ABOUT GEORGE
MY WORK
Living and creating in Honolulu, George Evan has come full circle in his life as an artist. Graduating in 1978 with a BA in art and psychology, he has had two successful careers…as an illustrator and graphic designer and as a massage therapist and bodyworker.
Now, on the edge of retiring, he wants to get back to a more visual life using both painting and photography. He wants to create art that has a message of love, of acceptance, of creating a space in this world where was can all live equally and inclusively.
He also feels that the world has a place for art that creates a space for people to just look at, to let themselves be drawn in to discover the small spaces of the piece that have their own compositions separate from the bigger image.
In his portraits and figures he wants to reach down into the essence of the image and to communicate to the viewer that we’re all the same, that here’s a person who may not look like me but to whom I can relate.
“I feel blessed that I’ve been able to help so many people in my career as a bodyworker. But I’ve reached a point in my life where I want to create art that spreads a message of love…of acceptance…of beauty. I’ve dedicated the last 25 years of my life to helping people in my own little corner of the world feel better in their bodies so that they can be happier, more productive individuals. Now I hope some else’s corner is made better…happier…through my art.”
MY LIFE
I’ve always been drawn to art. In high school I was an active participant in the art club and involved in a program called Distributive Education, a vocational program set up between schools and employers in which the student goes to school part of the day and works the other part. They placed me in a custom frame shop that also had studio space rented out to private art teachers. I became friends with one of the teachers who offered to let me sit in on a class. She must have been impressed with my first painting because she let me sit in an another,,,then another…until I graduated and headed off to college.
My first inclination was to study art, bur instead bent to the will of an overbearing father in favor of a more “acceptable” profession. I entered college as a pre-med and psychology major with the goal of becoming a psychiatrist. After a year of misery trying to understand chemistry and math, I decided it was time to stand up for myself (after all, I was the one paying for my education) and headed off to the art building.
But I loved the intellectual stimulation of psychology so decided to put art and psychology and become an art therapist, which used art as a diagnostic and therapeutic tool. I graduated with a BA in art and psychology then applied, and was accepted into, an art therapy program.
Then I panicked. I was 21 years old. I’d never been anything but a teenager in angst then a party animal in college. What did I know of the world outside academia? How was I to help people with real world problems if I’d never really been in the real world? So I decided to get some of that experienced and took my degree and moved to Dallas, Texas to take the art world by storm.
Young and immersed in the world of academia and art I thought I could actually make a living being an artist. But then I got out into the real world and learned, first hand, the realities and sacrifices one must make as an unknown artist struggling to be seen (this was long before the internet when the gallery system was really the only was to “make it” as an artist).The life of a starving artist was a world that I didn’t particularly care for, so I set my sights on turning my creativity into a commodity and within a short period of time found myself as an art director in a fledgling advertising agency.
However, life in the corporate structure didn’t quite fit me either, so with very little commercial experience – and zero business experience – I went out on my own and hit the streets with my portfolio looking for work as an illustrator. I soon discovered that as a graphic designer I could create pieces that had art in them, hire myself as the illustrator, and charge for both. It was a happy compromise and I was able to make a good living at it for 20 years.
The advent of Macintosh computers and the rising popularity of the internet signaled an end to that phase of my life. I was a bit to old-school to embrace technology, but when one door closes another opens. I went back to school and after four very intense years of study I earned my Hawaii State Massage Therapy license as well as my Acupuncture license and began building a second business. I also discovered endurance sports and started training and racing in triathlons, marathons, trail running and open ocean swimming. Needless to say I was a busy guy ,and while I did manage to do the occasional painting my art took a back seat to my life.
Twenty-five years later, I’ve built a successful practice offering a holistic alternative for pain management. I passed on my skillset to younger, very talented healer/therapists who were ready to pick up the torch so I could move on to the next phase of my life’s journey.
Now the practice is theirs. I’ve retired and am no longer starving. It’s time to get back to where I started.
I hope that the work I create has a message that resonates with people or an essence that simply appeals to their aesthetic…that my art makes them happy. That it makes them think about themselves and the world around them. That they want to have it hanging on their walls.
Thank you for taking the time to look through this online gallery. If there’s anything that calls to you feel free to reach out. I’d love to create the perfect piece of art for you that will help you surround yourself with beauty.
