Here is our first employee profile. Today we interviewed Sharri Phillips in honor of her service to the Cafe and her amazing art. Please also join Sharri on Saturday 12/20 at the Emporium from 4-6 p.m. to celebrate two years of creativity and art! Introduction: Sharri has worked at the Emporium since 2005, first as a baker and then up at the front counter. This work has allowed her to make art, a process which she began at Antioch College in the 1990s. A 1996 graduate of Antioch College, Sharris art has been displayed at the Jailhouse Gallery in Clifton, the former Sam and Eddies Bookstore, and the Little Art Theater, and over the years she has quietly made hundreds of works that include intricate quilting as well as complex and detailed sculptures. Her art, often bringing into play intense colors, metalic shimmers, earth tones, as well as deep blues and blacks, enters the realm of mystery and fantasy and evokes the far off lands of childhood. Below find some brief exherpts from an interview with Sharri about her most recent artworks now on display at the Emporium Wines & Underdog Cafe. Interview: TSM: So a lot of the art that you make deals with the realm of fantasy. Why do you think you are so drawn to things that are so fantastical? SP: Theres an element of the whimsical and magical, but to me it also seems very earthy, too. For me its connected to very early childhood memories and dreams... of my past whether its going to amusement parks in Atlantic City with my dad as a young child which is a very positive childhood memory. For me its more like memories infused with a sense of wonder and the fantastical, but theyre all very based on some kind of groundedness in the earth and reality. Like I use a lot of browns and dark colors in my work that seems very earthy and rooted. TSM: The quilt across from us looks really painstaking. The squares are really tiny. How long have you been working with fabric and did it take you a long time to develop the skill of working with such small pieces of fabric? SP: When I started quilting I maybe most quilters I started with big squares, maybe like five inch squares, and then I started, well its two things its the size of the piece and then colors of the piece. So I think Ive developed this kind of water color blending of colors in the sizes of pieces. I think Ive been doing this about six years now. for me its a challenge, whats the smallest size pieces I can sew together without stitching my fingers together.... Its for me a very enjoyable therapeutic process. It doesnt feel painstaking for me. Its very therapeutic. I just kind of meditate. Its a meditative activity for me. TSM: Right now on the wall there are a lot of three dimensional pieces either in relief or fully three-dimensional shapes. When you make the three dimensional or relief works on the wall, do you start out making a drawing or how do these take shape. How do you know when they are done? SP: ....The finishing is an intuitive process. I kind of work backwards in a way. I always make the frames first. Ill build the outside, the container. I work in layers, and put pieces down and then add onto them.... Sometimes Ill have a rough idea, a basic idea, but then Ill look through books and pictures and add different touches. Ill be influenced by the colors in a picture and then add to it....Its intuitive. Sometimes they turn out like I imagine and sometimes completely different. TSM: Did you make things when you were smaller? SP: When I was younger, I wasnt really encouraged to do a lot of art as a child. But I had a really strong imagination and I would spend hours. I had lots of toys and I would always set up lots of lands, and my room would become a whole different world with all my toys and characters. I always had an active imagination. It wasnt until I was a senior in high school that I actually started drawing and becoming interested in doing art. Then when I got to college I took a sculpture and clay class and I really got interested in doing art... My father was very creative, and he was a hairdresser but he also did a lot of..he had a whole wood and metal workshop and always did a lot of woodworking and made a dollhouse for me when I was younger that I was just completely in love with. It was a total replica of our actual house. He even made all the little furniture the same. So I think I get my creativity from him. He didnt encourage me, but subconsciously I think it came through him. TSM: Is there anything you would like people to know about when they come in to look at this show? SP: I want them to feel free--people seem to be afraid to actually touch some of the pieces. Some of the pieces do turn and there are lights on some of them. I do encourage people to actually--gently--play with the works and try the lights--gently--but it is okay to touch the pieces. And I do want kids to be encouraged to gently touch the pieces and get up close. There is a lot of detail and I do want to encouarge people to take a little extra time when the story isnt so busy, to look. TSM: These are from 2012-2014? SP: Yes, from the last two years.
Posted on: Wed, 17 Dec 2014 19:34:12 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015