the Art of HerbEaton
For 45 years, I have created and designed for myself, family, friends and community. I am a guy who likes to make things, usually utilitarian things...I also make art and music. My paintings, sculpture and drawings reflect the scenes, stages and music that are emotionally important to me.
My figurative and narrative work is about two characters named He and She, a nude male and a diaphanously gowned female. They appeared in 1983 while drawing in the backyard. They are as characters in a novel, sometimes playful, sometimes romantic, sometimes silly, sometimes serious. He and She perform a dance that requires only a few props and takes place in settings that are usually theatrical in configuration, a stage, circus tent, cornfield, balancing on barbed wire or power lines, or a necessary picnic. On occasion they take on a religious character if only because they are enigmatically involved in a puzzling but seemingly purposeful action...such as giving a gift. Together He and She form my dual muse.
Painting scenes, plein aire, along the Mackinaw and my paintings of music settings develops contexts for my characters. I want the characters and the viewers of my art to experience the Mackinaw River and Music. The views and songs I paint can be experienced if one takes the time to look, listen and feel. Crafting the duet and band paintings set the character's world to music. My RT 66, Corn, and Circus paintings and sculpture are reflections and memories of a place where my family chooses to live and own an art gallery.
Born in 1949 in Peoria, IL. 1984 MFA sculpture and drawing Illinois State University, 1974 BS ISU, 1970 AA in Music and Theater Illinois Central College, 1967 Spalding Institute. Carpenter, instructor, museum designer, preparator, toy designer and manufacturer, musician, co-founder of the Childrens Discovery Museum. Art work in public collections of Chugai-Upjohn Corporations, Sun Capital, the State of Illinois, St. Josephs Hospital, BroMenn Regional Medical Center, Uptown Station Normal in Normal, Illinois, and private collections locally and abroad.
For more information about my past art shows, please read my show resume.
Currently...
Showing and selling paintings, sculpture, drawings, illuminated fable, prints, and cards out of the downtown Bloomington Gallery and playing trombone whenever possible.