut From the Same Cloth. You can sign up and come to the workshop and also any of the other monthly events and use the resources I’ve gathered too. Then you can decide if you’d like to stay or you are welcome to cancel the membership whenever you’d like. I hope to see you there!

You can sign up on my website at www.emmafreemanart.com. 🩷

I made a new altar on my art table and am loving how it feels! It is an altar to celebrate my creative joy and what make...
08/12/2026

I made a new altar on my art table and am loving how it feels! It is an altar to celebrate my creative joy and what makes me happy as an artist right now. I used a bandana that I painted as the altar cloth and I love it!

I love making altars with different themes, it is such a lovely, organic process to choose special objects and arrange them together in a way that I like. This corner of my art table has had an evolving altar for over 6 years now! I also feel like this whole table is an altar to my creative practice.

I’m slowly working on a new on-demand class on making sacred altars to share how I like to create them including how to make different kinds of altar cloths with paint and stitching. I’m looking forward to sharing it once it’s ready. 🩷

I am sitting here quietly stitching in one of my fabric meditation books and listening to a wonderful episode of Ruth Si...
08/11/2026

I am sitting here quietly stitching in one of my fabric meditation books and listening to a wonderful episode of Ruth Singer’s Making Meaning podcast with Deb McGuire, a quilt maker and historian who I loved listening to so much! The intersection of making and research that Ruth explores is something I’m fascinated by and find myself naturally drawn to in my work too. Ruth wrote this in her description for the episode which I love, “I’m exploring textile making and the many complex meanings around textile making practice.” I thought, “Ooooo, that’s right up my alley!” I wrote down multiple quotes that they said in their lovely, rich conversation including this one:

“The more immersed into the making I got, the more questions the making was raising for me.” -Deb McGuire

I find this to be so true in my own making, time and time again. It’s one of the reasons why I love creating so much, the questions appear like a curious new friend wandering by to say hello and they delight and compel me to keep exploring. As I sit with materials, those fresh and unexpected questions take me somewhere new both in my mind and in the tactile process of making something with my hands that is so rewarding and enjoyable.

Hearing someone express things so beautifully and eloquently that I haven’t articulated to myself in that way gives me so much joy and a sense of heartfelt connection. I have this delicious, stimulating feeling of happiness and awe.

I love to jot down the quotes in my journal and in Evernote so I can revisit them over time. I have gathered so many quotes from moments like this over the years, it’s this lovely living library of words from hearts and minds around the world that I cherish. ❤️

This was such a fun thing to do this morning! I love this paint palette that my magical 6 year old niece and I use when ...
08/10/2026

This was such a fun thing to do this morning! I love this paint palette that my magical 6 year old niece and I use when we make art together here in my studio/bedroom. It’s the top of the gouache paint box and today I thought it would be fun to turn it into a colorful garden! I grabbed a white Posca pen and started to look at the colors and shapes with curiosity and wonder and suddenly I was starting to imagine how this one could be a flower shape like this and that one could be another flower like this and ohhhh, that looks like an owl! And my favorite, the little bird! I saw another artist do something like this and I loved the idea. What a great way to play for the pure joy of it. 🩷🎨

www.emmafreemanart.com

I’m so happy to share this wonderful day long retreat that I’m am leading with my soul friend and fellow writer/poet, Pa...
08/07/2026

I’m so happy to share this wonderful day long retreat that I’m am leading with my soul friend and fellow writer/poet, Paula Voelkel. We will be sharing our love of words, how writing has helped each of us through difficult times in our lives, and invite everyone into expressive, contemplative writing exercises to wake up the soul and see what wants to come out of our hearts. The day will be slow and spacious with beautiful words floating in the air for us to enjoy, time to read in quiet reflection and be together in a kind, warm and creative community. 🩷

Our retreat is being held at the peaceful Siena Retreat Center in Racine, Wisconsin right on beautiful Lake Michigan! There are woods and prairie to explore and be replenished by too. The day includes lunch together.

Anyone is welcome to join us, whether you consider yourself a writer or not. This is a pay what you can retreat. If you are interested in coming, we have some spots left and would love to have you! You can email me at [email protected] to reserve a place with us. 🩷

08/05/2026

Oh my gosh, I just noticed that I can wear this amazing stitched jacket two ways! I have had it for a few years, I found it on Etsy and love that it is hand stitched and has this fun, colorful floral pattern. Plus, it’s really comfy and is made of soft cotton. I’ve worn it to teach workshops and retreats, to travel in, to wear while I’m making art at home here in my studio/bedroom and while I host gatherings on Zoom like I did today for my new online community, Cut From the Same Cloth (which you can still join!) Annnndddd now I can wear this jacket inside out too!! How fun is that? The pink and white stitches are so pretty, aren’t they? I had to share my exciting eureka moment! 🩷🧵👏🏼🎉

You can learn more about my new online art community here: www.emmafreemanart.com. 🩷

I love words, I love sitting with certain ones and pondering them, thinking about why I love them, saying them to myself...
08/03/2026

I love words, I love sitting with certain ones and pondering them, thinking about why I love them, saying them to myself, using them to try to express my feelings and notice how certain ones stir up spontaneous memories and images in my mind. I just wrote out some words I love in my art journal and some simple prompts to go with them on the next page. This is often how I love to write, by using a simple phrase and noticing what naturally emerges within me, then I’ll sometimes just sit with that or do some journaling for a while. I love to watch tv and movies with captions too so I can see the words people are speaking (and because I have some hearing loss but mostly because I love seeing the language.)

What words do you love at the moment? Why? I’d love to know. 🩷

I spent some slow, lovely quiet time this morning looking at the rhythms and poetic beauty of the frayed edges on these ...
07/31/2026

I spent some slow, lovely quiet time this morning looking at the rhythms and poetic beauty of the frayed edges on these fragments of hand stitched cross stitch from the past that I carefully cut off a larger cloth and gently rolled in my hands to get them to begin to unravel…I love nuances and subtleties and often notice the smallest little details in my work, in materials, in people, in nature and out in the world. It is one of the qualities of being a highly sensitive person (HSP) that I love. It makes life so rich and fulfilling but can also be incredibly overwhelming and overstimulating. I’ve learned a lot about how to care for that part of me and keep practicing everyday. Being an artist gives me such a healthy place to explore that part of me and share it with others and I am so grateful for that.🩷

Now these will sit on my art table until I get home later and I may begin to add some small white stitches to anchor them in place on the gorgeous deep green linen.

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Oconomowoc, WI

Telephone

+16123862056

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