One night in December 2019, Emma Louthan realized in a mild panic that she needed a gift for a child’s birthday party the next day. She grabbed acrylic paint and some of her daughter’s old clothes and began creating an aquatic scene: pink koi swimming beneath white and green water lilies. The birthday boy wasn’t much impressed by the artful present, but it planted a seed in Ms. Louthan’s mind. A few months later, she tried her hand at a collection of about a dozen hand-painted adult sweatshirts and found a more appreciative audience. It was the beginning of Covid lockdowns, and Ms. Louthan, an artist in Philadelphia who graduated from Temple University’s Tyler School of Art and Architecture, was working as a freelance textile designer while at home with her husband and 1-year-old daughter.

---

Persons: Emma Louthan, wasn’t, Covid lockdowns, Louthan Organizations: University’s Tyler School of Art Locations: Philadelphia