estilo wei artist spotlight

JUSTIN PHILLIPS

The way I work is really intuitive and I respond to characteristics within a material which informs mark making. I look and respond to what the material asks of me. In this particular series I really delved into making marks based on the variations of color of the paper and chance elements that occurred from the process of saturating the mulberry paper in diluted paints and inks. For me there is a balance between setting up a specific process and also allowing opportunities for chance to happen and enter the work. I was really excited with the result of the dyeing which really opened itself up to a wide variety of mark making and rhythmic application of line.

This is a multi-step process, in this particular series there were two separate processes that create the work. First is the staining or dyeing of the paper. I fold the paper and it is dipped into a pool of diluted acrylic paint or inks, I allow these papers to dry and I have no real way to know how the paper is going to look until it is dried and I unfold it. I usually spend a studio session working on this part of the process and prepare multiple papers. The second part of the process is looking at the papers and choosing a piece of paper that inspires me. I really listen a lot to my inner dialog throughout my art making process. Based on the paper choice I decide on color combinations and drawing tools that I want to work with. I generally have an aesthetic vision at this point which is informed by the prior steps in the process and it is finally on to the mark making part of the drawing. I aim to do this in one sitting for continuity sake and to ensure that I capture the specific energy that inspired the piece.

I love paper, paper of all sorts. I am currently doing a lot of drawing, so pencil, different pens and markers, I like watercolors and acrylic paints. I love materiality in general, the spirit of objects, the hidden poetry within them. I collect found objects that speak to me. I also collect materials that can be recontextualized and used as art making materials. I respond to color, texture, weathering, the organic attributes of materials, the coming and going of all things. I trained my eye to find these things when I am out and about on walks.

The spaces in the drawings are really sort of intuitive design features, I like the idea of repetition, patterns, and groupings. Sometimes these appear in my work in what I consider an organic way. For the most part the spaces are not premeditated, they are just intuitive choices when I feel that a piece needs some breathing room, variation, or dynamic shift. I consider my work to be organized but loose, analog post minimalism with a pulse.

I learned a long time ago that an artist needs to be flexible and make work no matter they you are and to utilize with the materials that they have on hand. I feel like my practice has turned into an autonomous table top practice in recent years. I am happiest when I am in the process of making as long as I have some materials to work with then I am good to go. I love being able to reflect on a piece or a series and think about how the environment or location informed the work. For example, I think about the Thailand Drawings and the variables that went into those drawings. Each of the Thailand Drawings were completed in one sitting. They were an exercise in focus and patience. There is a combination of feelings and sensations that occur in that process of drawing, strange things that start to happen optically from the proximity of the dots being placed, there were times when I would battle through my hand or wrist cramping all while sweat was running down my face in tropical heat of Thailand, it was the practice of mind over matter which really made the work what it is. It is memories like that which come up when I think about the location of where something was created. I definitely think where you are making the work is part of the special sauce of a series or a piece. It is just a matter of allowing location to be part of the process.

Envelope Meditations is a series that was inspired by thought watching meditations, I was inspired to create works that explored the idea of emerging / dissipating and it translated visually through the means of ambiguity / transparency / opacity. I also was really interested in capturing a specific moment through an abstract lens. I was thinking a lot about Monet’s Cathedrals as studies of the same subject but recreated multiple times under different conditions. I was also really interested in things such as layering papers, density and achieving varying degrees of brightness and dullness which was sort of inspired by film and exposure time. The image “…day at home” was an image that really focused on a specific day at home and capturing moments like subtle shadows from plants light traces of time moving through the day, things that we often do not have the opportunity to see if we are not home during the day often. Funny, It seems like a lifetime ago now, since the COVID 19 stay at home orders I have been home generally for the last three months, I am curious how this experience makes its way into my work, this is yet to be determined.

I am a musician and I am inspired a lot by music, I love music that has soul, feeling, and undeniable rhythms. Music is so powerful it has the ability to almost instantly shift our mood and bring us somewhere else. A lot of time if I am getting ready to work, I will listen to music like Miles Davis, John Coltrane, I am really digging this group called Go-Go Penguin right now. If I need to get my energy up I will listen to hip hop like Jay Z or Nipsey. I also like old school music and fun stuff. With all that being said when I make art work it generally in silence.

I am currently working on the Introductions, Knowing series. That work continues to be engaging and continues to grow and teach me new things. I will work on a series until it feels exhausted. I also have some experiments I am working on and some work in development. I try not to rush the work, I have bodies of work that I have been working on for years that I haven’t showed anyone yet because I still am not sure exactly what it is telling me yet, so I am patient with it and I am always on the lookout for that aha moment where things click. There is no rush, but I always need to have a body of work that has my regular attention. I have also been doing a lot of writing recently which has been really fulfilling. I write a lot about mindset and strategic methodologies for creative people.

My goals are always evolving. I run my studio like a business, so I have daily, weekly, quarterly goals, I have some big picture goals but I keep them to myself. I aim for longevity and growth in my practice.

Challenging and thought-provoking conversations. Colleagues, friends, and family. Artists I admire and have had an impact on me are Agnes Martin, Nasreen Mohamedi, Richard Tuttle, Robert Ryman, Mark Bradford, Sol Lewitt, Ellsworth Kelly, and Lee Ufan. I am inspired by philosophy, ideas, and possibilities. I love when potential expands, redefines, and shifts paradigms. When I make work I generally respond to the questions that pop up in my mind while I am in the creative process. If I am making work that keeps asking me questions than I know I am on the right track.

For me meditation is important aspect of my daily life. I mediate at least once, sometimes twice a day to help cultivate equanimity and clarify my thinking. I think meditation helps in all areas of my life. It helps declutter my mind so I can think in a more focused way which give me the ability to see things clearer and what I believe is their truer essence. Meditation also gives me the ability to slow down, to connect dots and see the bigger picture in art making and in life.

The rights to the images above belong to Justin Phillips