Fireworks Tower (Castillo), 2010
Digital print
11” x 8-1/2”
Courtesy the artist

Vanderbilt Artists Exhibit
Work by Artists from Vanderbilt University's Department of Art
(October 21 – December 9, 2010)

Don Evans

Artist Biography

Donald H. Evans was born in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, in 1939. He graduated from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville in 1962 with a BFA. He guarded the U.S. from Communist Aggression by serving in The Infantry in Alaska from 1963-66. Evans earned an MFA from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, in 1968. After serving as a lecturer at North Carolina State University, Evans joined the Vanderbilt faculty in 1969 in the Department of Fine Arts, where he was instrumental in expanding the studio wing of the department into the importance that it enjoys today among peer institutions. He served as director of the Vanderbilt Media Experimentation Center from 1969 to 1980 and offered pioneering courses at Vanderbilt in photography, video art, multimedia and computer graphics.

Evans developed a strong following among students. His instruction in wide-ranging media earned him the reputation of an enlightened and inspiring teacher. Accomplished in many media, Evans is probably best known for his intricate and epic-scaled events, which encompass live- action performance, utilizing the creation of two-dimensional images, sculptures, music and films. He established a strong national reputation for this sort of ambitious interdisciplinary work; one example was "Burning Banjos II," a public multimedia performance and installation of 2001. He participated in two team collaborative projects at Cheekwood Botanical Garden & Art Museum in Nashville, Tennessee, in 2007 and 2008.

Evans has been prolific in several traditional media as well, counting into the hundreds his exhibitions of drawings and paintings. His films number in the dozens, of which seven, including Data Bank and Video Dance, have earned awards. Evans' video works also number in the hundreds, and include Visual Prison, Light Sensitive People, Jack's Big Adventure and Tracks Across the Yukon.

Don knows that everyone is creative. His motto is "You either do stuff or you don't!"

From "Don's Big Show." 21 September 2010. Tinney Contemporary, The Gallery Blog. Web. 24 August 2009.
<www.blog.tinneycontemporary.com>

Artist Statement

You either do stuff or you don't!