Bloomington artist and co-owner of Main Gallery 404 Eileen Backman has been working on her first art book. The book will feature about 30 paintings of businesses and landmarks around Bloomington-Normal.
Backman said the idea came over a year ago when she had an art exhibit at the Normal Public Library. Someone told her they would buy a book of her paintings.
“So as artists do with most ideas, we ponder on them for a very long time,” said Backman.
After some pondering, Backman went to the other Main Gallery 404 co-owner Brian Simpson with the idea of doing an art book and said he thought it was a good idea.
Simpson came up with the ideas of numbering the books, making them a limited edition and having Backman sign them.
“So it would be just something special for the Bloomington-Normal community,” Backman said.
Community connection
Backman has lived in Bloomington for 20 years, but said before she started painting local buildings she did not know anyone in town.
“My husband's a local attorney, so we've had the opportunity to be very involved, [but] we're both rather introverted, so we're not [involved].” On top of being an artist and co-owning Main Gallery 404, Backman is a full-time paralegal for her husband.
“I hate to admit this,” said Backman, “I don't even think I ever shopped downtown. But now I see how vibrant the downtown community is, and my paintings are bringing that to other people; not even the business owners, but to people who don't even know about these businesses.”
At first it was just about the love for painting architecture, Backman said. The local business that really got Backman into the beauty of downtown Bloomington was The Bistro.
“I had no idea it was a gay bar. I had no idea, but it was beautiful, it was festive and it was decorated. And I was like, ‘What is this place? This is beautiful.’ And then the more I looked, the more beauty I found,” Backman said.
After painting The Bistro, Backman said she noticed that the local businesses had meaning to people.
Backman said Jan Lancaster’s daughter requested another painting of The Bistro that she could give to her mother, the owner of The Bistro, as a gift.
“And [her daughter] told me stories,” said Backman. “The more local places that I painted, the more stories I heard.”
Backman said, “Just recently, the [painting] that I did of the Coffee Hound – the woman who bought it is sending it to Australia for her daughter because when her daughter comes to visit her in town, she loves to go to the Coffee Hound. And so that was like sending a piece of her mom to her [daughter].”
The paintings are not just about the buildings, Backman said they have special meaning that allows people to connect to one another.
“I painted Elroy's not too long ago with the old awning that I love, the red and green one,” Backman said. “And the person who bought it had their wedding reception there. They were like, ‘We had our wedding reception here, I want to buy it.’ And so then they told me the story of their wedding reception.”
A lot of Backman’s painting sales happen that way, where someone tells her about a personal connection they have to the building in the painting.
Backman said she posts her paintings on Facebook and the Nextdoor app and leaves it up to fate that her paintings will go home with the right people.
“A lot of the time the owner of the building wants to have it,” said Backman. “I guess they have joy that their business was the subject of a painting, it means something to them that somebody noticed their business and liked it enough to paint it.”
Some businesses have sold postcards or prints of Backman’s paintings, like Coffee Hound in Bloomington and the Route 66 gift shop Sprague’s Super Service.
Contributing community member
Backman said she has also donated a large two-and-a-half feet by 10 feet painting to Easterseals, and was contracted to make paintings for Habitat for Humanity.
“It feels really good to be a contributing member of the community. Not just as an artist, but as a person who listens to people's stories and hears people's stories, and then can do more than just donate time or money. I can donate something that has special meaning,” said Backman.
Backman said before doing these paintings she was not an established artist in the community.
“It took some confidence building, but now I feel very sure of myself in this niche that I have of painting local art in watercolor and ink, and everyone seems to kind of like that, so I feel comfortable with it,” said Backman.
For Backman, she said it is a blessing to serve the community through her art.
“It's not just being a more established artist, I think it's being a more involved community member,” said Backman.
About the book
Backman is continuing to serve the community through her first art book. It's designed as an inexpensive way to get a lot of local prints to people.
“It's a little bit different than a normal coffee table book,” said Backman. “What I thought would be neat would be if you could take out pages and frame [them]. So the book is designed so that you can take out pages.”
The paintings will all be standard framing sizes: eight inches by 10 inches or five inches by seven inches.
“It allows you to not have to pick and choose between paintings,” said Backman, “and if you take out a page, the book still works. You're not taking some pages from something else. In the book [there are] about 30 paintings.”
Preorders of the art book are available for $25 through Sept. 30 at Emybackart.com. The book will arrive sometime in October and retail from Main Gallery 404 for $35. Limited copies of the art book will be available for purchase at Sprague's Super Service, Bobzbay Books, and the Coffee Hound in Bloomington.
