b'CULTURE MEETS COMMERCEI was making prints and doing small paintings while I was in school. My art was something that I used to survive [on] at that time, she says. It was justMy biggest myself and my partner in Toronto. He was working, but we were able to work out agoals are just to schedule so he could work and I could go to school. We were three hours awaycontinue living my from our family. Thats why I worked verylife, being a good hard to get my art career going because I felt I needed a means of support. Everyrole model to my day during nap time I would be sitting at my desk and painting, and I did a little bityoung nieces and every day until I started to make sales. nephews, and to LANDING JOBSDuring this time, Kewageshig sold onecontinue painting.of her paintings to the Bruce County Museum and landed a commission toEmily Kewageshigillustrate a pair of plaques for SickKids Hospital in Toronto showing the text of a Land Acknowledgement wreathed with faces, branches and flowers. I had a young son at the time, and I thought it was a great opportunity for me to put my art in a place where families would see it, she says.During the COVID lockdowns, with her career beginning to heat up, Kewageshig decided that it wasnt necessary for her to finish her OCAD program. A teacher yelled at mein a nice wayover Zoom and said, You dont need to be in school; you should go out in the field and create art! He said I should focus full-time on art: A lot of artists would work decades to get to where youve already got to!Together with her family, Kewageshig left Toronto to move back to Saugeen. I already knew exactly what I wanted to do, and I was already doing it, she says. I really settled down and started doing art every day as a full-time thing.In 2020, Kewageshig mounted her first solo exhibition, Mooshknemgog Bmaadziwin: Full Circle, at the Tom Thomson Art Gallery in Owen Sound. It received press coverage in a number of media outlets, including the Toronto Star, and suddenly Kewageshig was receiving interest and proposals from people who had read the articles or seen her work through social media.Among the offers, Kewageshig was invited to illustrate articles for the web magazine Refinery 29. It would be the first of many corporate projects. For DAVIDsTEA, she designed the label Indigenous BUSINESS REPORT79'