Interview: Myra Eastman
Myra Eastman is a narrative painter whose work is grounded in political, social and personal narratives. Stories humanize our common humanity and dignity. Stories help to understand the past and help make sense of the chaos surrounding the present.
Many of her paintings are like puzzle pieces-often holding disparate vignettes together, each part connected to the whole. Myra strives to contain the often chaotic energy, creating areas of calm and reflection. The artist loves to imbue the work with an ironically cheerful color palette, challenging the viewer to move beyond the carnival-like colors to discover the underlying conceptual underpinnings of the work.
Born in Los Angeles, California, Myra has lived in Santa Cruz for fifty years. She was the 2019 recipient of the Santa Cruz County Rydell Fellowship and has exhibited at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History, Museum Educado Carrillo, Monterey Peninsula College, and the Santo Foundation’s 2019 10th Anniversary Invitational Exhibition held at Webster University in Saint Luis, Mo. Her work has been featured in the Catamaran Literary Reader, American Art Collector and Studio Visit. Her paintings were also recently acquired by the Contra Costa Medical Center to be a part of their “Resilience Project” permanent collection.
Read our interview with Myra below!
Portrait of the artist in front of her exhibition A Life’s Work
PP: Walk us through a typical day in your studio or generally through your process to make new work.
ME: Making new work happens a couple of different ways. Usually its because I’m compelled to explore what keeps me up at night. This was how the series, “God & Country” was born-a lament as our Country barrels into White Christian Nationalism. I had planned to continue working on these political issues but in late 2022 everything changed when I got sick. I resisted wanting to paint about cancer (believing there are more important things to deal with) but realized I had to. Cancer demons are stalking me and I’m forced to dip deeper.
Protecting Children: One Book At A Time (from God and Country series), Acrylic on canvas, 36 x 48 inches, 2024
God & Country: Morning class (from God and Country series), Acrylic on canvas, 38 x 46 inches, 2024
PP: What motivates you to make art?
ME: Painting keeps me alive, literality. When I was diagnosed with stage 3 inoperable pancreatic cancer I could not work during the months of chemo treatments that left me so brain fogged I was unable to think creatively. It was devastating and not sustainable. I miraculously made it to surgery, remission and recently back to the studio. I now understand that my life is predicated on making art.
PP: What is one goal you are aiming to achieve this year for your art practice?
ME: My current goal is to stay alive and be able to paint. If I can no longer work, life will cease to have meaning. This is no longer theoretical. My latest series, “Pancreatic Cancer” aims to narrate the traumatic experience of having cancer. My goal is to illuminate and humanize what we cancer patients go through.
Covid Diaries #1: Gone People Gone, Acrylic on canvas, 48 x 48 inches, 2020
PP: What challenges have you faced as an artist and how do you overcome them?
ME: I began to dream of becoming a “real” artist 35 years ago when I was a single mother with two young children and teaching in the Santa Cruz public schools. Getting into the studio happened after teaching and kids put to bed. School vacations became sacrosanct-the luxury of time to think and create. I learned over time to make every moment count. I had to stay focused and ignore the laundry. I had to ignore the nagging voice in my head that said I was just a small town art teacher, and would never find a place for my work. I had to believe in myself.
PP: What role do you think artists have in society today? What role should they have?
ME: Artists keep us alive or at least sane. especially now when everything seems so dire. In 2016, after the presidential election I helped form an artist collective here in Santa Cruz, ARRT (Artists Respond & Resist Together). Our mission statement is, “We are an affiliation of artists joined together by our shared belief in the power of art to effect social change and protect democratic values. Our creative skills support progressive social actions in our local community and beyond”. We do what we can hoping that creative action can really change the world.
To learn more about Myra’s work, see her Instagram and Website