For the last instalment of our first ever Madhatter meets series we have the wonderful, Rosina Evans. Rosie is 22 years old, born in Jersey, and working as a metal works painter at Rylance Iron Works. She has grown up in an extremely creative family, all who share the same love for art, music and board sports. Growing up, Rosie and her two brothers would be entertained by their mum, walking and exploring the great outdoors to drawing and painting or making music, while their dad would get them in the ocean surfing as much as he could, so its obvious where Rosie gets her creative streak and passion for life from!

We spoke to Rosie about when she picked up skateboarding, which she said was influenced by her group of friends she was learning to mix DnB with. Her friendship group consisted of a large amount of fellow DJs, so she was drawn to hanging out with them more and more, and, when they weren’t mixing, they were skating. So, Rosie spent most of her summer doing exactly that!

As all of our guests so far have said, the male skate community have been nothing but encouraging and helpful to their fellow female boarders, which is super refreshing and a relief to hear! As we know this has not always been the case. But times are changing and these board babes are getting out there and doing what they love and we are so for it! So thank you to the boys and men out there who are offering a helping hand and welcoming the ladies with wide open arms!

“They were all so encouraging, it was a real boost to my confidence in skating and also mixing! After that I felt much more confident to head to the skate park, as well as play my first gig! So, I wouldn’t say that the male presence at the park held me back at all, I would largely blame that on lack of self confidence but that comes with your comfort and getting used to your board!”

Rosie has been drawing ever since she was young and with her family always encouraging creativity, it was inevitable that she carried on progressing. She has done a few exhibitions over the years, but never thought it would end up with a price tag on!

“A lot of my work that I display are from years of drawing and is an accumulation of thoughts and feelings that I never thought would interest other people.”

Almost all of Rosie’s pieces tell a story, so she loves exhibiting them and hearing peoples interpretations. But, you may not ever find out what they are really all about as Rosie likes to keep these personal stories of her deep questioning of reality and consciousness to herself!

We asked Rosie which pieces of extraordinary work were her favourite so far, which just so happens to be her most recent painting. “It displays a head that has been given sight from an outer source. The meaning behind this is a mixture of my fascination of the Akashic records, (which I highly recommend people look in to!) and general awakening. The message it is trying to convey stems from an idea that we are all (symbolically) robots, not thinking for ourselves and in a trance of blissful ignorance, until we put our sights into questioning this white picket fence reality we’re in! The hands over the eyes represents the information that is all around us, the higher source of knowledge! It sounds a bit crazy but its really interesting to read about, whether you believe it all or not!”

It wasn’t a shock to us when we asked Rosie what inspires her to get creative, and she answered with LIFE! Clearly a deep thinker and always taking in what is going on around her, we loved the way Rosie puts this crazy world into art form. You will probably notice that there are a lot of hands, eyes and faces used as the main focus when you delve into Rosie’s work, this is because she says they’re a good starting point to progress into something a lot more substantial and compelling.

There’s limited places to skate in Jersey unfortunately, with street skating being frowned upon over here and the skate park not offering great facilities (fingers crossed we get that new park soon!). When asking Rosie where her favourite place to skate was she answered that the park was still her favourite place because even though it can get really crowded, there’s always someone there to make you feel a bit more comfortable, which is what its all about really, right? Rosie is currently skating a subterranean deck, which you can find at our good friend Karl Paynes shop, CONSUME STORE on Halkett Street.

If you want to continue following Rosie’s expressive artwork and story telling through painting, you can follow her on Instagram on @rat_zz. As for her musical passion in mixing, she wants to keep that as more of a hobby, but who knows maybe one day we can watch that journey too!

And to finish our time off with this captivating woman, we asked her why she chose Brixton and Volcom as her favourite brands from Madhatter. Understandably, she loved that they matched her androgynous style, the flattering fits with a laid back style, so as brands they fit perfectly into her wardrobe. She also said that both brands are hard to get wrong, their items range from active to fashionable so are easy to work with.

Thanks again Rosie for taking part and closing off this season of Madhatter Meets! You were definitely worth the wait and we were buzzing after spending time with you and hearing your imaginative view on life. The true definition of a creative babe! xxx

Words by Jenna Springthorpe
Photos by Ollie Jones Photography

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