We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Josh Evans a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Josh, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

The year? 2000.
The vibe? Immaculate.

Y2k hadn’t caused the untimely demise of society, the coolest tech was flashily housed in transparent colored plastic, the twin towers were still a thing, and I was OBSESSED with Star Wars Episode One The Phantom Menace. We didn’t just have the vhs, we had the vhs which came with a second vhs which was all about the making of the movie. I probably watched this behind the scenes tape more than I watched the actual film. This second tape laid a crucial groundwork for what was to come.

Here’s the thing about parenthood, they have no idea if what they’re doing at any given moment will forever alter the course of a child’s life. They just do stuff and hope the kid is able to get through the day happy, undamaged, or both. Case in point: my parents probably considered throwing away the old, giant camcorder after my father upgraded to his new prosumer handycam. Would’a been a wise move, the old beast was holding on for dear life and most its features had, over the years, become rather unfeatured. “Give it to the kid.” One of them said, presumably. “He’ll have fun, it’ll break, and we can forget about it.” Which is how that big ‘ol shoulder-resting, vhs tape eating, beast ended up covered in wrapping paper on my 12th birthday.

Wanna-be Nazis exploded in balls of fiery death. Mummies leapt from piles of dirty laundry at my screaming little sister. Santa Claus fired a laser rifle while falling down two flights of stairs, desperately keeping the pillows in his shirt with one hand while tumbling. With the camera on my shoulder, I became another person. I had STORIES. No good ones yet but STORIES nonetheless. The camera gave me purpose, I felt as though I’d finally found my real voice. Ever since that birthday, everything I’ve done has been to get me one step closer to making my own movies.

I write scripts, novels, and short stories. I make short films with family, friends, and enemies. I pay the bills as a Lead Matte Painter, working on feature films you’ve probably seen. The whole time, that 12 year old is there. He’s grinning his goofy grin, shouting orders to his cast of little monsters, and dragging my depressive old ass into a brighter future.

I don’t know where that old camera ended up but I still know every surface on it better than I know my own face. Some people find their destiny over a long period of searching, others unwrap it. No wrong answers. Pity about those twin towers though.

Josh, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Art school did me dirty. Scratch that, art school was awesome, it was the student loans that did me dirty but that’s another story. Like most morons, I tripped and fell into vfx. I was living my dream in film school but felt like I wasn’t being challenged enough as a freshman. Somehow I got a bunch of seniors excited about a script I’d written and convinced them to help me film it. We had a full crew, actors, equipment (the red camera they’d shot Star Wars Episode Three on!), locations (a cathedral who’d turned down STEVEN SPIELBERG!!), and honest to goddess CRAFTY!!!

What could go wrong? I felt like a professional, I was a DIRECTOR. I threw my soul into this project, it wasn’t even for a class I just needed to prove myself. We wrapped. I was elated. Over Thanksgiving break I got an email from the editor. He’d lost the tapes. Oops.

I changed my major to vfx.

I make good money (not good enough to pay off those student loans but that’s another story OK?!) and the work is decent. But, just like freshman Josh disregarding foundations classes for passion projects, I really only care deeply about the stuff I do outside of work.

Movies are my religion. I watch them, I read them, I write them. One day I’ll realize that dream of making a feature. I can talk vfx shop with the best of them, I’ve somehow managed to be good at what I do when it comes to cg environments and matte paintings. But my heart lies in storytelling, I’d rather be talking about the Christmas Kaiju Musical Sion Sono made than what I do professionally (no really, It’s called ‘Love and Peace’ and it’s baffling in the best possible way, we should watch it together)!

If I had to distill my personal vision down, it’s the place where horror and sweetness mix like honey and lead-based paint. Anarchic catharsis through joyous terror. Every single story I tell needs to have a BIG SWING, otherwise…what’s the point?

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

If all my needs were met, right now in this very moment, I would throw myself full time into my art. Anyone who ever dismisses universal basic income as the nullifier of motivation or drive is either completely passionless themselves or a disingenuous fool. Humanity needs to value storytelling in the way it values the automobile and freshly baked blueberry-banana pie. We’ve mixed Art with commerce for so long that people honestly can’t even tell what’s product and what’s pure anymore, they only have easy access to products so how should they? I constantly hear people moaning about “Hollywood being out of ideas” while lining up to buy tickets to whatever nonsense sequel to a remake of an adaptation of a stage play has been doggedly marketed to them. Everything is distilled and nobody knows how to focus anymore.

I suppose my answer is twofold. Nuke the internet and provide universal basic income to whomever wants it. When a person can afford to dedicate their every waking moment to poetry, we’ll start seeing impactful poems again. When a person can truly focus on a painting, we’ll see masterworks again. When I don’t have to worry about rent every month and the noose of student loans has finally vanished, I can finally stop griping and just make that dang feature.

But yeah, the internet was a mistake.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

Storytelling is an act of emotional alchemy. When I can start with a blank page and a feeling then, much later, see the tear-filled face of my poor beloved test reader and KNOW that we’ve gone through the same beautiful heartbreaking soul-fulfilling journey together; that’s the gold. Some books or movies feel as though they’re ripping pages from our hearts, plagiarizing our innermost thoughts. I live for these moments; experiencing them from other artists and doing my best to share them with my readers/viewers. It could be a joke, it could be a scare, or it could be absolute heartbreak. These shared experiences are why I love telling stories.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.thehungrycreatures.com/josh-evans
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jrwevans/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JoshEvansArtist
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thejoshevans/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/HungryCreatureProductions

Image Credits

All artwork made by Josh Evans (me)