![[Q&A] Question and Artist: Meet Evan](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/58bb213420099e5b48771d3b/1577391112372-GWUYYD8MGXVA00B2XBCC/Senn_having_fun.JPG)
[Q&A] Question and Artist: Meet Evan
Meet Evan. We are very excited that Evan is the our guest juror for the 2020 Made in California Juried Exhibition. We asked the very busy (and new mom!) a few questions, so that our patrons could get to know her a bit better.
[Brea Art Gallery]: Tell us a little bit about your background; what made you interested in art? Who were your early influences?
[Evan Senn]: Well, I grew up in West L.A., but I was born in Atlanta, Georgia. My family is mostly back east but my dad was in the music industry so we moved to L.A. when I was young. My mother is an artist and art teacher and exposed my brother and I to the arts at an early age and of course, my dad exposed us to other types of creativity through his career. I took art classes after school for pretty much my entire childhood, and creative projects and activities were always a part of our daily life, so it was pretty natural for me to grow up with a fond appreciation of art and art history as I got older.
In high school, I excelled at art and took on extra art projects in the community, volunteer art opportunities, and teaching art to kids, which all continued through college, where I majored in Studio Arts. In college, at Loyola Marymount University, I also focused on curatorial studies in clubs and on my own, utilizing the campus resources to host art shows and partnered with neighboring Otis College to curate small students shows there as well. I re-established a forgotten art club on campus called the Art and Art History Society, where I was president, and we published a monthly newsletter about the local art scene. This time in my life firmly established my passion and talent for curation, art writing, and art marketing.
When I was a kid, my biggest artistic influence was my mom. She illustrated children’s books, did commissioned artworks, some graphic design, and was always showing us cool art and art practices. As I aged, I drifted toward the Modernists; Van Gogh, Picasso, Man Ray, Schiele, Kahlo, Monet, Manet, etc. I still think of these artists, and this period in art history as my first loves in life.
[Brea Art Gallery]: Your favorite top three artists, currently.
[Evan Senn]: Top three right now would probably be Mercedes Helnwein, Welder Wings, and Shawn Huckins. But, there are so many more I am obsessed with!
[Brea Art Gallery]: How long have you worked in the OC art circles? And how many hats have you worn doing so?!
[Evan Senn]: I moved to OC in 2009 for graduate school at CSUF. While I was in the Art History program there, I began writing for the OC Art Blog and founded a small indie publication called Rogue Art Research & Writing (RARW). After that, KCET Artbound picked me up, and then I moved on to other publications pretty quickly, getting to know the SoCal art scenes pretty quickly and really well. I hustled my ass off during and after graduate school. I wrote art reviews, features, profiles, and interviews for roughly 4-5 publications at any given time, building my portfolio and expanding my reach in the scene. In graduate school I also began curating more, and would take small independent curatorial projects every few months, which continues to this day!
Since moving to OC, I have worn a few great hats including artist, arts writer, curator, art historian, arts and entertainment editor, production designer, graphic designer, artist’s manager, arts consultant, and college art history instructor.
[Brea Art Gallery]: You write for a few arts publications. What do you think is an important aspect of art critique?
[Evan Senn]: Art critique is a very important aspect of the art world—it can help to establish an artist, and art space, or an art movement with exposure and publicity. It can also act as a kind of translator, helping viewers to understand artworks and artists a bit better, through the writer’s words. I also think that art critiques help artists understand what other people see and feel about their work, and can help them to fine tune their own practice to more closely align with what they want to create and present to the world.
[Brea Art Gallery]: Best piece of advice you've gotten as an artist?
[Evan Senn]: The best advice I ever got about my art, or gave to an artist, is learn how to talk about your artwork (and write about it).
Art Lover.
[Brea Art Gallery]: What's the worst job you've ever had?
[Evan Senn]: The worst job I ever had was as a Production Assistant in Packaging Design at a toy company in Malibu. Although it paid well, I sat in a dark room attached to my computer, photoshopping images of toys back into usable condition for the packaging designers, and I hated the daily life. We never had breaks, we worked overtime a lot, and had no variety in our tasks. It was soul-sucking monotonous work—I learned quickly that I don’t do well with that kind of environment. I mainly worked on WWE wrestling toys, Dora the Explorer toys, and Littlest Pet Shop toys. I didn’t last long there. After only a few months there, I quit to teach art to kids part-time and wait tables on the side—two jobs I happily held onto for years.
[Brea Art Gallery]: If you were to give advice to someone thinking about entering their artwork into the Made in California exhibit, what would it be?
[Evan Senn]: If there was one show in OC to try and get into, it would be this one. This annual exhibition is of stellar quality every year, consistently has a great turnout, is really good exposure, always gets great press, and with cash prizes and a solo show option, there is really no reason to not try to get in. It’s one of my favorite shows of the year, and always leads the standout artists to other great opportunities. You should apply!
Biography
When you become the art.
Evan Senn is a curator, writer, artist and art historian in the Southern California area. She is currently the Director/Curator for the Golden West College Art Gallery in Huntington Beach and teaches Art History at Laguna College of Art and Design as well as California State University, Fullerton. She is the former Editor-In-Chief of Culture Magazine and Inland Empire Weekly, and she has worked in staff positions at YAY! LA Mag and Artillery Magazine. Her Master’s Thesis and first published book, Cement Sanctuary: Contemporary Street Art in Los Angeles (2011) has helped establish her as an expert in alternative and underground art movements. Evan has contributed to a number of other books on art, including TMRWLND: The Secret Stays Unknown - The Art of Dereck Seltzer & Tina St. Claire (2016), Seeing the Invisible (2015), Yarn Bombing L.A., and many art catalogues. In 2013, Evan was an Artist-in-Residence at Grand Central Art Center, during which she produced a documentary called Life of a [Female] Artist with Ingrid Reeve. She has curated at numerous Los Angeles and Orange County art galleries since 2005, and has contributed as an arts writer for publications including: KCET Artbound, OC Art Blog, ArtVoices, OC Register, OCR Magazine, Beautiful Bizarre Magazine, Art and Cake, Artillery Magazine, Local Arts, Beauty & Wellness Magazine, Laika, Unite4:Good, and E-VOLVED Magazine. Past publications also include ArtScene, Juxtapoz, and Art Ltd. In 2010, she co-founded the independent arts journal, Rogue Arts.
evansenn.com
instagram.com/senntastic
Evan is the Guest Juror for the 2020 Made in California Juried Exhibition. For more information about entering your art work, see here.
