Sunday Spotlight: Evan Crocker

Welcome to The Creative Climb Sunday Spotlight, where we celebrate artists, makers, and creatives who are building their own paths and sharing their work with the world.

This week, I am very happy to spotlight, Evan Crocker, a Baton Rouge artist whose work explores family, memory, connection, and the ways the past continues to shape the present. From filling sketchbooks as a child to developing an evolving oil painting practice. 

Evan shares his love of old family photographs, his unexpected connection to fishing, the artists who have influenced him, and the challenge of finding his way back to painting after art school.

I truly enjoyed reading his answers and he seems like a pretty cool cat I'd like to have a coffee with and learn from. I share his challenge with consistency. I hope you enjoy this read as much as I did. 

Meet Evan Crocker

Where were you born, and where do you call home now?
Born in Baton Rouge, raised in Ascension Parish, now living in Baton Rouge.

Morning person or night owl?
Night owl who likes to get up early!

What did you love doing as a child?
Draw, draw, draw! As a kid, I would spend hours upon hours alone in my room filling up pads of paper with anything I thought of. It worried my mom a bit when I wasn’t as eager to play with the other kids as my very social older sister always was. I also loved to go fishing with my pawpaw. Before Hurricane Katrina, we had a camp in Pass Christian, Mississippi, and one of my favorite things was to go out on the pier and try to catch as many fish as I could. After we lost our camp, we took fishing trips to Grand Isle and a ranch in Texas with stocked ponds. Of course I always had a sketchbook waiting for me at the end of the day.

What is something about you that people might be surprised to learn?
A lot of people are surprised to learn how much I fished as a kid and how much I enjoyed it. I also played the trumpet for about ten years.

What does your perfect creative day look like?
I get up around 7:30 or 8, which gives me plenty of time to go to a coffee shop and do some sketchbook work (I’m a big fan of Magpie Cafe by the Perkins overpass). Then I head back home to my painting studio, where I usually have multiple works in progress to choose from. I almost always listen to music while I paint–over the speakers if I’m just getting started on a piece or with headphones if I really want to lock in and focus on a piece. I’ll probably forget to eat lunch while I work. I’m usually not super strict with giving myself deadlines to finish pieces; as long as I work on it, that’s enough for me. I’ll finish it when I finish it. I’ll take a break around dinnertime, and I’ll wrap up the night with a little more sketchbooking before I get in bed and spend entirely too much time on my phone.

Lure no. 5, Oil on gessoboard, 5”x7”, 2026

Favorite medium or way to create?
Oil painting really feels the most natural to me. If you had told me that a few years ago when I started, I never would’ve believed you. I absolutely hated it when I started–the odors, the mediums, the mixing. I’d had so little experience with wet media before starting college that anything other than drawing felt overwhelmingly alien. I also love soft pastels, and I feel like they convey my painting style really well in a dry medium. I love watercolor too, but I often forget about it and go long stretches without working with it.

What are your go-to creative tools?
I have a massive collection of old family photos, some as old as the 1880s or 90s. The sense of immediacy to these photos really draws me in, and I love the way camera flashes compress and flatten space. With so much of my work exploring how the past affects the present, I draw on these photos a lot. Sometimes I’ll compile images from multiple photos into compositions or paint one photo directly if I find it compelling or visually interesting.

Where do you find inspiration when you're feeling creatively stuck?
Seeing my friends dedicate time to creating helps me do the same. I know some really talented painters, and I get encouraged to paint when they’re sharing their work with me. Maybe it’s peer pressure, I don’t know. I also take time to draw things that aren’t really related to my studio practices. I have one sketchbook dedicated to the themes and imagery I like to focus on and another that’s not a part of that. I think having another place to go that isn’t dedicated to a body of work helps me a lot when I’m feeling stuck in my studio practice.

Who is an artist, designer, maker, or creative who has influenced you—and why?
Fairfield Porter has influenced me in a big way, particularly with the way he handles the figure and his relaxed style. There’s an intimacy to his work with figures, and that’s something that I try to convey with a lot of my paintings. I think anyone who paints people admires John Singer Sargent. Spending time geeking out over his work has helped me loosen up a bit with my figures and allow things to be more painterly. Noah Saterstrom is one of my favorite contemporary painters, and I feel like our work explores a lot of similar themes.

Dave with Speckled Trout, Pastel on paper, 18”x24”, 2026

What is currently inspiring you?
Without realizing it right away, I was really inspired by the birth of my nephew in 2025. So much of my work focuses on the continuity of family and the shared feelings and experiences of the family unit, so I think watching a new generation start in real time really solidified my interest in those themes all over again.

What are you currently obsessed with?
Sufjan Stevens’s album, Carrie & Lowell, Worst Girl in America by Slayyyter, my baby nephew, and Goldfish.

What drives you to keep creating?
It’s just a natural impulse or desire I have in myself. I feel most myself when I’m creating something. I think about making art constantly, even when I’m in a bit of a dry spell and haven’t made much in a while.

What has been the biggest challenge you've faced in your creative journey?
I’ll be honest and say that I struggle a lot with consistency. Even though I’m always thinking about art, I’m not always making a lot of art. This is something I’ve struggled with mostly in the last two-three years as I’ve gone to grad school and started working, and it’s a tough thing for me to grapple with. So much of my identity has always come from being an artist, so I sometimes feel outside of myself when I go a long time without the chance or the motivation to create. But I’m trying to find the balance.

David with Fishes, Pastel on paper, 9”x9”, 2024

What is the biggest lesson you've learned along the way?
I think all artists end up learning that the finished product is not the point of creating; the process is the point. Every art student feels the pressure to put out a finished product for critique, but during my last semester of undergrad, the act of creating and of building a body of work really became more important to me than how the body of work looked. I credit Denyce Celentano with that. I felt myself grow the most as a student painter under her guidance.

What is something you wish you knew when you were just starting out?
There is no right or wrong way to paint. You can just do whatever you want.

What are you most proud of creating?
I have an ongoing series of fishing lures that I’m really proud of. In many ways, it’s my most personal work (in ways I haven’t really talked about for no particular reason). And I’m able to get into a really clear headspace when I’m working on them, which feels really rewarding and relaxing. My head is seldom clear.

Lure no. 6, Oil on panel, 18”x24”, 2026

What are you currently working toward or dreaming about?
I dream about one day owning an old house with lots of windows and a cozy room to turn into my studio. I’m pretty far away from that dream becoming a reality, but it’s nice to think about.

What does success mean to you?
When it comes to art, I’m beginning to understand that success isn’t just one thing, and I think it all goes back to remembering that the finished product isn’t necessarily the goal. I’ve become better at setting specific goals for myself with paintings, and most of those goals are for me to learn something. If I finish a drawing or a painting and I feel I’ve learned something about art generally or about myself as an artist, then I feel I’ve succeeded.

What is something beautiful you've noticed lately?
I realized some of my closest friends are people I’ve known for nearly half my life. It makes me emotional thinking about all the different seasons we’ve been through together, all the different struggles and heartbreaks we’ve seen each other through, how much our lives have changed together.

What book, podcast, song, place, or experience would you recommend to another creative?
Engage with as many forms of art as you can. Read, watch movies, write, listen to music. Find things that resonate with you. Find things that have tones and moods and messages you want to convey through your art. Your mind will mix all these things together and allow you to see and think in new ways that will inevitably show up in the things you create.

What mantra, quote, or belief do you return to when you need perspective?
I often ask myself, “How hard could it be?” I’ve been able to figure things out so far. There’s no reason I shouldn’t be able to figure out what’s in front of me now. I think that’s applicable to a lot of different situations.

If you could give your younger creative self one piece of advice, what would you say?
Step back from what you’re working on and look at it from a distance. 1) You need to stop straining your eyes, and 2) it’ll help you focus more on the whole composition, not the minutiae.

What is something you're still learning?
I’m still learning when to call a painting “finished.” I have a history of overworking my paintings, and it’s something I have to make a concerted effort not to do.

Where can people find you?
On Instagram @evancrockerart

Vroom, Charcoal and pastel on paper, 24”x18”, 2026

The Creative Climb

We asked Evan a few questions specifically about The Creative Climb—the challenges, dreams, and mountains that come with building a creative life.

What are you climbing toward right now?
I would love to participate in more art exhibitions and markets and make more connections within the local art community. I want to share my art with the world while also getting exposed to other people’s work in real life, not just on the internet. Although, I’ve been meaning to make a website for the longest time, so maybe I shouldn’t try too hard to get off the internet. I also want to continue building an artistic practice that lets me create as much as I can and do so in a fulfilling way. Doing that while making a name for myself would be great.

What has been your biggest creative mountain to climb?
My biggest creative mountain to climb was definitely finding a reason to paint after I finished art school. I hadn’t made art for art’s sake in so long, that I almost felt like I didn’t know where to begin again. I wanted to take a break after graduating just because I was feeling a lot of burnout, but the break went on much longer than I intended. There was a while where I felt like I wasn’t actually an artist because I had only been a student, but then I reminded myself that I’ve been an artist my entire life, and that shouldn’t change just because I don’t have assignments or deadlines anymore. I’ve felt that way again since, not having the time or energy to paint during grad school, but I’m getting better at reminding myself who I am.

What has helped you keep going when the climb felt hard?
I get a lot of comfort in the fact that there’s always the next painting. This one doesn’t have to be perfect. It’s ok if I don’t like it. It’s ok if I don’t learn as much from it as I’d like. The potential for me to learn is there in the next painting, just like it was in every one I’ve done thus far.

What is one thing you're learning to let go of?
I’m learning to be less invested in each individual thing I create. I’ve spent so many years striving for perfection, treating every painting or drawing like this precious creation, which leads to so much frustration and is so exhausting. I’m slowly but surely letting go of that.

What would you attempt if you knew you couldn't fail?
I’ve always thought it would be fun to write a novel!

Complete this sentence: “I create because…”
nothing else feels right.

Support Evan’s Creative Climb

If Evan’s story, artwork, or creative journey resonated with you, there are so many simple ways to support him:

• Follow his work on Instagram at @evancrockerart
• Like, comment, and share his artwork to help more people discover his work
• Tag a friend who might connect with his paintings or artistic style
• Collect his work or inquire about a commission if you’re looking for something personal and meaningful
• Invite him to participate in an exhibition, art market, creative collaboration, or local opportunity

And sometimes, the simplest support means the most: show up, engage with his work, and let an artist know that what they’re creating matters.

Let’s help Evan keep climbing, creating, experimenting, and sharing his work with the world.