e sse nt i al arts
Balsley
EMILY BY CHRIS GARGAN
In softball, Emily Balsley would be known as a player who hits to all fields. Whether it’s mural design and execution, magazine and book illustration, pattern design for fabrics or products, sculptures for public parks, seasonal window decoration, or personal fine arts projects, it seems that Emily has yet to meet an artistic challenge to which she has not successfully risen. Born and raised in Marathon, Wisconsin, the capital of American ginseng production, Emily was a smalltown girl with aspirations to engage the
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world with her talents and ambition. Part of her competitive spirit was honed on the softball field, where she became an all-conference shortstop. She worked summer jobs in the farm fields planning and saving for her education in the visual arts. After graduating high school in a class of 80 students, she moved to University of Wisconsin–Marathon County (UWMC) before going to UW– Madison, where she attained a BFA in 2001.
design, she had an opportunity to work with visiting artist and world-renowned illustrator Peter Sís. This encounter and his encouragement sparked the idea that she could thrive as an illustrator. Like many with art degrees, she faced the existential question of how to best enter the field once known as commercial art—art which serves to solve the business, communications, and promotional challenges of institutions or persons.
Towards the end of her college career, where Emily’s focus was graphic
Emily began with Pacific Cycle, the parent company of Schwinn, Mongoose,