Denver-based artistThomas Detour Evansdoesn’t limit himself to one medium.
Working on canvas, creating installations, and executing large-scale murals are all just part of his repertoire.
For Evans, it’s important that artists take an active role in both telling and preserving history.
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What first sparked your love of art?
My dad was a military officer, so he moved around a lot.
And because we moved a lot, it was a great way of making friends with everyone.
So I would draw my friends and my teachers and just never really stopped.
I loved art because I just loved the way it made people feel.
So I just kept doing that, and that’s why I do more figurative stuff.
When did you start getting into public art?
I really started doing a lot of murals in about 2015.
It was a mural festival calledCRUSH Wallsin Denver.
They saw me getting bigger with the canvas work and they invited me to do a wall.
It took me about a week to do a small garage door and an alley.
And from there I loved the way that it came out and people loved it.
Your art spreads far beyond your public pieces.
What did you learn or what most surprised you about that particular project?
This project was calledThey Still Live.
This was right after I moved back from Tanzania to Denver.
And it was basically because when I was in Tanzania, I looked like everyone.
People thought I was Tanzanian and that got me interested in my heritage.
So I did a DNA test when I came back here.
Basically I said, we need to do something with this.
Lately, you’ve been doing a lot of murals to spark positive change in the community.
Why do you think it’s important for artists to involve themselves in social causes?
For me, I always tell artists that we’re basically historians.
We have to do that today.
And it may not be the story that’s accurate to you.
How do you think that art can be used to enact change?
That’s why music is so important and so vital.
All these different things can be used to embed ideas and concepts.
When artists utilize that and understand that, they’re able to really have an impact.
Using the streets to put Black Lives Matter in front of the White Housethat is very powerful.
The scale of it is powerful.
It became an opportunity to educate about an individual that not everyone knows.
Not everyone has the same background when it comes to knowledge or education or reading or absorbing history.
It was an opportunity to teach as well and to share this opportunity for discovery.
You talk about Martin Luther King.
There were so many people around him that led the way as well.
They too put themselves in harm’s way and the fight for equal rights and equality.
For me, it’s going to be through the arts.
What do you hope that people take away from your recent murals?
I just want people to notice who these individuals are.
I notice how important street art is because it’s something that is in your face all the time.
