Happy Birthday Evan
24 Feb 2008
Today, my wife and I are celebrating the first birthday of our son Evan. It’s been an amazing year and we couldn’t be happier. My wife and I split the parental leave, so I’ve been at home taking care of him for the past six months. We’ve been swimming, reading, hiking, playing and visiting various art galleries. It’s interesting, some pieces of art really catch his attention. For example, we own a colourful screenprint by Ryan McGinness and he loves it—he smiles at it, laughs at it, tries to touch it… Perhaps it’s fitting, then, that’s his name was inspired by an artist.
My wife and I had a small shortlist of possible names a few months before he was due and we were leaning towards one in particular. However, not long before he arrived, I was reading Beautiful Losers, the companion book to the exhibition that my wife and I saw at the Yerba Buena Centre for the Arts in 2005. As I was reading, I came across the name of an artist by the name of Evan Hecox. Hmmm... Evan is a nice name. I've been familiar with Evan's for years, so I don't know why I didn't think of it sooner.
Evan Hecox is an artist and designer based out of Colorado who got his start doing work for a snowboard company that a couple of his friends had started. Now, he is probably most known for his work for Chocolate Skateboards. I may be wrong, but it seems as though he's done all of their artwork—not a bad gig, if you ask me. Surprisingly, there doesn't seem to be too much info about him or his work online. There are a number of images, though. His work for Chocolate features all kinds of things: guitars, wrestlers, darts... but his artwork tends to feature high contrast images of urban landscapes and objects.
Recently, he's been releasing some screen prints though the art magazine Arkitip and I decided to pick up his LA Blacksun print (for those in the know, I wasted time and missed out on LA Blacksun II... my wife won't let me hear the end of it). The print features a monochromatic colour scheme, which he uses quite often, and is instantly recognizable as a Hecox piece. Although, it helps that it made it to the cover of Urban Absract, his 2007 monograph. I haven't got around to framing the print, but when I do, it will be going in Evan's room—only a year old and he's already collecting art.
Those of you that have been following my site for the past month may be wondering what any of this has to do with New Zealand. Well, thanks to his Mother, Evan himself is a proud kiwi. He has spent the last month travelling around New Zealand, visiting family and friends, eating fish and chips, playing in the ocean, eating hokey pokey ice cream and spending time at the bach—happy birthday mate!
