Trudy Evans is an Auckland-based mixed-media picture maker whose practice begins with the creative possibilities held within discarded, overlooked and disconnected things.

She is drawn to materials, marks and objects that have already lived a life. Rather than viewing them as empty or without value, Trudy recognises the histories, associations and traces they carry.

Through collecting, rearranging, reframing and transforming, she brings these fragments into new relationships. Removed from their original setting, each element takes on a different presence and contributes to a new visual language.

Trudy’s work moves freely across materials and forms rather than remaining within a single medium. Each piece begins with close attention to the qualities of what she has found—its surface, shape, history and emotional associations—and develops through a process of experimentation and discovery.

Her compositions consider how meaning can shift when something familiar is repositioned or placed beside something unexpected. What may once have appeared unwanted, disconnected or insignificant is offered another chance to be noticed.

After many years of wanting to pursue art more seriously, Trudy made a now-or-never decision to give her creative practice the space it deserved.

She studied at the Browne School of Art for three years and continues to develop her work through ongoing mentoring with artist Deborah Crowe.

Trudy’s practice is grounded in curiosity and the belief that materials do not lose their stories when they are discarded. By looking again, she uncovers possibilities that might otherwise remain unseen.

Her work asks us to reconsider what we overlook—and what can happen when fragments from different places are brought together with care.

Because sometimes transformation begins simply by giving something another way to be seen.