LAI July exhibit reflects the emotions of the artist during Covid 19

 

[July 22, 2022] 

The Lincoln Arts Institute July exhibit featuring the works of solo artist Erin Eveland opened on Thursday, July 14th with an artist reception. Her works will remain on display at the LAI through August 5th. The gallery is open on Friday evenings from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. and on Saturday’s from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Visitors may also arrange for a private viewing by contacting owner Jason Hoffman at 309-287-3744.

Erin Eveland is the Executive Director of The Hub – Arts and Cultural Center in Rushville. She focuses her art on still life and enjoys painting as a way of expressing her internal feelings and also documenting the various stages of her life.



Eveland was on hand at the artist reception and enjoyed visiting with guests about her works. The theme of the show is “We didn’t Know.”

“To me, still life’s are extremely personal,” said Eveland. “The objects in each piece represent a moment or feeling and how the pandemic magnified or reflected each. Some reflect the pain and doubt it caused, while others deal with the humor of the situation. Still life’s act as a mirror to our mind.”

Eveland works full time in a position with a lot of responsibility and she is the mother of two teenagers. She describes herself as an introvert by nature and said for the most part, she did not have the struggles others had during the lock down phases of the pandemic. She said that she enjoyed the time with family, got her kids into playing board games with her, but was never able to sell them on working jigsaw puzzles.

Even so, the change in lifestyle was unexpected and it came with its drawbacks. Sometimes she felt a lot of frustration about the circumstances she and her family had been forced to live under. She said she could easily understand how it was too much for some, and that we reacted in ways that we didn’t know we would.



One of her favorite paintings on display this month is an alignment of liquor bottles and single glass. The implication: that drinking became an escape for some during the pandemic.
 

Most of Eveland’s other paintings are lighter and a little more humorous or they go to the darker side. A picture of a banana peel, a glass filled with face masks, a bouquet of dead and dying flowers, all with underlying messages of how she was feeling about her life. Other paintings she did just for the fun of doing them.



The back wall at the institute features three painting, the first on the left, a banana peel; the one next to it, a vase of dead and dying flowers. Eveland said that she rarely works on more than one piece at a time, but she had started on the vase of flowers and it became heavy, depressing. She decided to lighten the mood a bit and left the vase and went to the banana peel. She said others could read into it what they wished, but for her it was funny, it lightened her mood and made her chuckle. Therefore the art accomplished for her what she needed it to accomplish.

In the dark

Further down the wall is a painting of a book, opened and with the pages torn and crumpled. Eveland said first and foremost, she loves to read, and she loves and respects books, but she had read this particular book and it was not good. She had not enjoyed it whatsoever, but had finished it and set it aside.

There came a day when she was at the height of her personal frustration with the pandemic and she just wanted to destroy something. That book became the victim of her aggression. Eveland said that the art was a journal of her journey through the pandemic, so when the book was destroyed, she painted it.

The last three pieces on display at the gallery are self-portraits of Eveland. She said that she does one painting a year of herself, again chronicling her personal journey through life. Eveland said that the self-portraits are personal, and this is the first time ever that she has shown them in a public setting. She chose three that she thought went along with the theme.

She said that in many ways we all wear masks at various times in our life. They can be bold or subtle, but it is what we hide behind to keep others from knowing our true selves, or sometimes it is what we tout so others will pay attention.



The first of the self-portraits was a very special one for Eveland. She said that when she painted that particular portrait, she had just finished her Master’s and she had just had a child. Donning a Viking helmet she painted herself as a warrior victorious, saying she felt like a superhero for what she had accomplished.



The second painting is a bit darker. Eveland said she never wears red lipstick. But for a time, the lipstick was her mask to disguise what she was feeling in her life. Thus, she prevented others from invading her journey, putting up a façade and hiding her true self.



The third painting is much more literal and less subtle. Eveland said she had her 40th birthday during the pandemic and the painting reflects who she was on that date in her life.

Around the gallery, visitors will find something to like in Eveland’s works whether they are looking for light and humorous or dark and destructive. There is a full array of works that reflect the human nature when faced with the unknown, and when groping to understand all the things “We didn’t know” about ourselves and the world we live in.

When the July exhibit ends, the August show will open on Thursday the 13th and will feature the works of artists Adam Farcus, Dakota Mace, Jordan Hess and Tamara Becerra Valdez.

The gallery located across from the Logan County Courthouse on McLean Street is free to visit, but donations are welcomed.

[Nila Smith]