When we met digital artist LJ Eidolon at MAIN ST. Fort Worth Arts Festival, we were blown away by her artistic vision, techniques, and tongue-in-cheek romanticism. Today, we’re pleased to announce that an exhibition of her work will debut at the Arlington Museum of Art as a compelling complement to our feature exhibition, A Knight’s Tale. Her exhibit, entitled LJ Eidolon: Dreams, Allegory, and Gestalt, will run from October 22, 2022 – February 12, 2023 in the AMA Rooftop Gallery.
Charleston, South Carolina-based LJ Eidolon has a love for context, color, art history, and the surreal. With a background of 20 years in oil painting, collage, and assemblage, the evolution of her body of work is the continuation of these techniques in a digital realm.
Q&A with LJ
LJ is working artist who often travels to art festivals all over the country. We caught up with her between shows to ask her a few questions about her work and her inspiration.
AMA: What do you enjoy most about your artistic medium?
LJ: Digital as a media lends itself to experimentation in a way that painting cannot. The process is organic and very enjoyable as it’s hard to “paint” oneself into a corner digitally. Any creative obstacles are usually just another door.
AMA: How did you become an artist?
LJ: Although there was a pencil in hand from an early age, the journey really started in my grandmother’s studio around the age of 9. She would set up a still life–usually fruit–and we would paint side by side. My love for oil painting was born there and became a large part of my artistic practice for the following 25 years.
AMA: What’s it like to be an artist who travels with their work?
LJ: There are months I spend mostly in the studio, and months where there are shows three out of four weekends. There is no substitute for the feedback that comes from talking to so many people about the work. Hearing what they see in the work is inspiring and fulfilling, and helps to balance out the rather bubble-like existence of the studio.
AMA: We’re really interested in hearing how artists grow into their work. Tell us how you envisioned and developed your style of surrealism.
LJ: It began with oil paint and assemblage. I have always had an urge to draw connections between separate things with the purpose of creating something new conceptually. For many years, each oil painting started out as a crude photoshop mockup. Only in the last few years has painting taken a more minor role. Much of the current work contains painted and gold leafed elements with a good bit of physical fabrication–but the birth of the concept still begins digitally, although in a more refined manner this time around.
This flavor of surrealism is mainly born from the mixing of various time periods, and is a reflection of the present times we live in. In the age of the internet, past and present exist simultaneously in a fascinating way. Much of my work stems from that inspiration: with art history, color, context, and scale being the rest of the equation.
