The Reality of Dreams : Art of Nick Phillips

Biography

Nick Phillips was born on February 1, 1978 in Oxford Alabama where he has spent the last 26 years. He is currently a member of the St. Clair county Arts counsel.

Nick’s artwork comes from a love of heritage and a passion for the history of Christendom. Growing up in a Christian home and a private Christian school, Nick was surrounded by many different versions of the Bible, Theology books, as well as manuscripts on Jewish culture. During a stint in his life where he experienced severe depression, Nick began to contemplate the very structure of God, and how he played a role in life as he had known it to that point. It is easy sometimes for us to believe what others tell us is true, but it is another thing for it to be revealed to the very depths of who we are. From all of this, Nick’s artwork as it is seen today came forth. Nick states:

“Man has tried to speak to God and each other through symbols since the beginning of time. It is almost as if they believe God can’t hear them unless they use some type of decoder ring out of a cereal box. You may say to yourself “I don’t think in signs or symbols” if that is the case, then I ask you to draw a heart. The heart is just a muscle that is used to pump blood throughout the body. It doesn’t hold emotions, or even Jesus, as we have been taught from a young age. It is a very ugly mass that looks like nothing more than a large lump, but yet when I asked you to draw a heart, I bet the first thing you thought about was the very simple image we see on valentines day cards, or what little girls used to dot their “i’s”. My art isn’t just about symbols, it is about our souls and our emotions, those very things that we want to capture so badly that we use thousands of words and pictures just so someone else(or even God) might get what we are trying to say.”

Nick grew up in a creative home. He remembers as a child his mother Pam painting on wood, his uncle David painting wildlife and portraits, and his brother Jeremie painting landscapes with oils. One of the largest influences on his art came from his father Marty who was a builder and had a love for architecture. All this, combined with his study of theology, and his love of old leather bound books and the illustrations there in, sparked a style that mixes surrealism and symbolism.