Eva Montealegre
Artist/Author

Can you tell us a little bit about what you do?
Yes! To be exact, I consider myself an abstract symbolist who works with color, texture, shape, and storytelling imagery to convey my awe and appreciation for the earthly experience we call life. Essentially, I am a painter with a theater and storytelling background. It’s a wonderful thing to do and I’ve designed my life in such a way to make sure I do art, some kind of art, every day.

My paintings use a dance of color to manifest dreamlike, whimsical, and dramatic forms where energetic flows or explosions appear. In my paintings I examine the body, the dark and mysterious corners, the stopping places, and launching pads of the soul. I’m deeply affected by the style of the original artists, the cave painters. My process initiates with a vision that is inspired by historical drawings, photos, and scientific research. I use oil paints mixed with plaster, sand, rice, metal, and organic materials to create texture and movement as the foundation or under-painting. From there the transformation begins. I begin with a plan, but the outcome is an exploration of an intense relationship with color, texture, and the original inspiration. I feel there is a definite through-line from our origins to now.

All people are indigenous of mother earth. I’ll say it again–ALL PEOPLE! So we better get busy about getting back to our roots and honor our precious earth like our ancestors knew to do. They deeply understood the power and need of a community. If you were to ask me what my message is, that would be it. I’m terribly fascinated by the place where history, art, and science meet.

How did you first become interested in art?
My dad was a sculptor so I was always interested in art. I was always doing, being art. His mum, my gramma, was an amazing designer and costume constructor in her role as a creative citizen for the City of New Orleans. I spent every summer with her. She could design a dress, make a pattern out of a paper bag and before you knew it, drama, color, magic was created out of fabric, thread, and treadle sewing machine. My school clothes rocked!

When I studied Drama at USC under W. Duncan Ross, I paid for my tuition by working in the Drama Division costume shop. The things we thought up and created for the stage–some costumes were like set props. I’m thinking of those crazy structured costumes we did for Druid characters that embodied stone and history and all that ancient lore!

I have always had the idea that I could make anything that I imagined. My mother was a writer/investigative journalist, and she would read to me every night. I started writing around the age of 10, so I was forever in a creative mode and thought of it as only natural. In fact, this month I was named a quarter-finalist in the Emerging Screenwriter of Action Adventure 2022 contest. I have the honor to be in an art show opening at The Makery at 260 S. Spring Street in their 18th Dulcepalooza celebration, under Dulce Stein. It runs through October 7.

How does art enrich a community, and what are some ways people can engage with art in Burbank?
Art enriches the artist who shares that with the community. It is an immediate benefit as it sparks wonder, intrigue, curiosity, and even awe. This kind of stimulation to the brain, to the spirit, cannot be emulated on any screen, plus its nature requires that interchange, that communication between artist and viewer that is unmatched. Anyone can draw, make a collage, write their thoughts in a journal; but it is especially wonderful if you can interact with others interested, like you, in discovering a creative experience. The junior college system offers great art classes. Pierce College is especially strong for creating artists. Betsy Lueke Art Center has classes and there are community activities all over Los Angeles. Some artists, like myself, even teach private instruction.

If you could share with our community one thing about art, what would it be?
Do it, be it, immerse yourself in art, and you will be healed.

To find out more about Eva and her work, visit her website evamontealegre.com.