Artist Interview: Eve Archer

Eve Archer is our featured artist for our June Digital Exhibition Program. Eve is a London based artist whose practice is primarily based in Digital illustration of people from LGBTQ+ community. We asked Eve some questions to drive deeper into her practice and significant conceptual influences.

Most of your newer works have been done in a digital format. what made you move on to digital art than traditional forms of art such as painting? 

I love painting, but becoming more versatile digitally was a necessity, both professionally and personally. I’m working on building my confidence with my art, but often I’ll get really fatigued with a piece and get bogged down with its faults. Being able to rewind, shift layers, change up the colours has helped me get over those creative slumps quicker. I’m also finding that working digitally is physically less demanding.

Being able to edit your piece quickly is also incredibly useful when working professionally. It’s not the be all to work digitally but when you have a tight deadline and need to revise your work, the iPad has been a godsend. 

In your work “pride” you spoke about how you hope that you being visable as a queer woman will lead to helping others. why is it important tomaking sure we have good LGBTQ+ representaion in the art comunity?

I think visibility is hope. Affirming both the normalcy and joy of being queer is so important. I didn’t see that, didn’t believe that growing up. It’s vital too that that representation is not shown only through the narrow lens of being young, white, and cis. The beauty of the LGBTQ+ community is that we are an endless spectrum of stories; why not explore them?

what is it like to work as a freelance illustrator in such a competitive environment?

It’s so tough, at times it’s overwhelming, honestly I often feel like giving it all up. You can go from not having any work for a month to being emailed at midnight and suddenly you have a lot to do. A lot of the time I’m asked to work for free or ‘exposure’. It’s difficult in the current landscape of social media, you can get swallowed up. It can be really frustrating when emails aren’t returned, work goes dry, but I love what I do. I’ve met a lot of really fantastic ADs, editors and other artists, who are so generous and joys to work with.

Do you follow current any art movements or trends?

To be honest, I’m not sure if I am or not. The internet is so fast paced! I try and be in the know; I recently got Twitter and I’ve found so many new artists. It’s exciting to see where digital art is going at the moment in terms of programs and technology. 

How do you as an artist stay in touch with your local arts community?

I’m lucky to have grown up in London and had a bevy of museums and galleries at my doorstep. The London illustration world is really quite small; there are only ever a few degrees of separation between anyone. The internet too has also helped form lots of art communities. Museums and galleries, London itself, isn’t accessible for a lot of reasons, so being able to connect on social media has been really affirming. I’ve met some really lovely people over the internet, whilst they might be a world away, you still feel a sense of community and connection. 

Who or what are the biggest Influences in your practice? Such as Artist, Films or Literature?

I really try and keep myself open to lots of different avenues of inspiration; you never know what you might find. Recently I’ve been going to a lot of garden centres photographing the flowers and plants. I always return to researching symbology and mythology. The best inspiration for me is continuing to practice form, pose and emotion. I try to do a lot of warm up sketches, which will often spark inspiration for a more developed piece. The artists who I feel have really influenced my art are probably Vincent Van Gogh, Edward Hopper and Paula Rego.

If money and time were no object what would be your dream project to create?

That’s a big question, anything and everything! I don’t think I could settle on one thing. When I was little my mum ran a summer art club for all the local kids. One night, our house was filled with drying papier-mache dinosaurs. Years later I’d still hear people talk about what they made, it’s heartening to hear that they’d remembered a decade on. I’d love the chance to share that same joy, make those memories and inspire creativity.