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John Eden enlisted in the Air Force out of high school and was assigned the lonely duty of guarding B-52 bombers loaded with atomic bombs. This experience left a life-long imprint that is reflected in his "Roundel Series," wall relief paintings of twenty and twenty-first century military aircraft insignias. As John says, "As I walked the line around those planes, I was struck by the dichotomy of their stealthy beauty. How they could be seen as instruments of great good and have the potential of great evil at the same time."
His Roundel Series discs are an outgrowth of his Air Force experiences as well his upbringing in Southern California’s car/surf cultures of the late Fifties and early Sixties.
John Eden obtained his B.F.A. at San Francisco Art Institute using the G.I. Bill where he studied Filmmaking and in 1972 made a short 16mm film about acrobatic flying in a Glider. At S.F.A.I., he also worked as an on-campus janitor to make ends meet and one of the rooms he cleaned contained Bay Area artist Jay DeFeo's monumental “Rose painting,” which is now in New York City at the Whitney Museum on permanent display. Seeing her amazing painting on a daily basis changed his life. He became interested in abstraction, “by just being around it, took one painting class and was hooked.”
In 1977 he received a California State Academic Fellowship (a full two-year scholarship to attend any University in California) and began studies at University of Southern California as a painter, where he received a MFA degree in 1981.
John Eden: www.johneden.org
Artist Talk: Thursday, November 10th, 2:00 - 3:00pm
College of the Canyons Art Gallery
26455 Rockwell Canyon Road, Mentry Hall
Santa Clarita, CA 91355
