We recently connected with Evan Small and have shared our conversation below.

Evan, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Do you wish you had waited to pursue your creative career or do you wish you had started sooner?

I’ve been at least producing some form of visual art since childhood. In middle school I fell in love with Photography. In middle and highschool, Art Class was never something I chose as an elective. Looking back, I don’t know why that was, because I drew or took out my camera every day.

There were about 5 years in my Twenties where I stopped pursuing any sort of Creative form of expression altogether, but when I started painting again, it felt like I’d gotten better, and it didn’t take long to surpass where my skill set had been.

I think when you love doing something, even if you are not currently engaged in it, you’re still taking in valuable lessons and insights. You’re mind is still learning about it like some sort of background process.

I do wish I took my work as an Artist more seriously from a younger age, but I also wish I would have started a serious savings account from a younger age as well. Everything good that has happened in my professional life, has happened because of persistence.

I remember years back, I was on the phone with a recruiter who was trying to get me to come run a press. I told him I intended to pursue a career as an Artist, and he quickly became upset. He was obviously hoping for me to take the printing job, and took the time to knock me down a peg, explaining the competition I was up against in a big city with a large pool of Art School Allumni. I went to a Tech school for Graphic Technology and Communications, and that’s always been a splinter in the back of my mind.

Persistence always pays off sooner or later, and wherever you are in your creative career, even if you’re still fruitlessly pursuing one, keep going, you are exactly where you’re supposed to be.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

After highschool, I went to Griffin Technical College, which has since become Southern Crescent Technical. I studied Graphic Technology and Communications, and continued working in restaurants to pay for school. Later, I got into Printing & Packaging, running presses, and working in Prepress. I had my first group exhibition at The Doo Gallery around 2010. Since then, have been busy painting, taking commissions, and showing my work.

I approach much of my work from an inner mood based perspective. My paintings are oils on canvas or wooden panels, and most of them are portraits. In highschool, I was diagnosed with Schizoaffective Disorder, which is a combination of Schizophrenia and Bipolar. Some of my work focuses on Shadow People, and hallucinations, very much of it focuses on my mood during the process, and some of it is just pictures of people. I’m extremely interested in and focused on the creation of new characters, cartoons, and Memetics as an evolutionary process.

Recently, one of the projects I was really excited about was a commissioned piece for an old friend. The work was of his 5 year old son, and It really held a special spot in my heart because I remember being age 5 sitting next to my friend in art class, working on some of our first projects. He also works as a Visual Artist today.

Can you share your view on NFTs? (Note: this is for education/entertainment purposes only, readers should not construe this as advice)

NFTs… I have a couple. Personally I could take them or leave them. I have not personally gone down the road of trying to make and sell them, and I don’t have anything against most of the creators making and selling them. It’s an awesome concept, and groundbreaking in the digital space, but I’ve always been very emotionally attached to paintings, sculptures, and work created for a physical space made from physical materials. It will be exciting to see where it goes, but NFTs have already made there way into billionaires portfolios making them easily manipulated like money or credit, which doesn’t sit well with me.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding part of Painting to me is watching something materialize right in front of you where there once was nothing. Some things I will always see the magic in, like 100 people getting in a big steel and aluminum tube and soaring 30,000 ft above the ground. Painting, Photography, and Cinema will always be filled with that same magic to me.

Contact Info:

• Website: evansmall.gallery
• Instagram: @toughcritterz
• Facebook: Evan Small
• Other: TikTok @toughcritterz

Image Credits
Thomas Shaefer- Photo of Vynil