Alexander Evans

Sometimes I just have too much work.  Not school work, but i create so much I cant catch up with myself.  I some ways it is an amazing problem to have and in other ways it feels debilitating, although  I realize its always better to have too much rather than too little.  The thing about me is, I never had to choose a creative lifestyle, I never had to choose to be a maker, it was a necessity.  I lived in a town that was forty five minutes from the closest movie theater, hour from the closest mall, surrounded by soy bean fields, no internet until 2005, most of my peers could be found every night of the week playing drunken stick ball in the Mcdonald’s parking lot because literally they had nothing better to do. As much as I hated it in high school, Centreville very quietly shaped my core.  Creation was a nature cure for boredom and in Centreville, if you dont drive a truck and act like a racist, then there is no “scene”.  I did not even think about the terms art or “artist” relating to me, until I started filling out college applications junior year.  Everything i had made before then (photographs, video, sculpture, paintings, music) existed for no one, but myself and my best friends.  It was pure interest and influence.  I can remember being twelve and spending hours lashing sticks together in the middle of the woods with vines, creating sculptures that Andy Goldsworthy could appreciate, the fifteen foot figure we erected and then named Mr. Precarious knowing well that it would disappear in the night without a trace.  I created because I enjoyed doing.  I was alive and exercising my creativity and imagination was the only affirmation of my vitality that I had. It seems so different now and yet it should be the same.  This year I am examining myself and documents I left behind, in hope of recapturing my youthful spirit of creativity. Here is a tribute to the ingenuis of adolescence.

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For those of you who don’t know what goes on inside RIT photo department.  Here is a little taste. Matt Kelley talking about the development of his project and a class mastication session.

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Congratulations to everyone involved and all of our authors who were involved in the show that opened in the Trust Gallery this weekend.  A special congratulation to David Ohl, man of the hour, his dedication and execution of this event was truly inspiring. I had an amazing and adventurous weekend in Philadelphia.  I will put more footage from the opening onsite soon, but i leave you with two teasers for now.

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Aug 1, 2009
12:45pm
Its beautiful day here in the all American city, Buffalo, New York. I start a long awaited return trip to the lovely Amhic lake region of Northern Ontario. Its no small feat, killing six hours of time; completely broke and wandering the desolate and depraved streets of a city that pasted its prime in the early years of the twentieth century. The air is dank with the smell of discarded street meat and I watch the gulls fight the pigeons to feast.
The six hour bore-da-force begins in a small park next to the regional transit center. I lay on top of my luggage, resting next to a fountain that was contemporary in the 1970s and already neglected and in disrepair. I lay down just in time to notice two homeless men sleeping near each other, one passed out in what I assume to be a drug induced comma, with an unlit loosey hanging in his mouth. Everyone in Buffalo seems to wear a tired distant stare, as if perpetually making their way through a dense fog and blindly moving forward.
The Sun is out as the metro snails by with the harrowing screech of steel on steel intercourse. There are seven well dressed passengers on the train, with briefcases and handbags in tow. The metro in Buffalo runs no more than two miles, in a straight line with five stops, its just long enough to entice the lazy core of the America commuter. There is nothing more American than building an electric tram to navigate the inconvenient facade of abandoned architecture.
I just saw my fifth santa clause look-a-like limping with a cane, fat, but not jolly. There is my third seemingly too obese to walk, women in a sun dress accessorizing with hat and handbag. Its a beautiful day here in Buffalo, and the hot dogs serenade “god bless america” from the gutter next to me. I take a deep breath and turn my face to the sky, humble because I have to be, patient as I’ve never known; happiness has never felt so near and far from here.

Serendipity |ˌserənˈdipitē|
noun

the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way

Tranquillity

(also spelled tranquility[1][2]) is the quality of calm experienced in places with mainly natural features and activities, free from disturbance from man-made areas.

More than ever, I feel privileged to be able to explore the inexhaustible possibilities of verbal and visual communication.   However, anyone so privileged, has not only the great responsibility, but the great freedom of sharing, exploring, and relating, the incalculable variety and diversity of the human experience.

The most profound and humbling qualities of the photograph, is it’s universal communicability. It transcends borders and language as an often unappreciated tool of universal communication.  Never have I been more inspired, then by the unlikely photographer; for it is his or her unique vision of the world (no degree required), that constantly challenges the easy assumptions and complacency of the masses. An even though, the photograph is an abundant resource in our visually saturated culture, I still see these unlikely voyeurs as the champions of history. By preserving one moment, they become the heros and heroines of individuality, synthesizing communication in light of daily confrontation and cultural confusion. In a gobalized culture, the fact that the individual still has the ability to create an understanding or image that is able to transcend tradition, is a testament to validity of the human potential. With theses efforts easily pigeon-holed as pointless, self-serving, or failed, the inspired comunnicators are not driven by recognition, or notoriety, but by necessity.  “Necessity is the Mother of Invention”, Plato.

After sharing what I deem to be impressive, I’d like to share with you what I have actually done in the last month. Here are a few photographs to warm you up to my whole Canada experience.  Ive waited three long years to be able to return to this wonderful slice of life.  While I was there i wrote, read, drew, painted, photographed, played chess, fished, swam, sang and explored.  It was the capstone of a nearly perfect summer. These are a rough few to wet your whistle, there are more to come!

I slept in a tent for 2 weeks on a shitty broken cot and loved every second of it. This was taken on an early morning row.

This is another lake view of the camp, Its on Rhodes’s Island on Ahmic lake in the Magnetawan River Way and its kinda of a

difficult place to photograph

Much much more to come,

Sunday and Wednesday,

I cant feel your pulse,

But dont worry,

Im here with the defibrillator.

O and Cheers to Chris Moore for being the newest author and the only one posting, what a guy!

Hello sun and wed its really been too long, last time I left you, I was in the throws of a five week crash course in advertising and I have to report that I think it went really well. I learned more about advertising and still life in those five weeks than the last 3 years. Im sorry ive been a lil apprehensive about posting my advertising still lives, since i have not been able to give them the photoshop love that they deserve. Ad xl was like five weeks of straight shooting, now i feel like i need five weeks of editing, but i havent been so dedicated. But for now I leave you with more utensils light paintings as per request. I used the hosemaster to light these, that awkward black thing wrapped around me in matt kelley’s post. His picture was taken at the end of xl, obviously i hadnt seen enough of the sun. Since the end of my course I effortlessly shook my serious work ethic to return to Maryland for my 21st birthday on july 2. Ethically trading my work for whiskey, ive been well and drunk ever since. I also made a few amazing images while I was there and sober enough to hold a camera, you ll see those later and I promise to be back this sunday with more complex edited still lifes. Cheers!

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ps.  Okay so this is an updated look at one of the projects I started in the early days of my five week studio course.  I like the idea of glorifying the mundane, the everyday, and the over looked.  This was an exercise aimed to familiarize me with the lighting technique I would employ for the rest of the class.