Interview by Jimon

1- Where do you reside and work currently?  I live and work in the Bushwick Section of Brooklyn, NY.

2- One word to describe Rachel Phillips?  Crispy!

3- Did you have any training for art or is it inherent?  I have a BFA in painting from Tyler School of Art and an MFA in Painting from Memphis College of ART. I have been drawing ever since I can remember.

4- When did you first start making art and what lead you to start?  As the youngest of nine children, art was a way to create my own quiet space away from any noise. It was a way to process the world around me. My schoolbooks were just filled with doodles and pictures. All during school, the only thing that came to mind was to continue art. I remember starting art school thinking I would do illustration because it was practical and I could make money at it then I tried a painting class, and it was downhill from there.

5- What is the inspiration behind your creations?  My motivation is to understand and process what is around me. I love color, making lines, and creating exciting compositions, but the reason behind it all is to ultimately figure out what’s going on around me. Hopefully to contribute something to the enormous collective unconscious of the world – it’s my way of being a part of it.

6- Is there any reality behind the characters in your paintings and sculptures?  Yes absolutely! While the characters may look make believe they are not fiction, they are a direct product of my feelings and emotions.

7- Your work is very abstract, has it always been like that?  In college, I was taught by many abstract painters. They were very supportive of my work, which always contained characters. Still, they also gave different types of feedback, such as what the color is doing, whether the marks are working for or against you, and how you can make a painting have different levels. I want my artwork to be able to read as many other things. As I got older, I became less worried about defining things visually. It’s my painting, and if I believe it, it can exist on the canvas as reality- abstraction, figuration, surrealism, calligraphy, etc., are just categories.

8- Are you an optimist, pessimist or realist?  I’m an optimistic pessimist. Any artist trying to survive in New York has to have an overabundance of optimism or just a substantial ego.

9- How do you describe success as an artist?  It is staying focused and painting without getting too down and out despite whatever else is going on. I also want to show my work from time to time.

10- What do you dream about?  Dying

11- The colors in your art, are they indicative of your state of mind?  The colors reflect an energy not specific to being happy or sad. They create a buzz in my head and sometimes lift my spirits. Sometimes they reflect the environment. I live in a city and see a lot more artificial color and light than if I lived in a rural setting.

12- How would you like to be seen as an artist years from now?  I hope my work still resonates with people.

13- Best advice you ever received in regards to your art?  When I was a senior in college, a professor told me my color was awful. I thought to myself, “Wow, dude, it took you 4 years to figure that out and to let me know”? Anyway, that criticism was good. Whatever I was doing with color was not functioning like I wanted it to. I wasn’t concerned about pretty colors but that the colors worked in tandem with my imagery. I look back at those paintings he was talking about, and yeah, the color was terrible, but it was also effective in creating a specific feeling.

14- Do you have a place/person/thing that you visit for inspiration?  I visit galleries and museums. That’s the great thing about living in NYC

15- If you could have dinner with 3 artists living/dead who would be at your table?  Charline von Heyl, Amy Sillman, Hilma af Klint

16- Name three things you can’t live without in your studio?  My Brushes I have about 50

17- How would someone find you on social media?  Instagram @321.rachel

18- If you were asking the questions, what question would you ask please follow up with an answer?

You said that you majored in painting in school. How do the sculptures fit into your body of work? Making sculptures is a bit new. I started them in the spring of 2020 during the Covid Pandemic when New York City was shut down, so they have a tragic sensibility. I see them as forts or villages left to rot, a dystopian fairytale. It’s been fascinating to work in a new medium; it feels like a drawing or painting becoming realized in a 3-dimensional format. I like how the paintings, sculptures, and drawings have informed one another.

19- Please name the first thing that comes to your mind while reading the following:

Art=life

Food=not a bad thing

Sports=it exists

Politics= polarizing

Poor= it happens

God=Dog

Rich= Sure

Luxury=nothing comes to mind