Evan Blackwell

Evan's work explores the abstract qualities of memory through different media by visually describing the sensorial imprint of trauma and recovery. The waxy and glossy surfaces are built up through textured layering that expresses the body's capacity to restore itself, drawing connections to clotted blood and scabbed skin. The shapes and layers suggest cells and blood vessels, marrow, tissue, and skin. Fluid, gestural, and biomorphic forms reference the organic, chronic conditions and physical experience, as well as the subconscious imprints, left behind by trauma. The accumulation of objects and layers function as strata of scarred tissue and traumatic memory. Nevertheless, there is also hope and endurance, like a cross section of experience. The layers both create and attempt to rationalize the chaos, amalgamating into a new composite image and entity. Utilizing elements of the sublime and the grotesque, this work pursues reverence and acceptance where there is no understanding, rather than distress and fear of the unknown. It discusses the dichotomies of survival in their search to find places of solace within chaos, to come to terms with chronic pain as well as discover beauty beyond brokenness.