GRAPHIC artist Debra Evans left the fast-paced world of corporate graphic design in the advertising industry, where she created on-demand, to create pieces of art from her home.
Evans, the founder of Elysian Charms and Carvings, said she set up her studio four years ago after feeling she needed a change to enhance her day-to-day experience as an artist and seeking to make it more fulfilling.
Her work includes sketches, watercolour paintings of charming gingerbread houses around Trinidad and Tobago, flowerpots made from calabash with intricate engravings and fairytale-like decorative carvings inspired by animals.
There was no specific moment when she recalls realising she was an artist.
As a child, she said, she was usually given books as gifts, "and we always had art supplies around the house. My father was a commercial artist and a masman, so there was no shortage of materials.”
Her father, Lincoln Evans, is a master Carnival craftsman and award-winning wire-bender.
"His work is well known in all of the large Carnival bands, and he and my mother, Brenda, produced many individual and king of Carnival costumes over the years."
Evans said being artistic was not something that stood out to her because she was always surrounded by it. Art filled the walls of her childhood home in San Fernando, and remains ubiquitous in her Maraval home.
[caption id="attachment_956329" align="alignnone" width="617"] "Windswept" Mirror. This hand-carved piece (cedar) stands out in natural tones and is lightly burnished with copper and bronze. Photo courtesy Debra Evans[/caption]
She did painting up to A-levels at Naparima Girls' High School.
After that, "I was at a crossroads. I selected subjects that would direct me toward a career in cartography. In retrospect, I wonder what I was thinking.”
Cartography is the science of making maps or charts.
But then, luckily for Evans, “A chance encounter led to an opportunity to show some art samples to a printing company in Port of Spain. They hired me as an artist/illustrator and pathways opened up.”
From there, Evans went into advertising. She gained experience by working as an apprentice, completed courses to enhance her skills, met her deadlines and felt fulfilled.
She apprenticed with people such as such as German artist Renate Dowden, with whom she worked for two years. Evans also spent several years sharpening her skills at Peter Minshall's Callaloo Company, and Brian MacFarlane's mas camp.
She did courses throughout her career as a graphic artist at various advertising agencies, but also learned much from writer and publisher Jerry Besson and graphic designer Stephen Wong Kang.
“Otherwise, I am completely self-taught as a sculptor and 3D/multimedia artist.
"I used to regard my lack of formal training as a disadvantage, but I’ve come to see it as somewhat liberating in terms of how I approach any material. The bohemian in me sees it all as experimental and challenging.”
[caption id="attachment_956331" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Owls, wooden carving
