March 2010

Evan Dent

S Casino Center Blvd & Coolidge Ave

I work with imagery from early 20th century studio animation. Taken out of their original context and tweaked, seemingly innocent characters become a bit unnerving. The character relationships and stories in my work are drawn from situations based on experiences in my personal life as well as different media (television, internet and video games) in a way that makes light of truly serious experiences.

The characters that I have developed for my Stop and Glow bus shelter are intended to interact with the people and the environment around them. For example, in one of the panels a portly cartoon gentleman extends his arm across the bus shelter bench. My intent for this image was to give passers by the impression that this large man is giving the people sitting on the bench a nice friendly hug. Another panel contains a hungry alley cat who is dreaming of a savory fish. The fish is contained in a cartoon thought bubble that extends not only to the cat, but the people waiting on the bus shelter bench so it appears that they are also thinking fishy thoughts.

I hope that incorporating the public into the large scale drawings will bring a smile to passers by as well as tourists who may want to have there photo's taken interacting with some amusing Las Vegas (cartoon)characters.

I have chosen to display these images in a black and white format to create a contrast to the very flashy and colorful Las Vegas landscape. I'm hoping that in an area flooded with colorful neon and bright lights, my black and white drawings will be able to catch a person's eye rather than get lost in a sea of color.