We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Kaitlyn Phillips. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Kaitlyn below.
Alright, Kaitlyn thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.
Having believed the lie that art “doesn’t matter as much” as, say, being a doctor or a teacher or other such occupations, I tried teaching for years. Working on my lead-teacher certification(s), I substitute-, student- and/or assistant-taught practically every age-group and subject from Pre-K through 12th grade. Although I enjoyed the work, no age group or subject was the perfect fit, and I felt like I had to change my personality to be an effective educator. One day, on a lunch break at a school whereat I worked, I happened upon Exodus 31, which reads, “The Lord said to Moses, “See, I have called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with ability and intelligence, with knowledge and all craftsmanship, to devise artistic designs, to work in gold, silver, and bronze, in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, to work in every craft,” and it then mentioned others to whom God had given “ability.” I was struck. I felt as if I too had been given that same gift, as I’d long surprised myself by what I could make with my hands, out of almost anything, and yet, for most of my life, I had deemed my artistic skills as trite and irrelevant. But, according to that text, God apparently valued and equipped artists. If my ability was God-given, how could I not use it? I soon left teaching and joyfully enrolled at a local Art Institute from which I transferred to SCAD (Savannah College of Art and Design). There, in a sea of eccentric, somewhat-scatterbrained, creatives, I felt for the first time in my life as if I “fit in” and didn’t have to change my personality to succeed. It was confirmation that I was finally on the right career path.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I chose to study illustration, as I love telling stories through pictures, using traditional media. The author of my first illustrated and published book, was a friend and an author with whom I had before worked. She reached out to me, saying she had found a publisher for her story and wanting to know if I’d illustrate it. I designed the cast of characters to hers and the editors’ approval, then designed basic compositions of the different scenes, also to their approval. Next, I drew the final illustrations in colored pencil, filled them in with watercolor, and scanned and did any necessary tweaks on Photoshop, before cropping and sending them on to the next phase of publication. Since that story was published, I was grateful to get a commission for three other books by a different author. With both authors, I’ve worked closely with them to satisfy their vision of the book, visually, and I also offered suggestions to make the rhyme and meter of the text more consistent (as I majored in English in college) which they took or left as they wished. It’s always been an exciting and enriching collaboration.
Regarding portraits, I’ve been blessed to get various commissions, from acrylic knife-portraits, to a painterly combination of several photographs into one portrait, to traditional brush paintings, to a series of black and white portraits for a coffee company’s packaging, to a stylized pencil portrait inspired by Jasmine Beckett-Griffith (the subject’s favorite artist). Colored pencil with watercolor, or acrylics, are currently my preferred media, although I’ve enjoyed working in a range of media.
Regarding murals, I’ve only done two so far, but would LOVE to do more, as it’s fun to work on a more colossal scale. One mural was on a slanted wall in a grandchildren’s reading nook. The client wanted a nature scene and had already bought a brightly-colored rug and beanbag chair for the nook. I found a reference photo that incorporated those colors and that would give the sense of looking through trees at a lake and mountain. It was fun for me to paint, and the kids enjoy playing and reading there. The next mural was also of a nature scene, as the clients wanted to transform their 30-foot storage shed into a beautiful view through their window. They also wanted to participate and incorporate their own creativity into the painting process, with two doors designated as Christmas- and birthday-storage. I found a mountain scene which fit the 30’x7′ space, and which had clearly-discernable sections of color which I outlined and they painted in. We moved one of the pine trees to the foreground, so they could decorate it for Christmas, then I painted a picnic tablecloth, on which they painted a creative birthday picnic. It was a fun collaboration that they can be proud of, as they survey their own handiwork.
Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
My goal is to create aesthetically-pleasing art that encourages people and enriches their lives, from portraits that capture likenesses of loved ones, to murals that enliven and unify spaces, to stories that kids and adults enjoy reading over and over as they notice new details each time in the illustrations. I want my art to bless people. My favorite artists (of which there are many, coming from a range of artistic movements and styles) bless me with their work, which delights my eye, inspires my mind, and encourages my heart. Life is often difficult, so I personally appreciate art that makes life more live-able by leading the viewer to take a breath and maybe gain some peace and/or some delight. When I’m particularly stressed, I often escape into the interactive art of my favorite artist, to whom I cannot help but give credit for giving me all I have, who is of course, God. No one can top his work, and just walking around in it, simultaneously soothes and exhilarates me.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
A few years ago, I fell into a severe clinical depression. I had already struggled with, and taken medication for, anxiety, for years. After being married a year, I felt happier and more stable than I’d ever been, and I assumed I was strong enough to stop medication. My anxiety soon returned and spiraled out of control into a deep depression. My parents encouraged me to start counseling and stop working alone in our apartment but instead to get a job – any simple job – just to get out of the apartment and have structure and face-to-face social interaction. So, I paused my art and started working at one of my favorite stores, TJMaxx, and later at Dillards, and then eventually I worked again at a school, but this time in administration. I enjoyed each of those jobs and the people I worked with, and I was blessed with a good counselor who convinced me to try medication again. It did lift the “hurricane of pain,” as she called it, so I could work through my thoughts and move forward. I prayed alot, and through those times, God showed me that I needed to stop hating myself, stop comparing myself to others, stop holding onto anger towards various people, and stop believing the enemy’s lies that I was a mistake or a waste of space or that I was less-valuable or lower-quality than other people. I needed to give all the hatred and pain and anger and lies to God and be free of them and believe the truth, which he revealed, instead. Believing those lies, in the thick of my depression, had made me often long for death. By God’s grace I never took my life and my husband was patient with me, even when I was explaining to him that my death would be good because then he could “start over with someone better.” My craziness probably impacted his emotional health, but he stuck by me, and is with me still, for which I’m so grateful. The journey through and recovery from depression took roughly three years. I’m grateful to be practically healed now, and that I only have to take half the dosage of meds that I was taking for years when I was doing well, before the depression. I still have the strange side effect of being unable to hand-write, as depression has weakened my hands and made my writing cramped and shaky. Miraculously, I can still draw. I’m grateful to be working on my art again, from home, but this time in a stable and functional and contented state. I still have to be vigilant in my thoughts by never comparing myself to others (which is largely why I still have no social media pages for my art, which I know I should change but am nervous, lol), being intentional about spending quality time with friends and family, exercising, praying and reading the Scriptures, and of course, walking around in NATURE, which is some of the best medicine for me :). This probably doesn’t illustrate my resilience so much as it illustrates God’s grace to me. I was a self-destructing wreck, who couldn’t fix myself, so he provided the people, resources, wisdom and healing I needed to get better. I used to mourn those “lost” three years of my life, but I’m now grateful that I went through depression because of what I learned from it. It was extremely humbling and showed me my weakness, it increased my compassion for others who struggle with mental and emotional health issues, and it also exposed deep-rooted lies I believed from before the depression, so I could be free of them and live the life I was meant to live.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.kaitphillips.com