“I was born with a pencil in one hand and a knife in the other.” 

By Sarah Emily Gilbert

Today, leather is considered a luxury. It’s the makings of designer shoes, jackets, and handbags, expensive furniture, and lavish car interiors. Ironically, the same material used for our beloved Louboutins has been employed for a variety of functional and artistic purposes since prehistoric times. Artist Mark Evans captures both the primal and posh sides of leather with his micro-leather sculpting and etching. Combing his penchant for risk-taking, knives, and art, Evans precisely carves massive leather canvases in order to create stunning images that have been sold for close to $800,000. Below, the eloquent artist explains his love of wildness and how a bloodstained leather jacket led him to his craft. To follow all of Evans’ work visit markevansart.com or follow him on Instagram (@markevansart).

Where did you grow up?

I grew up on a farm in the Welsh mountains, I enjoyed a wild boyhood around caves, rivers and forests, making mischief on the family farm. In the mid nineties I left Wales to study Fine Art at Middlesex University in London, and I never left. Now I live just outside London.

Were you always interested in art?  

Yeah, I've drawn since I was a boy. I was born with a pencil in one hand and a knife in the other.  I didn’t want to leave the art rooms in school. I’d stay late into the evening after the teachers had gone home, and it was just me, the janitors & cleaners left in the school building. For years I was working in more conventional materials like charcoal, oils, acrylics, etc., but I couldn't shake that more primal desire to play with knives.

What made you start working with leather?

It didn’t start with leather - it all started with knives. My granddad gave me my first knife when I was seven, and I used it to carve images into tree bark. While my mates were all playing Atari, I was out rock climbing, carving my signature around the farm.

I've always loved wildness; I'm most alive when something's at risk, so I was born with a love of knives, and my work is risky from the first incision to the last cut.

Leather came later - around 15 years ago, in the winter of 2000, at the turn of the millennium. I was trying to clean a bloodstain off a new leather jacket I had just been given that Christmas. That jacket was the spark that led to my first ever leather etching. By sheer accident, or God-given providence, I scratched through the blood into the surface of the jacket. That tiny etched patch of contrast in the leather suddenly flipped on the light bulb. It was my personal Archimedes "Eureka" moment; an explosion went off in my mind.

I saw a world of possibilities, so I locked myself away for the next few years and just focused on developing this new art form. I was living as part artist & part mad-scientist trying to perfect the process that I'd accidentally discovered.

I love leather. It’s ancient, yet ultra cool. Leather just gets better with age.

It’s masculine... from Spartans to gunslingers, and it’s also feminine and sensual… seductive. Authentic leather has it's own aroma that appeals to people. Kind of like good coffee, or grass-cuttings, the scent of leather evokes something.

How long do your artworks generally take?  

Months. My last piece took me 350 hours, so that’s about 8-9 weeks of full time work.

Do you get nervous to make the first cut into the leather?  

Sometimes. Depends what piece I’m starting. The fear is good, it means there’s risk involved and that keeps you alive & sharp minded. In my work there is no margin for error. The pressure is always on; It's not like painting where the artist can just paint over a mistake or a change of mind. With cutting leather what is done cannot be undone. In my work there's no ‘cmd Z’. These cuts don’t heal.

Is it difficult to use leather dye? How did you learn to work with leather so masterfully?

Very difficult, it was trial and error, a baptism of fire, I had no tutor so I had to learn from my failures - that’s painful.

I’ve heard to become a master at anything you need to log 10,000 hours at it, that’s about five years working eight hours a day. I’ve been playing with this for 15 years now, and I’m still learning.

What inspires your work?  

I have a thousand inspirations, it’s hard to pin-point. Inspiration comes in different forms, it can be gentle like a whisper, or it can be like getting struck by lightening.

I try and remain open to inspiration, as I'm approaching my forties too many of my friends & contemporaries’ are becoming jaded and turning to cynicism and irony as a worldview.

I have three kids, their passion, wonder and appreciation for beauty is contagious. They are untainted, so I watch, and learn from them. Animals are something I’ve turned to lately; they are a metaphor for carrying ideas in my work.

Who is your favorite artist?

 I love the old masters, Caravaggio, Michelangelo, Lautrec, Degas, Van Gogh, Picasso. Big men working with big ideas, who weren't afraid to take risks and break the rules. In the contemporary world I admire how Hirst & Koons have branded themselves and their art; they are marketing geniuses.

Do you do any other kinds of art?

Writing. I love the power of story. Story is one of the great truths we have left.