5. Emily Ohlrich

EMILY OHLRICH IS THE QUIET KIND OF MIGHTY.

I have known her for seven years, and even though many of our group of friends have dispersed from this neighborhood since then, she will always be part of what I consider my “Washington Heights crew,” an artistic force who shows up for our friends. Emily in particular is a friend of mine who supports her friends’ creative endeavors unconditionally, and it’s a quality of hers I so admire and try to emulate. In the few years since she started her Ink + Oil business, I have been lucky to work with her on countless show posters, the album art work for my kids music project, The Buttons, and most recently, in her partnership with Strong Female Leads as the illustrator of each interview. Naturally, I had to interview Emily herself. Enjoy learning about her life, and her current chapter of calling an adorable van named Louise home.

Illustration by Emily Ohlrich (Ink+Oil)
This interview has been edited and condensed.

What do you do?
Lots of things! Recently, this past year, when people ask me that, I’ve been starting with I’m an artist because I feel like that is kind of at the core of all of what I do, and I’m trying to embrace that and do more of that. Starting with that helps me to think of myself that way, too.

Can you pinpoint a time where you had to talk yourself into being able to call yourself that?
I’ve always thought of myself as a creative person, but just transitioning from having a full time job with a company doing design to starting my own thing and working freelance, it took wrapping my head around that then thinking about what I actually want my focus to be career-wise. It looks very different. It’s not as easy as just to say, “I’m a fashion designer, and I work for this company. It’s more complicated because I do a lot of things now.” So, it made sense to call myself an artist, but it initially did feel strange.

Where did you grow up and how does that influence your work?
I grew up in the Northwest suburbs of Chicago in a town called Palatine. I’m from a big family. My mom is one of seven kids, and I grew up with all of my cousins. They all live in Chicago, and I think of Chicago as very Midwest, family-oriented with a friendly demeanor, so I think that probably influences my work a little bit. It’s different from New York where it’s so fast -paced and there are so many people all the time, but I definitely am someone who likes to be around other people. I think that comes from how I grew up, and that’s also why I enjoy working and collaborating with others.

What is one hope and dream you have for the next year?
I’d like to have a little more clarity on where my life’s going, but I don’t know that that will happen. Traveling is really great, but I am getting to the point of wanting to make a home somewhere. It doesn’t necessarily have to happen in the next year, but it should be soon after that I think. I hope to have a better idea of where we want to be, if not be there and be figuring out how to create a home.

For what in your life do you feel most grateful?
The people in my life. I have a big family, and grew even more when my parents got divorced, but then both got remarried. When I was a kid, I always had my family, but I was a little bit of a loner and never had a good group of friends and so when I moved to New York and developed this group of friends, it really changed my life and I feel really grateful for it. Traveling this last year, we have stayed with a lot of friends and family in different places and everyone has been so fantastic of just like opening up their home to us. We’ve been dependent on the because we don’t have a home of our own, and it’s not always the easiest thing, but I know they are doing it because they love me, not because they feel obligated, and if anyone was ever in a situation where they needed that from me someday, I would do the same.

Who is living woman do you most admire, and why?
My grandmother. She got married when she was 19 and stayed married to my grandfather until the day he died. She had a baby when she was 19 and lived in the suburbs of Chicago her whole life, and through all of that was able to be a really strong independent woman. It has always been an interesting life to me, being a young adult in the 50s. She had to navigate being a housewife, but always had her own thing going on. She never did anything insanely extraordinary, but she carved out this little life for herself. She’s the type of person who loves everyone, but who calls you on your bullshit. She’s really strong, but also so caring. I don’t know. It blows my mind how she’s able to play all of those roles. And she taught me how to sew, and that’s a pretty big part of my life as an artist.

What is your greatest extravagance?
Food, probably. I eat fairly healthy, but I love ice cream! I will always go get ice cream. I love it all. In a waffle cone, preferably. Ample Hills is my favorite in NYC. In San Francisco, we were around the corner from Bi Rite, so we ate it almost every day.

What is a recent thing you searched for on Google? How Kangaroo babies are born. Google it. It’s very weird. They’re birthed before they’re like fully developed. I was wondering whether they were born into the pouch, but they’re not!  They’re born, then they crawl up their mothers bodies into the pouch and then stay there for another 6 months to grow some more. When they’re born they are the size of a cashew, and they know to crawl into the pouch. It’s really strange... watch a video!

Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
Christian and I always like to talk about ‘the universe’ and trusting ‘the universe.’

What is your most treasured possession?
Probably my van because it’s my home. We have put so much of ourselves into it. We rebuilt the engine ourselves. We’ve done so much of the interior—I covered the seat cushions, we built the cabinet which is our kitchen. There’s so much of us in it, and it’s also where we live. It’s the first thing that we ever bought and did together. So, it’s really important to me in a lot of ways. It’s allowed us to go on this adventure of traveling the country this last year. It’s going to be with us forever—we’re never gonna sell it. We talked about someday when we have a house, we’ll just park it in our backyard as our little guest house!

Emily Ohlrich is designer, illustrator, creator, and traveler with a background in fashion and a love of creating beautiful things for beautiful souls.

Emily also hangs out here: Instagram, Ink + Oil, @geeze.louise