Artist Spotlight- Eva Shipley

One of the most beautiful things about visual art is its fluidity. Truly, anything is possible with a paintbrush and a dream. For the University of Nevada, Reno, BFA student Eva Shipley, fluidity is everything– it is the foundation of her style and the focus of every brushstroke. This is evident in two of Shipley’s pieces, which appear in Edition 76, Volume 2 of Brushfire– 36 Sawtooth Stars and Involved.

I met Shipley at a coffee shop one afternoon after a hectic morning and felt an immediate sense of peace upon seeing her. Wearing dark sunglasses, the best leather jacket known to man, accessories, and plenty of rings, Shipley is the definition of ‘Cool Girl.’ Her artistic je ne se quois becomes evident the second we begin talking about oil painting, which is her usual medium of choice.

“Painting, for me, is just such a tactile thing,” Shipley says. “It’s all about the ‘goop’ of the paint, and for me it’s about visible qualities and making something with your hands. It’s about the goop.”

Shipley’s passion for painting began in middle school, and with the encouragement of her art teacher, she began her oil painting journey. Through buying oil paints at garage sales, experiencing turpentine poisoning, and studying at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago for a semester, Shipley has painted her way to the top. She submitted to high school art award shows and took graphic design classes in high school.

One of Shipley’s recent pieces, 36 Sawtooth Stars is painted on top of a patchwork quilt, which she sewed herself. Shipley sewed 36 individual sawtooth stars (a style of quilting pattern) and then stretched them onto a handcrafted frame. After completing an underpainting, which serves as the piece’s foundation, she painted unique patterns onto each one. This is probably the most time-consuming intense, frustratingly beautiful headache ever to grace UNR’s BFA program.

This was the first layer of Shipley’s underpainting. It sketches out her model (Allegra) and gives a base to paint on.

Shipley wanted to portray the relationship between textiles and the body, so she then painted a figure on top. The figure is Shipley’s best friend Allegra, who models for many of her works (textile or otherwise); by adding the light shadows on Allegra, some dimension is added to the piece. 36 Sawtooth Stars was created as part of Shipley’s midway show, a requirement for UNR’s BFA program, and her next show will be her thesis show in mid-March.

Here, the model is more defined and some squares have been painstakingly painted.

Part of what inspired Shipley to create 36 Sawtooth Stars was a deep love for tactile art, but also the variety and creativity that comes with it. Things like color choices, pigments, and where materials are sourced from (natural vs. synthetic) allow for ultimate creative flow. She did a lot of research about the history of fiber art and how, historically, it hasn’t been seen as real “art” because it’s a female-dominated field. Tactile art is often seen as more of a “craft” than something that requires artistic talent because it has a concrete purpose– a blanket is used to keep warm, a rug goes on the floor, et cetera. Respect for tactile art has increased in the last 100 years, but it still has a long way to go.

Shipley’s cat, for scale; this is the quilted piece before Shipley painted anything on it.

“Women were completely instrumental [in helping make tactile art respected], and it still exists as a cultural thing,” Shipley says. “Patchwork quilting is a part of life. It’s not something that they make to be seen, it’s something to share with their family.”

Most of Shipley’s inspiration comes from her everyday life. Objects, ideas, textiles, and people she encounters all serve as inspiration.

“I’m trying to keep exploring the idea of identity and past experiences and memory,” Shipley says. “Right now though, the body of work I’m working towards is on photography and memory, specifically early 2000s digital camera type stuff.”

Shipley transferred to UNR from The Parsons School of Design, which is a branch of The New School. The New School is a private research university located in New York. After transferring to UNR during Covid lockdowns, Shipley joined the BFA program. She will graduate in May.

Post-graduation, Shipley wants to take a year off and (unsurprisingly) paint. Creating an entirely new body of work is tough, but Shipley’s is determined. Afterward, she plans to continue her artistic journey and apply to grad school. Wherever graduate school takes her, she will undoubtedly bring her artistic passion– and a suitcase of paints– with her.

“There is no art world. If you make art, you’re in the art world. If you go to shows, you’re in the art world,” Shipley says before we part ways. “Everything around you is the art world all the time.”

Eva can be found on Instagram at @eva.shipley.