EH Interview: Evah Fan

A while ago, I scheduled a month worth of Artist of the Week posts in advance. At the very beginning, I posted about Brendan Monroe (who I've known about and posted about for years). And at the end of the scheduled posts, I posted about Evah Fan who I just stumbled upon more recently and instantly fell in love with her work. I had no idea that Brendan and Evah were a couple until I interviewed Brendan and then I put two and two together that one of my favorite artists I've known about for a while and one of my favorite artists I had just discovered were dating, etc. So after Evah's "Artist of the Week" post posted, I asked her if she liked to interviewed by me for EH. She was really happy to be interviewed because she was a fan of our questions for Brendan the month before. So here's the interview. According to my wife Valerie, Evah is the cutest artist in the world and, after reading this interview, you might agree. Enjoy!
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EH: Hello, Evah. Thank you so much for agreeing to be interviewed. How's everything been going?

EF: Everything is just swell. We just got home from our trip, and boy, jet lagged.
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Quick to Quaver
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EH: Can you share a little (or a lot) about your background? Where were you born? Where did you go to school? What's your favorite flavor of ice cream (that kind of stuff)?

EF: I was born in 1980 in Taiwan yet raised in California despite my fancy of cold climates. I no longer live like a vampire but am still very afraid of the sun. After receiving my BFA at Pratt Institute-Brooklyn in 2004, I continued to give myself “homework.” My hermit manners permit me to twiddle thumbs with paint in Berkeley, California.

A few favorite potato chips/snacks of mine are:
Flaming Hot Cheetos
Wasabi Funyuns
Boo Chips (only available around Halloween time here in northern Californial)
Munster Munch Fromage et Jambon Flavor (I found these in France, I suppose it widely available all over Europe?)
Haribo Gummi Sour Spaghetti
Red Sour Patch Kids Gummies
Tostitos Lime and Jalapeño (discontinued flavor) Chips
LU Butter Biscuit with Chocolate Chips

In terms of ice cream, I like French vanilla and occasionally blueberry. I also like this one local produced It’s-It Oatmeal Cookies + Vanilla Ice Cream Sandwich. Oh yeah, orange cream pops and Eskimo-Pies are not to miss!

EH: Why do you "no longer live like a vampire?" And when exactly did you live like a vampire?

EF: I lived like a vampire during my school days/daze, well, I guess anytime before I hit quarter century years old I was considered a night owl. Back then; I preferred working/painting in the night of calm. These days, I work mostly during the day under the shade, my skin will burn when I exposed to lights, haha. I forget to mention my eyes are tiny so when it’s bright outside I can hardly see anything. Aside from that, I just can’t pull an all-nighter anymore; I guess I’m getting old and unlike vampire scares, I binge on garlic…

EH: What can you tell us about the "Dwindle to a Tiptoe" show in Paris that opens on Oct. 9th?

EF: The title of the show summarizes both Brendan and I’s artwork. He paints largely, magnified version of smaller things/molecules while I paint miniatures of normal or big things. For this show on my behalf, I painted with a music theme in mind, thus on a tiptoe of dance falls closely to what I had in mind, some playfulness intertwined to the smallish visuals (does not apply to Brendan’s work) We also had other names in mind but they didn’t slide, ones like “Gut Fever Modulation," “Capillaries Stir,” and Pitches Brew.” Originally, I proposed “Bitches Brew” like that of Mile Davis’s, but Brendan said it didn’t match with his artwork, oh well.

EH: Your paintings originally caught my attention by how much space or white is on the canvas. Is there a reason you do this? And what, if anything, does the whiteness symbolize?

EF: ZEN. Well, yes, I’m not sure if this have anything to do with my Asian ancestry, but I always felt like my silly narratives can take place just about anywhere. I like having some space or some may say waste of space? Whiteness symbolizes the Alps and a vast plain of clouds, how do you catch a cloud and pin it down? (You will find extracts from Sound of Music lyrics here throughout, hee)
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This is Auto Chop
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EH: Your paintings also have this really funny quality about them. For example, "This is Auto Chop" (one of my favorites). Is the humor intentional?

EF: Thank you! I guess it is intentional? Sometimes I just transcribe my thoughts, and if by chance it stirs a smile, much warmth to the heart. “This is Auto Chop” guys reminded me of Manny, Moe and Jack of the famous old American Auto parts and services shop-Pep Boys. It was fun to have the boy figures do a popping dance. Did I mention I am very fond of Break Dancing?

EH: There are a lot of paintings that focus not on scenes but on single items. Why do you choose to focus on these items? And do they have to have some connection to you for you to paint them or is it just random?

EF: Some of the objects are what I really wanted to portray, so YES, I would say there is some sort of connection. I know this sounds like a grandmother’s hobby, but I am not picking something that is just “cool” looking, it somehow needs to fall in place with my non-linear stories, which a lot of times makes a slight sense out of total nonsense. “…These are a few of my favorites things.” (Sound of Music lyrics again, ha!)
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Do the Humpty Hump
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EH: A lot of your titles are references to hip-hop... do you enjoy hip-hop music? And why have you named some titles "Do the Humpty Hump," "Gangster's Paradise," "Oh Snap," "Electric Boogaloo" etc. (all clearly hip-hop catch phrases or song titles)?

EF: I had my dues of respect to hip-hop mostly of the 90’s era, during my teenage years, no doubt. I really liked Digable Planets, The Fugees, and The Pharcyde from what I can remember. Some dance moves are just classics too! I still enjoy many of them, but am not aware of current directions of hip-hop music. I should mention that cLOUDDEAD were really fun though. I admire emcees that are so fluid with words because I have such bad grammar and it is my goal to speak in complete sentences. Anyhoo, I have expanded my library of tunes since then, from classic rock to my recent obsession of movie scores, chickity check Ryuichi Sakamoto!

As for catch phrases and such, I guess I am a victim of commercial advertisements as a child. These days, I have limited access to television, so I can only recall some things of the past and apply them in some of my artwork titles. Those were silly phrases and thoughts to dwell upon.
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Tiger Mama Heyy...
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EH: What is "Tiger Mama Heyy..." about? This piece stands out to me the most because I can't seem to wrap my head around it.

EF: Have you ever played the bloody Mortal Kombat video game when it first came out in the late 90’s? If so, you just might remember Raiden, the thunder god character of torpedo moves and he always cries out something in a blur, which sounded like “Tiger Mama Heyyy…” to me J. I wanted Raiden to save the tiger figure from a huge fireball in that painting, it’s one way for him to collect good deeds.
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Invitation to a Kleptomaniac at an Art Committee Meeting (1/3 of series)
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EH: Can you explain your "Invitation to a Kleptomaniac" series with some detail? Are these things that you've taken from random places and meetings? :)

EF: In the Kleptomaniac series, I was trying to imagine objects that may appear in those different settings. You know how some kids had imaginary friends? Well, I guess for me these objects at the meetings were personified to have a conversation of sorts. When I finally finished painting them, I thought they would be a perfect fit for a kleptomaniac, picking up random objects without regard of needs or profit. I have to admit though; I’ve never participated in any of the 3 settings (art committee meeting, PTA meeting or executive meeting) so they were just my proposed versions of stationary.
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I'm Not Following You (mobile)
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EH: Besides the joint show with Brendan in Paris, what else do you have coming up in the future? And in what direction do you see your work going?

EF: In the Spring of 2009, I will have a solo exhibit at Gallery Yamaki Fine Art in Kobe, Japan. I want to paint on a bigger scale at the same time keep my smallish figures in details. I plan on making more sculptural mobiles, we’ll see. I had a lot of fun constructing the mobile for the current Paris show but many headaches of trials and errors to make my hanging mobile to balance, how did Alexander Calder do it?

EH: Do you have a final thought for our readers?

EF: “…So Do La Ti Do Ra Do!” Thanks for reading this.

EH: Thanks again for agreeing to be interviewed. We can't wait to share your answers with our readers.

EF: Thanks Roberto, I had a lot of fun answering them as surely you did all your homework to come up with such good questions along side being a keen observer!