Mountain Bluebird: An Artist’s Statement
By Shan Michael Evans
Shan Evans created the cover art for the 2022 Nevada Humanities’ Nevada Day card.
Original artwork by Shan Michael Evans, Mountain Bluebirds and Moonbeams, 2022.
I’ve not once even seen our state’s bird, the mountain bluebird.
I suppose I should make an effort to resolve that.
The thing is, I scarcely go outside of my Maryland Parkway apartment anymore.
Redhead. Fair skin. The Las Vegas heat shows no compassion. I panic and complain, and I cry all summer. And the summers seem now to last forever.
1999, standing on a moonlit Sunrise Mountain, overlooking the valley lights, found me comfortable, hopeful with friends and vampires, wearing away bad makeup.
Maybe now just a darkened dive bar around the corner.
“I miss…seeing…the stars…,” I drunkenly wane nostalgic.
Metal-grunge-goth-gloom wailing from the jukebox as lovely as morning birdsong.
I turned back to my sketchbook. I’m redesigning what are intended to be big sagebrush for a picture postcard…and I suspect these will have to do.
“Oh! Thirty…six stars!” I softly and slyly proclaim,
“See, that’s one for each state…that came before the founding of Nevada…and one…for all of us.”
“By the way, they said ‘no’ to the Jack-o-Lantern,” I sob.
“Why?” she asks.
“Because just because the founding was October 31st doesn’t mean it has anything to do with Halloween,” I say.
“Yeah but you pretty much already knew that,” she reminds me.
“You are my star,” I confidently sling.
“Do not throw up on me,” she replies.
“I’ve not once even seen 36 starts in the Las Vegas night sky,” I begrudgingly stutter.
Shan Michael Evans has also been a featured artist in the Nevada Humanities Exhibition Series, Unity: Community, Family, and the Future. Some of his artworks from this exhibition are viewable in the gallery below.
WV Cardinal Welcoming NV Blue Bird.
Original Alternate Concept.
An established Las Vegas artist since the late 1990s, Shan Michael Evans’ illustrations have shown throughout the Valley over the decades.