Evan Summer!!

I enjoyed the Even Summer show very much. This was my first experience meeting a guest artist in the Dowd gallery. I liked being able to hear first hand the process he goes through before the final product is finished. After hearing how long the process was to make one print, I appreciated the collection more as a whole. Evan said that this collection took about thirty years to complete. He would start working on one piece and put it away then start working on another piece, eventually working back into the pieces he had stored away. I was inspired when Evan said that when he would feel like he was stuck as an artist, unable to move forward in his work, he would look back at his previous pieces, and would be inspired by them. I was also very interested in the processes itself, especially the process of collagraphy. I love the options it leaves the artist; it gives them freedom to combine different textural materials together in various configurations. My favorite collagraphy piece is the Interior X. When I walked through the gallery this piece captured my attention the most. I loved how mysterious the door appeared, and how distinct it was form the rest of his collection. The texture in this piece was incredible; this is the piece that interested me in learning more about the collagraphy process; I was very disappointed I could not attend the workshop. I also loved the beetle inspired pieces. Once again it was not until Evan explained the history behind these beetles that I really appreciated the work. Evan said that these beetles were extremely rare, their value being thousands of dollars, which was very surprising; yet you could almost sense the fortune behind these beetles in the way Evan represented them. Overall I was very impressed by the Evan Summer gallery show. I went back to the gallery to view his work again after reading his biography and had a better sense of where his inspiration came from. This collection inspired me to explore a new type of printing process, which I hope to work with in the near future.