Solo Exhibit Seb Evans Cutting History |
Boy With Dead Bear
Woodblock 2016 |
A Bit About The Artist Seb Evans’s woodblock work is instilled with the idea of home and realized through historical references, archival photographs, experimentation and the alchemy of printmaking. Seb’s woodblocks are an exploration of place that reconciles personal perceptions with incongruent imagery and history. It was a print relief course taught by Bonnie Baxter at Concordia University in Montreal that exposed Seb to the unlimited possibilities that printmaking processes had to offer, providing a new direction for exploration based on Seb’s passion for drawing. The transformation from drawing to block/matrix/plate to final print resulted in letting go of his control over the piece, allowing chance to take over. As Seb put it: “there is a moment when you give up the drawing and its limitations for different possibilities.” After graduating from art school at Concordia University in 2015 Seb moved back to Vancouver Island and has made Salt Spring Island his home. We met over a video call and talked about his practice, processes and what excites him. Since moving back to BC he has been reflecting on the perceptions of what it means to live in BC from an “Easterner’s” perspective, how his own memories tell him a different story, and the uncovering of new interpretations from historical photographs. Seb shared travel stories about getting his creativity flowing in China, biking to Costa Rica and stopping in Oaxaca for some resistance culture inspiration, and then coming back to his woodcuts on the BC coast. Below is an excerpt from our conversation. -Tara Howarth |
"Printmaking was alchemy and all experimentation, I found it incredible to give up so much to chance and hand it over to the materials." -Seb Evans
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Denman Island Hunters 2015 A group of hunters gathered around a bear carcass is not the usual image that comes to mind when conjuring up visions of Denman Island. It is the exploration of this disconnection of photographic perceptions from the past to the personal experiences of today that underpins Seb’s woodblock prints. In the print you can see the loosely drawn lines are carefully carved around to maintain the quality of a line drawing offering the viewer a relationship between the photograph, the drawing and the final print.
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An Interview with the Artist
PRINT: Why printmaking? What brought you to printmaking? Seb: When I enrolled in Concordia I was exposed to everything: sculpture, painting, printmaking. Printmaking was alchemy and all experimentation. I found it incredible to give up so much to chance and hand it over to the materials. When I returned to Victoria I was doing monotypes for the immediacy they offer. When it comes to woodcuts, I enjoy the process of drawing, putting my drawings on the wood and slowly whittling away. It changes the drawing, and working with wood is so resilient. Wood can take a beating and it’s not forgiving when you make a mistake. PRINT: Where does the imagery for your woodcuts come from? Seb: I am interested in historical imagery and sifted through archives to find images of BC that didn’t line up with my own understanding of BC. I was also reflecting on what BC is to Quebecers and how they have a romantic vision of BC, which isn’t how I perceive it. The woodcuts are part of the exploration about place of home. Is it the story? Is it the experiences? Both? When I came home from my travels I kept coming back to printing and pushing my drawings and sense of home. PRINT: Can you share a bit about your woodcut and printing process? Seb: I start with a drawing or sketch and draw it directly onto the woodblock. I don’t transfer the image over, just draw. I used a sharpie on the end of a stick to draw on the block for “Denman Island Bear Hunters”. It took about 3 weeks carving full time, having to follow all the lines. It’s a large print and was printed by hand. --Tara Howarth |
Seb at PRINT pulling his edition for the PRINT gallery titled "The Shoemaker in His Shop".
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The Shoemaker in his Shop Seb Evans, Woodcut, 17x22", 2020
A Bit About the Artist's Technique
A History of Japanese Woodblock PrintmakingWoodcut printmaking is one of the oldest forms of printmaking. With this technique carving tools are used to remove portions of a solid flat surface of wood so that the remaining elevated portion can have ink rolled over top of it. This is then pressed with paper so the image is transferred to paper. Woodcuts allow for a great deal of expression and have looked very different from one artist’s hands to the next. Woodcuts in Japan initially were a simple medium for reproduction, but around 1660, artists began producing prints that reflected everyday life. These were called ukiyo-e and they depicted warriors, performers, domestic scenes, landscapes and erotic scenes. Their composite, use of space, pattern and colour were completely new. The works of Hiroshima and Hokusai are considered masterpieces today. The prints’ popular appeal meant that there were so many of them, that they were even used for packing paper, which is likely how they made it to the west. Soon their influence became enormous to the French Impressionists and Post-impressionist painters including Paul Gauguin and Edward Munch. --Desiree DeRuiter |
Hota Coast in Boshu, 1858
Utagawa Hiroshige |
We acknowledge the generous support of the CRD arts commission for this project. |