With Painter, Prospero Eaton
(TCC spoke to Prospero prior to the passing of his beloved cat and muse, Lilith Faire.)
Q: When did you start painting? What attracted you to art?
A: I’ve always been creative, but I was kind of focused on different kinds of creative things when I was younger. Even in high school I took just one art class, it wasn’t a focus. I was really into writing and also I was in garage bands as a teenager. Writing and music were my principle creative activities, but I always appreciated art. I always really loved seeing people’s art, and going to museums and seeing art. What kind of clicked for me was, at the job I was mentioning earlier, we had some groups that the persons served would come and attend. One of them was called Art Journal and so I joined on for more of the journaling side; I‘ve been journaling for a lot of my life actually. So I joined for that side and I started initially creating writing lesson plans, and there was another person in the group that focused on the visual art. Eventually we started to cross over and I would do some visual activities. So that really got me hooked. I realized that this was such a therapeutic activity for the people that were attending the group; it was the same way for me. I was really gaining a lot out of that. That was probably not that long ago, like 2011 or so. I started to get art supplies and really got into it from there.
Q: When you started, was painting your medium?
A: Yeah pretty much. I paint with acrylics. I gravitated towards that medium pretty quickly. I like how it’s a forgiving medium, because if things dry quickly you can paint over stuff, so you can make a lot of mistakes in the beginning. I’m mostly just self taught. I’d watch videos on YouTube, I’d read books and try to get some insights, and I’d talk to other people doing art and try to figure out what they were doing and how I could incorporate some of that. It took off and I kind of have my own style, and it went from there.
Q: Are there any artists that have inspired you?
A: It’s usually mostly the local ones. There are artists I like, like Klimt, he’s one of my favorites, and some of the impressionists. There’s this artist that’s really very inspiring to me. He’s a Montreal artist, his name’s Peter Hart. He does a lot of spaghetti art, and I’ve done some spaghetti painting myself. That’s an artist I’ve really fallen in love with.
Some of the artists that really inspire me the most are the artists that I meet. I show art through Out of The Blue and the other artists there are just fantastic, and I find inspiration just from seeing what other people do. Even street art, like graffiti. I get a lot of ideas from a lot of different places, really.
Q: So, to cats! Do you currently have a cat?
A: Yes, I have an 18 year old named Lilith. I’ve had her since she was 9 weeks old. I adopted her with a couple of roommates when I lived in Providence. She’s a tuxedo cat, medium to longish hair. As all cats do, just has tons of personality. She definitely has her catitude and I love her for it. She’s a great cat, and a very important part of my life. I had a cat named Sigmund that passed away in 2014, he was only 5 years old. He was a rescue cat and he had some pre-existing health conditions, he had some heart problems. But he’s a cat I think about all the time. He appears in my painting every now and then, as does Lilith. Lilith appears quite often in my paintings. They’re not always literal interpretations, but there’s alway a little bit of Lilith going on there. A lot of times I just love cats more than humans, quite frankly. I never meet a cat that I don’t adore. I grew up with cats and just have a real love for cats. I love the quirkiness; they’re individuals. I like to be around a lot of friends at times, but I’m also somebody who’s not always a pack animal. I like to be by myself and my cat’s the same way. We spend a lot of time together; she’s just very important to me.
Q: What inspires you to paint cats?
A: My love for cats. Cats are what inspire me. I’m around my cat all the time and she inspires me all the time. Cats are so much fun to observe and I find they just lend themselves to creativity; their personalities, they’re so adorable. All animals are awesome, but I have a special place in my heart for cats.
Lilith Faire: An Interpretation
Mature Lilith Faire
“Beauty comes in all ages. We as a culture celebrate youth. Lilith’s 18 years old now and she’s every bit as beautiful as she was when she was a kitten. That’s my message.”
Prospero Eaton lives in the Boston area and works for a Boston nonprofit human services organization. His work is currently being shown at Out of the Blue Gallery, (outoftheblueartgallery.com) at The Center for the Arts at the Armory, Somerville, MA. You can see his work online at www.prosperospaintings.com and at Prospero’s Paintings on Facebook, Instagram and Etsy.
