Today we’d like to introduce you to Shannon Evans.
Hi Shannon, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I’ve always wanted to be an artist. I have been creating for as long as I can remember. When I was 12 years old, I made it my goal to pursue art as a career. After that, I took every art class I could and went on to get my Bachelor’s of Fine Arts in Drawing & Painting from CSU Long Beach. It was hard to keep up with painting after college, but when lockdown first started in March 2020, I finally had time again to devote to my art. I spent all my extra time in lockdown either painting or working on my art business. I was so unhappy in my office job at the time and really decided it was a “now or never” moment. In August 2021, I was about to quit that office job and I am currently a full-time artist.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Pursuing art is never a smooth road. I struggle with pretty severe anxiety and panic attacks. It has always made going after my art that much harder. Going after a non-traditional path like this one is difficult enough, but with the added anxiety–it can feel truly impossible. I almost quit creating art in college. I was in my sophomore year and all I saw and heard was people talking about how hard it is to make it as an artist, how traditional art is “dead” and how graphic design is the only way to make any money in the art field. And I got very scared that I was making the wrong choice but also it was the only thing I’d ever wanted so was I wrong? Who was I without painting? I took some time to really think about why I was creating art and realized as I keep painting–in whatever capacity–was all that mattered to me. I still have that doubt and fear creep in though, especially lately now that I’m a full-time artist.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I am an intuitive abstract landscape oil painter. Abstraction allows me, as an artist, to interpret the world around me and place myself within the work. Using oil paint, I explore expressive, gestural mark making with references to the natural landscape. My paintings are influenced by daily walks I take; I use the imagery from my memories to imbue the work with layers of nostalgic feeling and whispers of nature. By breaking down and abstracting these references to the natural landscape, the brushwork comes to the forefront of the painting. The juxtaposition and accumulation of advancing and receding positive and negative expressive brushwork form an abstracted landscape: a sense of place, a moment in time. By building up these multiple layers, the work transforms into a mosaic record of my life: feelings, memories, emotions.
The paintings become, in its purest form, an extension of myself. I can look at a painting and remember all of the stages it went through. The evocative, bold and sometimes frantic character of these marks creates a captivating sense of movement that draws one into the piece. Color and paint are used expressively to create a multitude of hues that overlap and build to create spatial relationships. These colors are an intuitive combination of chromic neutrals and highly saturated hues. The ardent character of both the brushwork and color gives the viewer a glimpse into my emotional state at the time of the painting’s creation. It’s a release; it’s a true catharsis.
In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?
In the next five to ten years, I’m sure social media will have an even greater impact on the art world. It has been a very interesting thing to see how it has influenced it already. On one hand, traditional painting will always be relevant, as it still is after all this time even though it is one of the world’s oldest mediums but I think the way it will be presented and the opportunity for artists will change vastly. Like currently, I have two separate content deals for video content of my art on two different social media platforms, an opportunity I didn’t even know was possible or available to me. So I think the biggest shift that will keep happening is how art itself is viewed and how it is shared.
Contact Info:
- Email: shannon.nicole.evans@gmail.com
- Website: https://www.shannonevansart.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shannon.evans.art/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shannon.evans.art
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@shannonevansart
