We recently connected with Ré Phillips and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Ré , thanks for joining us today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?
It’s critical to, as a creative, cultivate projects that feel as meaningful as possible. If authenticity and alignment are important, then this is a nonnegotiable. Because part of the journey of being an artist, both existentially and professionally, is to bare your soul in a way that displays authenticity. That is not an always an easy thing to do. In fact, it’s often one of the hardest things you can do as a human being. Case in point, after my father died, I had a real difficult spot, and it became really difficult to show up to the canvas and to the clay in an honest and authentic way. It took me a year of professional coaching with my creativity mentors to overcome this hurdle of grief-induced artist block, and eventually I developed a work, a body of work that was meaningful; however, it was meaningful because it was authentic to the heart space I was in. Eventually, I produced a body of work called She May Bend, She May Break that visually contemplative a very human emotion called grief. This work means a lot to me because it is honest, contemplative, and unlike other work I have created in the past, reflects on my a personal challenge in my life.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I have an been artist for as long as I can remember. I started taking it more seriously and thinking of it as a professional career in 2010 after I graduated from Stanford and for the 10 years that followed I continue to produce various bodies of work show them in exhibitions globally. Eventually I was represented by an Atlanta based gallery. In 2020, I began to participate in artist residencies, which were very helpful for developing new bodies of work, conducting artistic research, and thinking through how to execute on certain creative projects. Now I have grown a 7,000+ social media following for whom I produce art-related content and take on one-off commission projects.
My work uses different points of inquiry to interrogate various aspects of the human experience, such as: civil and human rights; gender and racial difference; grief; devotion; and longing. These inquiries surface in the work as stories, and ultimately I see myself as a storyteller. I tell these stories through a multidisciplinary approach (painting, sculpture, and most recently, a novel). To learn more check out my website www.rephillipsart.com or my instagram page at https://www.instagram.com/
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
I believe that certain things make us human and creativity/ creative suppression is one of those very important human elements. It is fundamentally human to create. I believe that’s what were born to do- all of us. I learned from one of my mentors, Chetna, that creative life force energy lives inside of all of us no matter if we are an artist or not. And it’s our job to steward that energy in a way that is healthy, authentic, and inspiring for others. We are either expressing the energy through the lives and works we create or suppressing that energy with toxic habits and addictions. I personally find it rewarding to express that energy with clay, beautiful prose, and a bright color palette.
How did you build your audience on social media?
I have a more smaller, more intimate following compared to many other artists. Nonetheless, I would encourage any artist starting out on social media to do their best to share their artistic process. I have come to learn that people love to know the process of an artist, what we are thinking, and how we go about creating new work. In addition to sharing your creative process, I would also encourage folks to share these behind-the-scenes glimpses in the form of videos, which tends to get the highest engagement on social media.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.rephillipsart.com
- Instagram: @rephillipsart