- Artist Portfolio Magazine – 5 Year Anniversary Art Exhibition
- Chloe McEldowney – Peoria, Illinois
My art seeks to make manifest a collection of stories. These stories are what have built my family over the years. Growing up, my family has continually invited strangers—primarily young mothers and neglected children—into our home to offer them whatever help and support they may need. In the process, many of them become family to us. They are named sisters and brothers. Some will be raised here, some leave all too soon. Contact is kept with those who move out, and a duty and love for them develops akin to what many feel for their own blood relationships.
That background has bred in me a desire to explore these familial relationships with my art. I wish to express the nature of this type of family: a family defined by the needs of those who become its members and nothing else.
My paintings are intended as character studies. Without the character of the person being painted, and a narrative behind that character, my most realistic image would still feel like an empty husk. With any subject I paint, I aim first to forge a relationship with that person; in doing this I garner the tools to paint the person behind the visage.
Bio:
Chloe McEldowney is a an artist in residence at the Prairie Center of the Arts in Peoria, Illinois, where she is a printmaking instructor. She has been included in exhibitions across the country, ranging from California to Massachusetts. Chloe is a native of Russia, Ohio, and received her BFA from the University of Dayton. She was awarded a Yeck College Artist Fellowship at the Dayton Art Institute. Her senior year, Chloe was a finalist in the Excellence in Visual Arts Awards by the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities of Ohio. Upon graduation from the University of Dayton, Chloe was awarded the Mary Ann Dunsky Visual Arts Award and the Gordon Richardson Artist Scholarship.
Chloe is a member of the Piqua Arts Council and the Yellow Springs Arts Council. She currently resides in Peoria with her husband and two cats.
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