TIFTON, Ga. — Dozens of people packed the Plough Gallery July 21 to get a glimpse into the mind of one young woman with a passion for art and empathy.

“This isn’t just a female experience, it’s a human experience,” said artist Shelby Evans as she debuted her exhibit “This is She” to the world.

(Full disclosure: Shelby Evans is a freelance correspondent for The Tifton Gazette)

The concept behind her creation was to expose visitors to the realities many young girls face as they grow older.

“A lot of the work directly addresses tropes or stereotypes we have about women,” Evans said.

She discussed her battle with how to overcome the stigma of being a perfect lady in the public eye.

“I grew up learning how to be a good church girl,” Evans said. “I don’t necessarily see that as a bad thing, (but) at the same time, many of those things that bind us into what we have to perform in order to be seen that way sometimes goes against who you are as a person. And then you wonder, ‘If I am who I really am, will these people still accept me? Will they accept me as being complicated, as being flawed? As being human?’ I wanted to address those points directly.”

How Evans tackled these issues was to create an interactive series of displays meant to “engage visitors’ curiosity and encourage discoverability of what we lose in adulthood, where we quit looking at things with curiosity and begin looking at them with criticism.”

Evans described her philosophy for tangible art.

“I wanted an opportunity for others to see the world as something to interact with, discover, be surprised by, and filled with wonder by,” said Evans. “That’s something we lose when we grow older because of the criticism and corrections condemning us all of the time.”

One set of her artworks includes faces of all colors and themes. “The Disciples,” as she calls them, involve such tropes as “Shave Me,” implying women are not supposed to have hair on their face, and “She’s Poison,” an innocent-looking but secretly evil beauty. There is even a dog-faced piece with a bone you can throw at the face.

On the wall in the corner of the display is a picture frame with an elegant flowery design with the word ‘Vapid’ plastered across it. Evans created this piece as a way to overcome her nervousness about creating the exhibit.

“I thought people wouldn’t take it seriously because it was so feminine,” she said.

But after questioning her own feelings, she made the piece to combat the thought that femininity somehow equals being intellectually shallow.

“I wanted to make people face the thought, ‘This is how we feel about what women do, what women create, what women are interested in. We think it’s absolutely shallow.’ Why? That’s what ‘Vapid’ is about.”

The display also involves a bed you can crawl under, a bathroom decorated with sales papers and a desk with notes stuck to the wall above it. The notes were ideas and quotes Evans jotted down during her residency.

“They are quotes that inspire me or things that I was feeling,” she said. “Some of those might be surprising or unexpected. They might be funny or weird because I am all of those things. I’m not just this perfect church girl. I’m not just this weird, eccentric, quirky girl. I’m human and all of these things.”

Evans graduated from ABAC with a degree in writing and communication in December of 2016. Since then she has plunged into being a writer, a business owner, and now an accomplished artist.

“It’s been a pretty wild ride for me,” she said. “I feel like right after graduation, that person and this person are completely different people. I’ve been able to see my work grow while being here.”

After her residency is finished with the Plough Gallery, Evans will assume the role of arts coordinator with the Ben Hill Arts Council full-time.

The exhibit runs through Aug. 11 at the Plough Gallery, 216 W. 8th Street.