Thursday 25 October 2012

The Great Outdoors - Interview with Rhea Evers

1. Tell us about your practice as an artist.

I predominantly work with pencil, graphite and ink applied with brushes. I tend to deconstruct the image, draw each piece or section until its like a bit of a puzzle and then get it into photoshop to tidy, colour and play with the layout. This is my preferred method right now, but it varies from idea to idea how I go about things. I'm particularly drawn to pattern work and repeat imagery, on a small scale i've started working with ceramics. I hope to get this off the ground in time along with some textile printing.

2. What is your work for 'The Great Outdoors' inspired by?

Sometime last year I swam in a freshwater lake in North London, It was both fear-inspiring and brilliant. I was an outdoorsy child and I've waded through streams but this was so different. I have some phobias about water so it was oddly liberating. In Mythology, the Naiad were a type of nymph that presided over bodies of freshwater such as streams, rivers and lakes. I drew specifically on the tale of Hylas' abduction by Naiads, who dragged him down into the water either to his death or perpetual ecstasy. I've chosen to use the Naiad as a figurehead in this work to represent both my fear and attraction towards that lake last summer.

3. Have you got a particular memory of your experience of the great outdoors that you would like to share?

Digging for fossilised shark teeth in an prehistoric lagoon as a child, which somehow ended up underneath a forest in Abbey Wood. I don't think you can go there anymore, we keep the three teeth in a glass ashtray with one of my milk teeth and a euro.

www.rheaevers.com

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