66 | FEBRUARY 16 • 2023
I
n an Oak Park home, there are two art
studios. One belongs to Justin Bean, an
abstract painter, and the other belongs
to his wife, Emily Bean, a fabric sculptor.
While his day job is with a nonprofit and
hers is in advertising, their after-dinner
activities take them into separate studios to
work on current projects.
To his surprise, Justin recently was con-
tacted by the Art in Embassies program,
established by the U.S. Department of State
in 1963. He was asked to show one of his
works in the U.S. embassy in Cameroon,
and it already has been placed there.
The piece, titled Cosmic Shield, has
bright acrylic colors and was completed on
canvas.
“The request to show this painting was
really unexpected,
” Justin Bean said. “I
got an email very much out of the blue
from a woman who works for the Arts
in Embassies program. She asked if I was
interested in participating and, at first,
I was a little skeptical because there’s so
much spam email out there.
“Then I noticed she had a government
address, and I had heard about the pro-
gram. I said I’
d certainly be interested, so
we set up a phone call and I got to speak
with her.
”
Apparently, the woman had been looking
online to gather resources, and she came
across Bean’s website and reached out.
“This is the first time my work has been
exhibited by an agency such as this,
” he
said. “I’ve shown paintings in galleries and
businesses. Other than appearing with a
friend living in Toronto, it is the first time
my work has been hanging out of the
country.
“I like that abstract work is not tell-
ing you to feel a certain way or interpret
the work in a certain way. It very much
becomes about the material itself and what
you’re seeing in front of you. You step back
and look for things that are referenced.
“It will still draw comparisons with
things you see about you in everyday life.
That is part of the process, but it doesn’t
mean there is something represented there.
It becomes a way of getting at ideas that are
abstract — the way your mind works with
SUZANNE CHESSLER CONTRIBUTING WRITER
“I WANT TO MAKE
VISUAL WORK THAT IS
COMPELLING, DRAWS
PEOPLE IN AND GETS
THEM TO DO THEIR
OWN ANALYSIS ABOUT
WHAT THE WORK SAYS
TO THEM.”
— JUSTIN BEAN
Local artist’s work chosen to hang
in the U.S. embassy in Cameroon.
A Cross-Cultural
Exchange
ARTS&LIFE
ART
Cosmic Shield, the work by
Justin Bean now hanging at the
U.S. embassy in Cameroon.