We are pleased to feature the art of St. Paul artist Emily Hoisington on the cover of the fall issue of MOQ (pictured at left). Hoisington earned her MFA from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD) in May, and is currently an adjunct faculty member there and at the College of Visual Art (CVA) in St. Paul. She is participating in a faculty show at MCAD through September 24, and will have a piece in an exhibition of artists’ books curated by Jeff Rathermel at Hennepin Avenue United Methodist Church, September 21 through October 19. She has been accepted into the Emerging Printmaker’s Residency at Highpoint Center for Printmaking, and will exhibit her work there in February. To see more of Hoisington’s art, visit her Web site.

Tell us about your MFA thesis and what you are working on now.
My thesis project was called Tending to Decomposition. It was handmade printed paper, some on the wall, some made into sculptures hanging from the ceiling. The imagery interprets cycles of decay and growth in the soil. Worms, tunnels and roots flow into each other. I continued to develop those ideas during a summer fellowship at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts, creating a handmade paper book in the shape of a rock, whose pages show Glimpses Underground. I now am working on prints for a Jerome Emerging Printmaker’s Residency at Highpoint Center for Printmaking.

Please tell us something about our cover image.
Substation Birds is inspired by the electric substation a block from our house, and the birds who perch in it. When we bought our house in 2005, it was a decision to live in the middle of the city while valuing community and sustainability. The birds, so gracefully inhabiting the metal grid of the humming substation, became a metaphor for our own nesting.

You are both a printmaker and a sculptor, and the prints on your MnArtists.org page are woodcuts. Do you see yourself focusing on one art form more than the other in the future? Or perhaps venturing into other forms of printmaking?
While I do make two-dimensional prints, and sometimes edition them, I am more frequently interested in using printmaking and papermaking to create units that add up to something larger. I have made handmade and printed paper sculptures suspended from the ceiling by handspun flax and paper threads, and books with shaped pages. Paper and woodcuts both derive from plant materials, making them especially resonant to me. I often make monotypes, where each print is different from the one before. I’m also exploring using Solarplates (printing plates that can be exposed in the sun).

You’ve participated in a number of art projects/exhibitions at House of Mercy church in St. Paul, including the Stations of the Cross several times. Would you like to comment on this aspect of your artwork? Do you see yourself as an ecclesiatical artist?
The Stations of the Cross at House of Mercy is a collaborative effort, where many members of the church artistically interpret the Stations, which are then used in a service on Good Friday. I’m grateful to be part of a church where visual art is one of many ways we struggle with and express our faith. This is an important part of my life, however, I don’t generally consider myself an ecclesiastical artist.

Cracked and Inhabited, woodblock print, Emily Hoisington, 2007