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 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.
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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] |
