“ I am focusing on this period because it was the years of my adolescence. The source material documents the contemporary world I was growing up in and learning to understand. I find myself drawn to these magazines that were directed at domestic situations, such as “Woman’s World”, “Better Homes and Gardens”, “Family Day” and others. These source materials “hold” a “passivity” in text and imagery, so commonplace, acting as propaganda for the “stable”, and offer a thin blanket of security. By turning images into paintings, I subvert the visible and expose a decrepit undertow of our cultural nature.”
As a result, Jourden’s paintings have a subtly uncanny quality, manipulating our notion of the familiar. Through the use of dry humor, the otherwise disturbing view of our learned creature comforts become endearing.
Evan Ellsworth Jourden received his BFA in painting from the San Francisco Art Institute and MFA from the California College of the Arts.
In 2007 Jourden had his first solo exhibition at Margaret Tedesco’s Second Floor Projects in San Francisco. Jourden currently lives and works in Los Angeles, California. Growing up in Seattle and living in various cities in California, his work has a recognizable West Coast sensibility.