Amid the political unrest spurred from the Cuban Revolution in the 1950s, a little girl named Marisol immigrated to the United States, only allowed to bring a single dress and a single doll. That dress — a simple white dress with heirloom lace and hand-stitched sewing — stayed in Marisol’s family, passed down to her daughter and then to her granddaughters. Now, it’s the subject of a children’s book, written and illustrated by her daughter Emily Ozier.

“I wrote this little story when my oldest was the same age as Marisol in the book,” Ozier says. “And it was the first time that I really realized what my mom had gone through. I wrote it just to help my own child understand, build empathy, but it also was an exercise for me in understanding my mom. I didn’t know if anything would ever come of it.”

By trade, Ozier is an impressionist artist, known as EMYO professionally, but in late 2021, she was approached by an editor about doing a children’s book. Marisol’s Dress happened to be the perfect fit. With refugees consistently arriving in the U.S. and in Memphis, Ozier says, stories like Marisol’s can help readers understand the immigrant experience on a human level. “This is something from the past, but it’s also very much something from the present.”

With the story green-lit, all that was left was for Ozier to illustrate the pages. “What’s interesting about the creative process is that this was the time for that story to be told because my art needed to develop over all these years,” she says. “When I write, I try to distill down to the very fewest number of words possible to say what I wanna say. And I do that in my paintings. I try to paint in such a way that I’ve distilled the information down to the most necessary.”

The original canvas paintings within the book are now on display at the Dixon, and this weekend, Ozier is hosting a Paper Doll Party for adults and teens to embrace their inner child and creativity, just as Marisol does in the book.

Copies of Marisol’s Dress can be purchased at Novel, with a portion of sales going to World Relief Memphis.

“Emily Ozier: Marisol’s Dress,” Dixon Gallery & Gardens, on display through January 8.

Paper Doll Party with Emily Ozier (ages 15+), Dixon Gallery & Gardens, Saturday, December 17, 10 a.m.-noon, $15-$20.