More Than Material Art Show Virtual Tour

"Icarus" by Evan Chilson
Mixed Media

Artist Statement

Hey! I'm Evan, an 11th grade student at Sauk Rapids Rice High School, and this is my 8th session here at Portable Vision. I made my piece, Icarus, with lots of different thingies, like colored pencils, gouache, acrylic paint, paper, wood, and ink. I hope you like it! Now, here's what it's about.

My piece has lots of elements, and it's based on the story of Icarus (wow who would have guessed). In a simplified quick version of the story, Icarus was an angel who burned/melted his wings because he flew too close to the sun. For my piece, I tried to convey the idea of making the same mistake multiple times. I used the already burned wing to try and convey this, implying he had already been burned. He also reaches out towards the sky, meaning a couple things- he both is reaching out for help, but also it could be seen as reaching out to the sun, to be burned again. Through this, I think the piece also represents addiction, something that I know many can relate to. I also included two other renditions of Icarus, just to give more motion to the piece and I thought it looked interesting. I really tried to challenge myself with this piece in terms of technique, and boy oh boy did I do that. I think that I went into PV outside of regular PV hours a total of 5 times, meaning I spent at least 12 hours on it NOT on Tuesday nights. I also forced myself to use as many mediums as possible, which was definitely a bad idea (my area was SO messy). I also burned the tips of the wings with a blowtorch. In the end, I’m really happy with how it turned out, and it was worth the amount of time I put into it.

I’d like to thank the mentors in my area, namely Ruby, Colleen, and my mom, Angela for their constant feedback on my piece; it really gave me direction in what to do. I’d like to doubly thank my mom for helping me out with the creation of the piece, as she really helped with assembly and the blowtorch at the end steps. Oh, and thanks Shane for the blowtorch. Finally, I’d like to thank everyone in PV for their constant positive criticism that helped make my piece look how it is today, and just for keeping me motivated to finish it. Thank you all for reading about my statement, and I hope you enjoyed my piece.

Oral Statement