Meet Emma Mannino | Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Emma Mannino and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Emma, what do you attribute your success to?
I graduated with my Master’s in Public Health from Colorado State University in 2016, right after finishing up an internship with the World Health Organization in Geneva, as well as another internship developing and coding an app for the National Park Service. Since then, I’ve been working in web development, and while those job prospects sound awesome and fulfilling, I still found myself longing for more in my work. Since my daughter was born in January 2020, I’ve been focusing more of my days and nights on my creativity and growing my art business. At the end of each day, I want to reflect on everything I’ve done and be so excited and proud and satisfied that I can’t wait for tomorrow. I’ve always struggled to find that enthusiasm in the corporate world, and I want to show my children that it IS possible to work really hard, follow your dreams, and turn your passion into your career. I still haven’t personally taken the leap into making art my full-time gig, but I’m due with my second baby in late November I’m hoping to be a full-time artist by the summer of 2022. Stay tuned 🙂

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I hand-draw portraits of homes and cities, as well as design floral temporary tattoos. I launched my print line as a way to share my favorite snippets of my home, my city, and my favorite places.

I opened my Etsy shop in June 2017, right after getting in a bike accident. I fell into a retaining wall along a sidewalk and was driven to the emergency room by two strangers (now they’re great friends) who saw me bleeding out on the side of the road. I ended up getting 17 stitches in my left leg. My husband and I had a weekend planned in Palisade to leisurely bike from winery to winery, but we had to cancel because of my little injury. I couldn’t do much that weekend so we drove to the art supply store to buy some pens and a drawing pad. I’ve always really been into art, I just never had a niche. I loved everything from painting to drawing to paper mache, but when I was couch-ridden that weekend I decided to sit in front of our house and draw the elevation-view of our home. I posted it on social media and a few friends reached out saying that they’d be interested in a portrait. A few weeks later I had drawn about 6 buildings and listed them on my Etsy shop. I didn’t have any packaging or mailing envelopes for shipping, nor did I have any business plans or goals or visions of it growing to the size it is today; my intentions were for it to be a little side hobby. I’ve changed the name of the business three times, experimented with paper, products, ideas, and have come a long long way with quality and photography and everything in between. I’m pretty sure I made 10 sales on my Etsy that first year, and just the other day I reached 4,000 sales and am selling wholesale to 30 different shops across the country. I’m so proud of how much my business has grown, and I’m so excited to see it continue to grow. Art is and always has been my passion; I’m so proud that I’m able to do what I love and call it a job.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I’d curate a print of my hand-drawn buildings to use as a ‘checklist’. We’d probably take a quick road trip to Steamboat to hike to and soak in the Strawberry Hot Springs. If I wasn’t pregnant, we’d spend a day or two in Palisade and visit Maison La Belle. On the drive back to Fort Collins we’d hit up Red Rocks and stop for a quick afternoon hike in Rocky Mountain National Park. Back in Fort Collins we’d spend some time at the Reservoir, get croissants at Little Bird Bakeshop, and dinner at Little on Mountain. And of course I bring every visitor into Trimble Court Artisans to check out my work displayed in a gallery!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I know from the bottom of my heart that my art would still be “just a little side hobby” without the massive amounts of support and encouragement from my husband. He’s a born entrepreneur and he’s constantly helping me through all the business aspects of it all.

I also owe a large amount of my early confidence to Trimble Court Artisans, an artist co-op in Fort Collins, for accepting my art into their shop when I was just starting out. The jury saw my potential and is always giving me great advice to grow and evolve into the artist I’m still becoming. I’ve spent many hours working in the shop and learning the retail end of things, and it connects me to the Northern Colorado community, which might be my favorite part of it all.

Website: https://www.emmamannino.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/emma.mannino/

Image Credits
Coldiron Photography https://www.instagram.com/coldironphotography/ https://www.coldironphotography.com/