Most Interesting People 2015: Elizabeth Emery

WHY SHE'S INTERESTING: A mixed-media artist, Emery recently returned from a two-month residency in Homer, Alaska, where she taught classes, made prints and was inspired by the vast landscape. This spring, she will participate in Spaces' Quarter Art, a subscription service started in 2011 in which subscribers get four art objects a year, made by local artists.

MATERIALS GIRL: Emery, whose first job after college was as a fabric designer, has had a fascination with texture and color from an early age. "My mother would hate shopping with me because I would just walk around the store touching all the clothes."

SWATCH PARTY: Her art masquerades everyday materials as strange shapes and textures. By casting plaster in molds made from sewn together fabric, for example, her wall-mounted sculptures harden into surreal oblong shapes.

POST IT: The Rasmuson Foundation funded Emery's residency, in which four artists from the lower 48 states swap spots with four Alaskan artists. Before she left Cleveland, Emery printed 2,305 postcards — one for each household in Homer. She distributed them at gallery openings and on the street for folks to fill out two questions and then mail to the Alaskan town. Then in Homer, her classes printed cards to mail back to Cleveland, creating a pen pal-style dynamic."

MEMBERSHIP PERKS: Emery has been a subscriber to Spaces' Quarter Art in the past, snagging paper sculptures of light fixtures from Sarah Kabot and prints by Aaron Kohen. From February through May, she will make sculptures for participants. "Like with a CSA, you're supporting local artists. There are so many local artists that are really good, and as is the way with Cleveland, we tend to not think as highly of ourselves as we could. So it's nice to support local artists."

ART MARKET: For her subscription art, Emery will experiment with plaster to make desktop sculptures inspired by the landscape she saw in Alaska. "I have some color thoughts. I'm really excited about trying those, going really dark with the plaster."

EXTRA PERFORMANCE: Emery also works on performance and installation pieces. Making Money the Harder Way featured Emery and artist Corrie Slawson printing fake 77-cent bills from a mobile press outside the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland to raise awareness about the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. "There were just a lot of things happening, talking about wage parity, not just male [or] female, but the 1-percenters."

ART IN MOTION: Emery, who spent 10 years as a professional cyclist, hasn't left her athletic pedigree by the roadside. She still bikes on the Ohio and Erie Canal Towpath Trail and occasionally dips into rowing, running, cross-country skiing and weightlifting. "I like riding because I find it very meditative, the rhythmic motion of peddling over and over again and traveling a long time."