Today we’d like to introduce you to Jason McPhillips.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Jason. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
My earliest memories are of drawing, and I’ve been creating art of some description all of my life. My father went to art school for a couple of years before I was born, and I took to raiding his old art supplies early on. I started experimenting with oil paint at around age 12. During high school, I dreamed of becoming a comic book artist or an animator, and I was arts editor of our local literary magazine. I also formed a band that played gigs everywhere that would take us. I ended up going to college as an aspiring filmmaker, thinking it was an avenue where I could utilize all of my diverse creative interests. I quickly became frustrated with the awkwardness of my storyboards, so I started taking painting and figure drawing classes. It didn’t take long before I developed such madness for painting and drawing that I was pretty much doing it every moment of the day. I started to look at Renaissance paintings in a new light, as narratives, and the precursors of film. It was during a screening of the epic 1966 film Andrei Rublev by Andrei Tarkovsky that I suddenly realized that painting was enough. If I simply surrendered to the discipline of the process, all the things I felt inside of me could find complete expression.
I walked away from my film degree and transferred to the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia. Concentrating on artistic anatomy, landscape, and the illusionistic methods of the renaissance, I developed my aesthetic through a close study of nature. I landed a gig as an illustrator/graphic designer during that time, and managed to save enough money to launch my career in an audacious, if not somewhat unconventional fashion. In 2003, still reeling and soul searching from the events of 9-11, I decided to take to the road and learn something about the land that I came from. I converted a used Astrovan into a mobile painting studio and I travelled through the United States for 5 months. Painting and journaling daily, I traversed twenty-five states, exploring without and within. The resulting paintings and writings, called “Travelogue” were then exhibited all over the country, at any venue that could put them up with decent lighting. I showed in libraries, coffee shops, wine bistros, bars, senior centers, and even a dentist office. It was tough going, but I eventually did end up selling all of the paintings. I worked a lot of jobs tangential to my art practice, learning along the way. I spent time working in a fine art print shop, a couple of sculpture foundries, even apprenticed as a carpenter. I exhibited regularly at street fairs and open studio events during this period. In 2014 I started showing with Galerie Fledermaus in Chicago, which became my main gallery. The gallery was in its early days, and I found myself wearing many hats and getting way too involved in the day to day operations of the shop, but it did allow me to show work at prestigious art fairs all over the country. I found the constant travel corrosive to my health and damaging to my creative process, so we parted ways amicably earlier this year.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
It’s all been worth it to spend my time doing what I love doing. I try not to dwell too much on the struggles, as they are, in a sense, the very engines of love. The difficulties make the successes that much sweeter and they have really clarified who I am as a person. I embrace them fully. It can be wicked difficult to make enough money, but I’d say the biggest difficulty is to make enough money AND to do it while making the work that you want to be making. Often, the work that really moves me and communicates at the complexity that I enjoy can be more difficult to sell.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
I create enigmatic images inspired by the intersection of myth, perception, and scientific theory. My most recent works employ metal leaf and relief effects such as pastiglia and sgraphitto, exploring the tension between illusionistic space and decorative effect. Like the gold leaf in a Russian icon, the gilded surfaces function as reminders of the divine light that surrounds us all.
What were you like growing up?
I was a quiet kid, very serious, and very shy. I found that creating artwork and music was the only way I could reach out and connect with people in a meaningful way.
Pricing:
- Prints $80-$300
- Small Scale Paintings, $300-$2200
- Medium Scale Paintings, $3000-$6000
- Large scale Paintings, $8000 and up
Contact Info:
- Address: McPhillips Artworks
3224 W McLean Avenue Apt 2
Chicago, IL 60647 - Website: studiomcphillips.com
- Phone: 703-946-5959
- Email: jason@studiomcphillips.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jemcphillips/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jemcphillips/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/JeMcPhillips
- Other: https://ello.co/jemcphillips
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