Buskirk-Chumley Theater holds textillery gallery opening Friday

Sitting in her car at a stop light, painter and illustrator Emma Overman notices the purple and smoky grey sky and immediately jots down the color combination to remember it later, she said.\n“Retreat” is the theme of the July Textillery Gallery exhibit featured at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater by Overman, an Indianapolis artist.\nOverman, a painter and illustrator, is constantly checking her purse for receipts and scrap paper for any color combination she might have written down days or weeks ago.\n“People think art inspires art,” Overman said. “But I find inspiration in my everyday life.” \nOverman is the illustrator of four children’s books and has shown her paintings in many exhibits and fairs. She classifies her work as “nostalgia for adults.” She said she thinks her work makes adults reflect upon their childhood. \nBut, she said, she gets reactions to her work from both adults and children. \nHer exhibit this month has a nature-related theme with paintings of animals, trees and little girls.\n“The little girls escape from society while they’re in the forests,” she said. \nOverman said she enjoys being alone and admitted she is something of a hermit, which is another reason she feels nature can be an escape. \nThroughout high school, her works were mainly portraits of friends, and it wasn’t until she attended Maryland Institute, College of Arts in Baltimore that she took illustration classes and found her individual style, she said. \nOverman moved into a one-bedroom Indianapolis condominium in May 1999. She said she used her bedroom for art space and turned her living room into a bedroom. She said she needed the biggest space for working, but soon she began to spread her art space all throughout the condo, working on her living room floor.\n“I needed a way to get the art out of my way at home,” Overman said. She soon found a studio at Harrison Center for the Arts. \n“I don’t feel I choose to be an artist; it chose me,” Overman said. “Some of my best decisions have chosen me.” \nOverman’s long list of accomplishments includes being an illustrator for the Indy Fringe Festival, winning Indianapolis’s Art versus Art competition and many other awards and recognitions.\nShe will be at the opening reception at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater from 5 to 7 p.m. on Friday. She will be one of the many artists featured this month in the Textillery Gallery. For more information about Overman, visit her Web site at www.emmaoverman.com.