Drive Through Art Show Virtual Tour
"Above the Clouds" by Evan Chilson
Adobe Photoshop 11" by 14"
Artist Statement
Hey, you there. Yeah you, the one that’s currently social distancing. Welcome to this mess of an artist statement. But hey, where there’s a lack of formal writing, you can see the personality of the artist shine… right? Anyway, moving on. My name is Evan Chilson, and I’m a 10th grade (or is it 11th now, because school’s over?) student at Sauk Rapids Rice High School. Thanks for coming to the show!
So for my first piece, “Water Boi”, I wanted to just try my hand at some hyper-realism. I originally was just creating the drawing to practice, but lots of people suggested putting it in the show as well. This piece doesn’t have much meaning behind it - hence the odd and non-serious name. I’m proud of how it turned out, considering the only thing I used was your good ‘ol number two pencil. I really don’t know what else to say; it’s just a guy with water flowing down his face.
"Water Boi" by Evan Chilson
Graphite 8.5”x”11
Artist Statement
For my second piece, “Above the Clouds”, I really wanted to create a dramatic scene digitally. The piece depicts a mountaintop above the clouds, with a traveller (which you probably can’t see easily in the print from a 6ft distance) standing on the summit. There are remnants of the top spires of a castle floating mysteriously above. It seems that the divine light shining behind the castle and down on the traveler is suspending it in the air. When creating the piece, I specifically wanted to dabble in painting clouds, light, and silhouettes. I don’t know why, but this scene had been in my head for a while, so I guess I just made it (wow, I’m Captain Obvious over here). The meaning behind this piece isn’t very literal or even symbolic - I think the importance of the piece is the emotion that it’s trying to invoke. I wanted the sense of wonder, and I think the whimsicality of the broken floating castle gives that feeling. I think that the clouds framing the castle is also showing how important and big this place used to be. The sense of scale is also reinforced by the fact that just the top part of it is as wide at a mountain summit, and the very small traveller also gives the castle this sense of scale and importance. The piece makes me feel like it's the satisfying end to one part of a journey, but there’s still more to do - and I hope you feel a similar way. I guess I could go the cheesy route and say how it’s like the end of one chapter of your life, but life will still go on. Like a life story - wow!
Compared to previous sessions, these pieces were definitely more focused on trying new things related to technique and skill, and less on metaphors behind the images. I would like to thank Matt, who was the leader of our breakout group and gave incredible constructive criticism throughout my processes. I would also like to thank the rest of my breakout group, like Lydia, David, Morgan, Delaney, and occasionally other people as well, for their really cool observations and helpful critiquing. I’d also like to thank God that Zoom is a thing, because oh goodness I can’t imagine trying to do PV without any form of communication. So yeah, I think that covers most of what I wanted to talk about in this paper. Oh, one more thing, you lovely person reading this: stay safe, stay home, and stay neat. Unless you’re reading this years later, or you’re in the Sahara Desert. Okay, now I’m off track. Welp, bye, and thanks for reading and looking!
Oral Statement
