My name is Evan Trine, and welcome to my studio at Claremont Graduate University. I’m currently in the process of preparing for my thesis show that will be this Spring, cycling through loads of test prints and constantly making new work. I always need to print the image out full size and live with it for a while. The conversation that develops over weeks of looking at and discussing the prints helps inform my practice and dictates the decisions I make on the computer. Shown here are some prints from the last two months, the largest of them being the blue print, titled “Ooh Girl”, at 60”x90”.
My process is relatively simple. I scan film photographs – some that are brand new, and some that I took ten years ago – and use photo-editing programs to heavily manipulate the image to create something both stimulating and frustrating. This most recent body of work stemmed from an experiment to make “every worst decision I could imagine” while editing a photo, and as it developed I began to challenge a lot of my own ideas about photography and all of the limitations I was putting on my studio practice; mainly regarding color palette and digital processes.
Some of my biggest influences are Mark Rothko and Ellsworth Kelly for their use of color and scale to capture the viewer and cause them to spend time with the work. Sterling Ruby, Wade Guyton, and Carter Mull are also big influences in the way they use their materials and processes to blur the lines between mediums.
My brother once asked me, “Do you consider yourself a photographer?” a version of a common question that I come across. And I told him if I had to label myself, I would say I’m an image-maker who uses photographic equipment to create my work. And that’s really just it. I like making images that create an experience for the viewer. And what experience is that, exactly? Well, here are some key words: contemplation, tension, flatness, confusion, formalism. I’m trying to figure out how to describe it. But lately, I’m realizing that I am growing most as an artist when I’m exploring the questions, not trying to answer them.
website: evantrine.com | instagram: @evanpaultrine
Evan's work is included in the GLAMFA 2014 exhibition showing at California State University, Long Beach, from August 31st to September 4th, 2014.