Emily Joyce exhibiting her work at Lawndale Art and Performance Center

Emily Joyce and her husband moved to Houston right after they graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1998. Ms. Joyce, who sold her first painting at the age of seven at a community center show in Chicago, wanted to pursue her career as an artist. Her husband, who had attended high school in Houston, tried to convince her that his hometown was where they ought to go. Ms. Joyce recalls, "He swore it was a great place to go for the arts. I didn’t believe him at all. I never had been in Texas, so I went with a great amount of reluctance. After a few months, I was in love with the city.

"When I first came, I didn’t know much about what was happening. Someone mentioned that Lawndale Art and Performance Center accepted proposals for shows, which is quite different from waiting to be invited by a curator to participate. I filled out the application and was accepted."

Ms. Joyce continues, "It was a huge, huge thing for me. It’s easy to give someone a show when you know they’re in this program or they’re represented by this gallery or they’ve been sanctioned somehow. With Lawndale, it was pretty much based on the work."

That first show propelled her career. "Kerry Inman, who now represents me in town, came to the show, which was the first time she saw my work. Since then I’ve had shows in Las Vegas, New York City, Galveston and here in Houston at Inman’s gallery."

Ms. Joyce also was one of eight artists accepted into The Glassell School of Art’s Core program, a postgraduate fellowship that provides studios, stipends, professional feedback and opportunities for emerging artists.

Without hesitation she now enthusiastically endorses her new hometown and says, "Houston is a great place for young or established artists. I think I’ll stay for a while."

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