Dawn Emerson grew up in Massachusetts and attended Brown University. Before moving to Oregon with her husband and family in the 1980s, she became an award-winning book designer for an educational publisher. The wide open space of the west, with all its inhabitants and unique topography encouraged new artistic expression. She took workshops in pastel and fell in love with the medium. By the 1990s Dawn was showing her work in galleries around the country and leading pastel workshops. She began printmaking in 2008 which led to incorporating mixed media into her work. Sharing those discoveries became the basis for her book Pastel Innovations (2017), now printed in 4 languages. Dawn has produced 6 instructional DVDs, and made a new video available on Vimeo titled “Breaking New Ground” that features new techniques about layering pastel with water mixable oil