Local artist first up on Paramount Theatre art gallery schedule

Submitted by Paramount Theatre

The Paramount Theatre has started its 2013-14 Art Gallery schedule with the work of local artist Jen Evans.

The exhibit, featuring Evans’ large canvases depicting rocks, is on display through Sept. 18 in the art gallery, located on the second floor of the Grand Gallery of the Paramount Theatre, 23 E. Galena Blvd., Aurora.

Evans lives on the west side of Aurora with her husband and three daughters. She taught for the Artworks program for the Aurora Public Art Commission for several years and continues to work as an art professor. Evans paints in her studio at Water Street Studios in Batavia. She does not consider herself a painter, but an artist who uses paint.

Evans’ art is influenced by a careful observation of nature. She has always been inspired by the systems of nature, especially self-similarity.

During her international travels, she found fascination in the details of everyday life, especially in those typically overlooked as mundane. Having internalized this, Her current work has largely been inspired by the modest shores of the Fox River.

Evans’ painting philosophy is to start by having fun with the paint, then to find moments of serendipity in the results.

As artist Chuck Close has said, “Far more interesting than problem solving is problem creation.” Evans finds that, much like in life, jumping in with both feet and then dealing with the consequences is more exhilarating than planning ahead. In this way, Evans engages the work by allowing it to unfold as she responds to sometimes unexpected turns.

The Paramount Theatre Art Gallery opened in the fall of 2006. The gallery features the work of both established and aspiring artists. For information regarding the Art Gallery, or the hanging of a show, contact melmeisch@comcast.net.