North Shore Artist Spotlight: Evan Madsen

[[{“fid”:”8855″,”view_mode”:”media_original”,”fields”:{“format”:”media_original”,”field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]”:””,”field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]”:””},”type”:”media”,”link_text”:null,”attributes”:{“height”:3456,”width”:5184,”class”:”media-element file-media-original”}}]] Evan Madsen is a young art-maker finding his voice. He strongly identifies as a maker and believes everyone can be an artist if they want to be. Devising his own compositions by collaging subjects into landscapes, Evan’s hand is unmistakable. With rigid lines and flat fields of colors, Evan weaves together recognizable landscapes with unfamiliar perspectives. Like Bert’s sidewalk drawings from Mary Poppins, entire worlds are offered for our exploration. Born in January of 1992 in Waukegan, Illinois, Evan is a child of the 90s and of the rural Chicago area. His work draws on those experiences, containing familiar subjects that anyone who grew up in the nineties–or reared children in the 90s­–can identify with.            Evan begins his process by doing what he calls “accessorizing”–a term, no doubt, borrowed from Sheryl Yoast’s character in Remember the Titans–where he uses the internet to research and find a suitable background and subject for his project. Evan then prints off these images, altering the subject’s size so that it is in proper proportion to the background image, and tapes them together to create the composition for his project. Finally, he prints off a larger version of the subject so that he can “see all the details.”     [[{“fid”:”8858″,”view_mode”:”media_original”,”fields”:{“format”:”media_original”,”field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]”:””,”field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]”:””},”type”:”media”,”link_text”:null,”attributes”:{“height”:1080,”width”:1080,”class”:”media-element file-media-original”}}]]       With a confident hand Evan begins drawing directly onto his surface; sketching is not something that has been incorporated into his practice. Evan’s bold lines begin to scrawl across the page, spreading outward from his point of origin. An eraser is rarely needed.            When the drawing is completed, Evan begins painting in the background. Avoiding his pencils lines so that they are still present when the piece is complete, Evan begins to lay down flat fields of color. Evan varies shades just enough to create a sense of depth; however, there is a lack of sublety that allows Evan’s work to flirt with abstraction in ways reminiscent of David Hockney. [[{“fid”:”8856″,”view_mode”:”media_original”,”fields”:{“format”:”media_original”,”field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]”:””,”field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]”:””},”type”:”media”,”link_text”:null,”attributes”:{“height”:2791,”width”:3749,”class”:”media-element file-media-original”}}]]            Next, Evan begins to paint the subject, or centerpiece. This person or object is automatically brought to the forefront of the viewer’s attention because the strokes fall on top of everything that came before. After the subject is complete, Evan works across the entire piece adding small lines and details to refine everything.            When viewing his pieces, Evan hopes that his audience pays attention to his mastery of technique stating that he wants people to notice what we talk about in Art Talk–a program devoted to art history and principles of design. Evan also hopes that viewers will associate positive feelings with his work because that is what he experiences when he is in the process of making.             When Evan is not in the studio he enjoys playing on hockey and tennis teams, playing Mario Kart on his Wii U, watching DVDs such as Hansel and Gretel from 2002, watching the television show Dog With a Blog on the Disney Channel. [[{“fid”:”8857″,”view_mode”:”media_original”,”fields”:{“format”:”media_original”,”field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]”:””,”field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]”:””},”type”:”media”,”link_text”:null,”attributes”:{“height”:2448,”width”:3264,”class”:”media-element file-media-original”}}]]

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