An Artist’s Identity
A model’s reclamation of identity through art
It was a Tuesday afternoon when Evie Ashby walked through the doors of Newtown’s Baobab café. The café was bustling with energy. Laughter and chatter filled the room as the coffee machine whirred. Beside us sat a man writing notes in a journal. Across the room was a group of girlfriends talking about their latest trip to Bali. A mother and a daughter shared a caramel slice in the corner.
As Evie displayed her art on our table, I realised the café was full of the simple pleasures and nostalgic energy Evie captures in her paintings.
Evie laughs a little nervously when she describes herself. She smiles softly, “I’m a tall girl. It’s gotten me a lot of opportunities in my short lifetime, including rowing, netball, and modelling.”
Before Evie settled down this year to study Fine Arts at Massey University, she spent 2023 travelling the world and modelling for some of the biggest designers in the fashion industry. Paris, Milan, New York, Sydney, and Tenerife are just a handful of places Evie travelled for work.
“It was definitely one of the best things about that [modelling] experience. Getting to see all different types of cultures and people”. However, during this time, Evie believes she lost parts of her identity.
“Last year I was two people”, Evie said, “There was a part of me that loved the job and put myself out there. But I had to be a very different person from who I am deep down”.
Models often find they’re consumed by their jobs – and they’re expected to be. It’s not a regular nine-to-five job. You’re constantly moving around, meeting new people, and being dressed in new identities. You’re prodded, criticised, twisted, and judged like a piece of art. You don’t own your body when you work, you are moulded to meet whatever the current ‘look’ is.
Art is often drawn from people’s life experiences and traumas. Artistic inspiration grew from Evie’s year abroad, the people she met, and the things she experienced. Despite being within an environment that tested her, she felt art kept her connected to the world and her identity.
“You connect with people over art, there’s emotion and feeling. It goes deeper than the surface level.”
Evie’s identity shines in her work. Her art dissects the beautifully simple moments and people in her life. Scenes of friends laughing together and enjoying each other’s company. Mundane family moments encapsulating the universal feelings of familial love and comfort. Moments of life captured in a still shot. It’s a reflection of memories and the simple pleasures in life.
“An artist’s art is their identity,” Evie explains, “My art is a little bit of me, and a little bit of the world mixed together”.
Evie straightened upright, nearly buzzing when asked about the future.
“I want to be an artist. I want to paint things, big things,” she exclaims.
While she admits there’s a part of her scared of that prospect, she wants to own it and be herself. “Last year was amazing and very hard. But I’m trying to get back my spark for what’s next in my life, which is super nerve-wracking, but also exciting.”
Our coffee cups are empty now. The café-goers have packed up and left, and the afternoon buzz has faded. A quiet floats through the café. It’s a companionable silence, one that I often feel when I look at Evie’s art.
Art by Evie Ashby