The Art of Erin Even

This is a link to my record: http://www.mediafire.com/?j8a099c5mpx48oo I made it on my iPad using Korg iElectribe, Molten, Lemur, Beatwave, DM1, Loopseque, and Garageband. Download it & enjoy!

Click on the images to view them closer.

This is one of my first hanging sculptures, and it took me a long time to finish because I wanted it to hang in a balanced way. It's a small piece made almost entirely of lightweight paper, hanging from fishing line anchored in the top of the umbrella. Originally, I conceived it as part of a mobile. He's an allegory of the human condition, the condition of falling inevitably towards the unknown and the unknowable. His adaptation to this condition is what interests me as an artist; What is the secret of his magic umbrella? Click the image to view it closer.

One of my largest hanging sculptures, constructed mostly out of found materials. Lately I have been exploring the concepts of fear and inevitability, and how childhood memories effect the subconscious. My goal with this sculpture was to create a visual representation of the tension and anticipation of an inevitable occurrence, and to satirize the fear that this anticipation causes, in an attempt to understand and communicate the effects of that fear on the human psyche.  I enjoy sculpting with found materials because of a sense of fun and visual whimsy, which  is an immediate and direct method of establishing a connection between the artist and the viewer. Click on the images to view them closer.

I once saw a painting by Ernst Fuchs, the founder of the Vienna School of Fantastic Realism, depicting a scientist fighting with a giant praying-mantis (or a miniature scientist fighting with a normal-sized mantis.) I was inspired by Fuchs, and by Carl Jung's book "Man and his Symbols," to paint Nemesis. It represents a personal struggle to overcome the "failed experiment" of the Shadow-self. Only the freedom of the creative process is able to liberate an artist from depression. The Shadow is a part of the unconscious mind consisting of repressed weaknesses, shortcomings, and instincts. It may be one's link to more primitive animal instincts, which are superseded during early childhood by the conscious mind. The Shadow, in being instinctive and irrational, is prone to project: turning a personal inferiority into a perceived moral deficiency in someone else. These projections insulate and cripple individuals by forming an ever thicker fog of illusion between the ego and the real world. Click the Image to view it closer.
 

This large piece is made up of seven panels of mixed media on chalkboards. It's a reflection on Entropy (being a measure of any system's tendency towards spontaneous change.) It was directly inspired by the Led Zeppelin song "Communication Breakdown." Click the Images to view them closer.

Tathāgata is the name the historical Buddha used when referring to himself while he was alive. Literally, it means both one who has thus gone, and one who has thus come. Hence, the Tathagatas are beyond all coming and going. It is asserted by some that the name really means one who has found the truth. The Buddha of the scriptures is always reported as referring to himself by "The Tathagata" instead of using pronouns (me, I, myself). This serves to emphasize by implication that the words are uttered by one who has transcended the human condition, and is beyond the otherwise endless cycle of rebirth, beyond all death and dying, beyond all suffering. Click the Image to view it closer.

 Participate joyfully in the sorrows of the world. We cannot cure the world of sorrows, but we can choose to live in joy. You must love the crust of the earth on which you dwell more than the sweet crust of any bread or cake. You must be able to extract nutriment out of a sand-heap. You must have so good an appetite as this, else you will live in vain. The Joy in life is half as sweet without the sour times. This painting is painted on a desk drawer I found in the street, and was originaly concieved as a self portrait. Click the Image to view it closer.

 Every woman has an animus within her psyche, this being a set of unconscious masculine attributes and potentials. While the anima tends to appear as a single female, the animus usually consists of multiple male personalities. The process of animus development deals with cultivating an independent and non-socially subjugated idea of self. Click the Images to view them closer.

Anima development is about the male psyche opening up to emotionality and a broader spirituality, by creating a new conscious paradigm that includes intuitive processes, creativity and imagination, and psychic sensitivity towards himself and others where it might not have existed previously. Click the Image to view it closer.

Falling in Love can be like opening a book for the first time. Love transforms you, so that all the colors of the world seem like you've never properly seen them before. Click the Images to view them closer.

Imagine if everyday objects had the ability to trancend their functionality; if an object's mundane repetitive existence had the ability to overcome it's fate, and adapt. In this assemblage, I have given a normal bowling pin the ability to sense and avoid an oncoming bowling ball. I have always been interested in the aesthetics of misapplied technology. Click the Image to view it closer.

This year I made all of my Christmas presents out of "found materials" from around my house, like broken jewelry, old cigar boxes, marbled paper, & old mini liquor bottles. I ground up some crayons in a coffee grinder & filled the bottles with different colors. I then labeled the bottles with different intangible ideas or concepts, like "Moonlight" and "Gravity." Here are photos of the boxes I gave to my mother, my sister, and my girlfriend. Click the Images to view them closer.

Contact me if you are interested in buying one of these. I'm personalizing them & selling them for about $25-$35 each.

In 2005 I had an art show at the E.M.U. on the University of Oregon campus titled "One of Us" featuring 16 experimental acrylic paintings exploring the Japanese "Superflat" aesthetic & it's effect on popular culture. The works were also hung at various other locations around Eugene including The Glenwood Restaurant & The Museum of Unfine Art. By the end of the summer I had sold all 16 paintings. Click the Images to view them closer.