Eva Avenue is an artist with nomadic proclivities and a creative edifice composed of sledgehammer splinters, bioluminescent microorganisms and pretty things immortalized in amber and concrete. It’s midmorning and we meet at the Dome Grill, Eva is enjoying a breakfast sandwich and a cup of coffee. She holds a menagerie of wild artistic abilities: artist, musician, writer, journalist, editor, snake wrangler and Thai Chef. It’s this kind of tooth and nail obsession that won her the Awesome St. Pete Grant and the opportunity to put together her first installation, “The Gold Room” at the Oleson Gallery. Reflecting on the conversation the nascent score of Nino Rota hums irreverently, from Eva’s favorite film, The Godfather.

“I’m interested in things that pop. I like to celebrate errors and go against this dogmatic adherence to schedules, habits and the idea of perfection,” says Avenue, regarding her aesthetic and goals in publication. I begin with the banal question of what inspired her to create the gold room. Her answer was far less flaccid. “When I was 9 my mom and I would spray paint pinecones. We took these bland, dry things and made them beautiful. I became fascinated with that evolution and the kinds of things that color can do to our perception and emotions.”

Avenue concerns herself with the preservation of pretty things.

“People tend to get cynical with their preferences. There’s this pervasive idea that if it’s not laced in morbidity then it has no meaning. I want to make beautiful things and show that they are not shallow or frivolous.”

In her first installation, opening on April 19, Avenue encourages the audience to take pictures and move pieces as needed. “I don’t want anyone to be inhibited in their experience or approach the art with a sense of timidity. I want everyone to act intimately with my work in a unique and authentic way, I want them to feel challenged by my pieces and in that vein throw the challenge back at me. Art should be a mutual effort between painter and audience.”

The Gold Room itself will have three sections featuring interpretations on the gold complex. “The middle room will be a skeleton party,” upon mentioning this Avenue pulls out her laptop. The photos she pulls up show walls splattered with purple dripping down like mercury and an exposed asphalt colored wall that looks like its getting torn apart. “I’m creating a space where I can throw paint and combust the elements around me. Color has this exceptional power over our moods and the Gold Room is instilled with a general sensitivity to that idea.”

The final piece of the installation will be a ladder to the moon, a piece interpreting the disarray, disillusion, comfort, and ambiguity of death. “You begin to gain confidence through experience. The ladder and the moon lightly romanticize death. There’s so much emphasis put on the specifics of where we go when it’s all over, it’s that kind of anxiety that has cultivated this mass fear of death. I’m not attempting to answer any questions with it. It’s meant to be a vessel that will hopefully make someone understand themselves and their fear a little bit better.”

Avenue is an intense composite of unique metaphor and ambition.

I asked what enables her to be so prolific, the humble artist had a simple response. “You do something long enough and eventually they’ll pay you for it. You have to love and care about what you’re doing. I could lock myself up for twelve hours with a painting and it wouldn’t feel like work at all. I guess that’s the point of art. I try not to force it or labor when I’m uninspired. I have a lot of loves in my life and of course, this love comes with periods of exhaustion but at the end of it all I get to see my vision in chaotic and vibrant color. I’ve reached the point now where I know when something is done.”

Avenue proceeds to take a bite of her breakfast sandwich, “I was hungry so I ordered this sandwich. You got to eat the whole sandwich and enjoy every bite until you’re satisfied.”

The Gold Room opens on Saturday, April 19 at the Oleson Gallery, 685 Central Ave, starting at 7pm. You can keep up with Eva and her Art on her official facebook page or by following her art/satire blog The Nightly Noodle Monthly.

*If any Thai Restaurants in the ‘Burg are looking for an apprentice and/or chef you should know Eva Avenue is on the prowl to fulfill her culinary dreams.

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