Featured Artist: Evan Harris

Evan Harris' whimsical pieces can't help but tell a story. Whether they're lonely sailors or maidens or even butterfly-people, Evan's subjects all seem to have heroic, story-book lives. The muted, warm colors he uses speak of an older time when things were simpler.

The environments he paints his characters into are more often than not related to nature with branching vines, leafy scapes, and creatures and each piece seems to be a salute to the beauty in the simple shapes of nature. Working in a palette with a sepia feel gives his paintings their signature dream-like or old fashioned aura.

Evan Harris will be having a solo exhibition in at Compound Gallery in March 2007.

His life so far:
Born in the briars and backwoods thistles of Medford, Oregon, Evan Benjamin Harris grew up with little knowledge of the bourgeois big city fine arts. So, he dove into the recesses of his own imagination and embraced the fables and folklore that fascinated him. With little to do but draw, he did exactly that. Now older, things haven’t changed much. The stories he created as a child are still present in his paintings. With diligence and hard work, Evan’s crude stick figures became the more clearly defined images you see today. With no formal art training, he creates on his own terms. Broken boards, oil and acrylic paints, charcoal pastels, plastic resign, and melted waxes are among the mediums Evan uses. Then they are beaten, brushed, sanded, polished, and hung. Most would cringe at the idea of scratching or sanding something they spent hours upon hours painting, but that’s Evan’s favorite part- creating the appearance that this wasn’t made in the 21st century, maybe in the 20th. So, behind every scratch and claw mark, there is a story to tell.

Q&A with Evan Harris:

Q: What emotion/feeling do you want the viewers of your artwork to have?
A: I would hope that my art would evoke positive feelings and/or emotions in the people that view it.

Q: Who/what are some current influences on your artwork?
A: Rusty machine parts, broken tree limbs, thistles, overgrown gardens, old houses with the paint peeling, folk music, critters of all shapes and sizes, bones, graveyards, the sea, shipwrecks, cowboys, indians, silence, my father Robert A. Harris.

Q: What mediums do you absolutely love?
A: Old paper, washed out acrylics, wax and resin all sanded down and shined up.

Q: How different is it to work when someone is commisioning a piece as opposed to how you would normally work?
A: I have to work harder to capture the desired emotion in an image for a certain individual when I do a commission piece. Normally I just paint whatever I fancy.

Q: When did you begin to take your art seriously?
A: In second grade when other kids started asking me to draw them pictures on their notebooks.

Q: How do you prepare before creating a new piece?
A: Before I physically create anything, I paint the picture in my mind. I make sure all the colors and shapes are to my liking.

Q: Why do you do art?
A: It's the only thing that makes me happy.

Q: Does anything from your childhood have a big influence on your current work?
A: Pieces of folk tales my mama told me as a child.

Q: What's it like to be able to live off of your art?
A: I'm hungry.... very, very hungry.

Q: When did you realize that you were an artist?
A: I never realized I was an artist; it just sort- of happened. I still don't call myself an artist; it's other people that refer to me that way.

Q: Are there any mediums that you're dying to try out?
A: I'd like to carve something out of wood sometime.

Q: What do you like the most about the characters in your pieces?
A: They are always completely comfortable in their environment. It makes me jealous. Someday I hope I'll feel that at home.

Q: About how long does it typically take you to complete a piece?
A: I work on each piece until there is nothing left for me to do. It varies between each piece. In general.... hours, days, a long time.

Q: What's a typical day like in the life of (the artist)?
A: When I'm working on a show: I sleep in, get a cup of coffee, watch the news, paint for a few hours, play my guitar, then paint again until 2 or 3 am.

Q: What do you think of the art vinyl movement? Have you ever thought of making a toy?
A: I think it's a really cool resource for artists to work with. It's nice to be able to look beyond a flat surface and see things in a three dimensional environment. I have some friends that have made vinyl toys, and their work translates nicely. As for myself, I don't think my work lends itself as nicely to vinyl. However, I have thought of making wooden toys.

Q: What was the first concert that you went to?
A: Ozzy Osborne: No More Tours.

Q: Other than art, what other passions/hobbies do you have?
A: I love playing music with my friends: Horse Feathers, Loch Lomond, Laura Gibson. Between that and art, I don't really have time to do much more. I'd love to sail someday.

Q: What is your favorite place on earth?
A: I don't know, I haven't been everywhere yet. I did go to Venice last summer, and I think that would be a hard place to top.

Q: Did you have any heroes as a child that you can't seem to stand now?
A: I always thought Chuck Norris was really tough. I don't really think that any more.

Q: What was the first band you really went crazy over?
A: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. His songs are so damn catchy.

Q: What do you miss from your childhood the most?
A: My innocence.

Q: If you could be extremely rich and famous for doing one thing, what would it be?
A: I would rather be extremely rich without being famous by doing art.

Q: What is one thing that you simply can't live without? A: Coffee.

Q: Polaroids or Digital? A: Polaroids.

Q: What was the last impulse purchase that you made? A: A new banjo.

visit Evan's website: evanbharris.com