Evan Blackwell-Helgeson

"Floral Study" - colorful abstract painting - pure abstraction - Frankenthaler

2022

This work on canvas is a mixed media abstract work featuring hues of blue, orange, and green. Framed in a natural wood floater frame measuring 20 by 16 inches. Evan is inspired by the works of Frank Bowling, Helen Frankenthaler, Candida Alvarez and Dorothy Hood. Atlanta-based artist, Evan Blackwell Helgeson’s recent body of work “I Know The Place,” is rooted in the exploration & abstraction of nature, combining the representational with the metaphorical & intangible experience of varied landscapes. Her mark-making aims to express the complex compounded layering of experience as we process varying circumstances, emotions & memories while in nature. “I Know The Place” explores the dichotomy & simultaneity of the cycles of nature & lived experience: as new things bloom, something is decaying; as new terrain is explored, a yearning for home grows. Travel in recent years to the Pacific Northwest & Hawaii have deeply influenced Evan’s work, & have come to intertwine with the layered marks & known gestures that express her own home. It has provided a unique contrast to these known environments & subsequent mark making, drawing unique parallels to the way we compile experiences that create our complex perspectives; interweaving memory & possibility to create new paths forward. "Traveling from the dense layers of the treeline where horizons are hidden, a desire to find a path out begins to grow," says Evan. "Similarly, the wide expanse & monolithic scale of the coastline displays the fullness of the horizon & the dizzying implication of new possibilities & the unknown. One does not negate the other, but rather they inform each other, recalling the cycle of being drawn out into new terrain, & receding deep into the comfort of home. An ebb & flow that creates dynamic balance." Evan Blackwell Helgeson is an Atlanta-based artist who works in painting, drawing, installation & ceramics. She received a BFA from the University of Georgia’s Lamar Dodd...

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