Emilie Crittin is a visual artist and musician from Switzerland who creates under the moniker Émilyrâ.
Her creative process is heavily influenced by nature, spirituality, and ancient tribal healing practices from all over the world, with a particular affinity for South American cultures.
Émilyrâ uses her art to reconnect to the Earth and to her inner self, which she considers one and the same. Through her photo series ‘Mountain Spirits,’ the artist depicts life as a whole through vertical, symmetrical reflections in the lakes of the Swiss Alps.
She personifies natural elements, such as rocks, trees, and bodies of water, presenting them as portraits of the unseen guardians that roam the wilderness. “These photographs are real,” the artist says. “We can encounter these beings when we are in a state of deep presence, listening with all our senses and our hearts.”
The idea of returning to one’s roots, or to “recenter” and find one’s inner light, as the artist puts it, complements the primal, ancient quality of her photography. These spiritual portraits function as totems: sacred emblems representative of humankind as its own clan.
Émilyrâ’s distinct “Southern Gothic” style art exists between solving and creating a mystery. For her it is a method of channeling nature in its purest form. By editing the photographs, the artist creates intentional harmony out of perfect imperfections of the organic world. She enters a dialogue with nature itself, offering an interpretation and translation of the “mystery of Life.”
She creates mystical symbols that serve as portals through which the viewer can enter a venerable communion with Earth’s energy. This connection that gradually fades away due to the modern way of living can be restored through curiosity and creativity. Émilyrâ describes her art as a weaving of relationships “with the energies of the place and what emerges in that instant.” She emphasizes that the ethereal, fleeting experience needs to be an intentional act of will.
“The experience of wonder asks reciprocity,” the artist concludes.
Read our “Roots” issue in full
The new theme, born as usual from what the submitted works held in common, is “ROOTS.” Within its pages, we present the artworks, creativity, and inspiration of 60 visual artists and writers from 21 countries around the world. Their diverse voices come together around a shared exploration of the return to where one belongs, the invisible threads of tradition that shape identity, and the ongoing reconnection with nature, others, and oneself.
We’re a team of writers using our craft to spotlight art in its most honest form. RAWGUE. started as a bi-monthly editorial experiment where each issue’s theme is dictated by the submitted work, thus removing editorial bias from the equation and preserving a more raw approach. We focus on all forms of poetry: written, photographed, painted, drawn, and filmed.
