John Evans
   Studio

How would you introduce yourself to someone who doesn't know you?

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I would describe myself as quite outgoing but also a kind of extrovert introvert. When you really know me I'm like an open book, but if you don't know me it can take me a while to open up. I'm quite wild so I need to check that you're down with the wildness! I'd say I'm quite artistic but within myself.

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How would you describe your art?

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I'm a very visual person. My ideas tend to come from things I've seen and then it builds up until I have a concept and outcome. If I do anything arty it tends to be via photography, illustration or dress, so like self expression art more than painting a picture for example. I wouldn't say I'm a talented drawer or sculptor but rather I'm all about expressing my artistic ways in other forms.

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What inspires you?

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I consider myself a bit of a magpie, I just look at everything and I never stop searching for things. If somebody catches my eye in the street and I like what they're wearing or something about them then I will analyse it and photograph that in my mind so I can go onto Pinterest and try and find something similar to recreate but then make it authentically mine. I do that a lot with fashion and photography.

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What are your thoughts on the creative scene in Cardiff?

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I think we've made massive moves. I remember 4/5 years ago when people would ask this question and people in Cardiff just didn't give a shit, there just wasn't a lot here. Cardiff has always been a very samey place, it was very easy for people to not want to go out of their comfort zones. Everyone I knew was going to Bristol because Bristol was this place where there was a gig going on every night and there was all these vintage shops and then all of a sudden there were people who started to care about Cardiff. I was 17 when I met these boys Andy, Josh and Scot who owned a vintage shop at first called Blue Honey on Womanby Street and I thought wow I've never seen a vintage shop like this, it was very individual. They started to do these events and then opened Blue Honey Local and I just thought I had finally found a place where I felt safe. It was the first place in Cardiff that played the kind of music I liked and was my kind of vibe. I just thought it was fucking fantastic.

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I think students are a big part of it and they have started to create events and people are starting to realise that unless we do it ourselves, no one is going to do it. I think it's really lovely that there is a community in Cardiff now and we all know each others faces and we all respect each other. I think it's important that we keep pushing this, it's becoming really special and I'm really liking where we are with the creative scene right now.

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Do you have a favourite quote?

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I do, it's very cheesy. I'm very much all for looking after yourself and I feel that this represents that. 

 

"If you can't love yourself, how in the hell are you gonna love somebody else?" Rupaul Charles. 

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What is your earliest memory of art?

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My parents had always taken me to museums when I was very little. My Mum and Dad are massive lovers of art and respect art. From a really young age I started going to exhibitions and it has just grown. Me and my mum would always be like 'what bonding things could we do?' like if there was something going on in the V&A we would just go. But I remember I had just turned 18 and had my first tattoo, which tattoos are massively important to me, it's a culture of its own which I could talk about forever but I remember going to an exhibition about Botticelli, the birth of Venus and the goddess of love and it was the first nude to be painted and accepted and my mum took me there and what that painting did to inspire the female nude onwards really kickstarted my own movements. I remember telling my mum 'I'm gonna get that woman tattooed on me' and my mum was like 'Amelia, I didn't take you here to get a tattoo!' I felt like I understood Venus and understood what the impact of that painting was and I just thought 'ah, that's a bit of me.' I think it's all these little stepping stones that have lead me to where I am and even though I'm not necessarily artistic in the sense of drawing and painting I do see beauty and I'll find beauty in anything. If I can find beauty in anything and put that beauty on me, I will do it. I almost see myself sometimes as art, like if I can be the art rather than a painting or a photograph, even as big headed as it sounds, but being able to make yourself beautiful and get you to look at yourself the way that someone would look at a piece of art and think 'wow that moves me' and I would like to move people. Art has moved me to make me want to move other people.

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Why do you think art is important in today's society?

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I think it's important for today's society because it's a form of expression and I think we've passed barriers now. If you look back through history and how things have moved, for example Picasso, everybody thought his work was shit and that it was nothing like the classics and I just feel like that's all passed now. You don't have to create art that looks like the classics anymore and you don't have to be able to necessarily draw or paint to be able to create art, and I think that's quite beautiful and how you can make something from nothing. It's an escapism massively and I think a lot of young people don't realise that they need art but I think it's the only way to inspire and push people to do better and to do more. There are no limits now, you could put a load of stuff in a bin and with the right lighting someone somewhere will be so moved by it, it might not move three people in the room or a thousand people but if it moves one person in the room you've done something right. I think that's incredibly important and the best way to connect with people.

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Any words of advice for upcoming creatives?

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Never stop looking. Look at your surroundings and look at the sky. I look at the sky a lot, if it's a cloudy day it's a bit hard but even when it's just blue just look at it for half an hour and feel the sun on your face and stick a good song on! Remember on your bad days that it's just your bad days. When I feel really rubbish I make projects, because the only way I can get out of the bad day is if I have something to create. When you start making art for yourself, that is truly your best. If something doesn't bring you joy anymore then stop, find something new, if it does bring you joy then keep on doing it.

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Any aspirations for the future?

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I just really want to be happy. I've sort of realised in the last month that I'm ready to start a new chapter. I'm going to start a new project which is self portraiture, it's going to take me probably over a year. It's going to be my mug on as many pages as I decide, not much writing just my face and my body to a point of before I have this operation to post op recovery. I'm excited to see where I go with it.