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In Phil's own words

If we "think-in-words", then we "see" in shapes. Art is the "invention of language" , like a tool we can use, to further investigate, like a vehicle to enter and return from some unexplored New Place. A good artwork is a "means of production" and NOT a "product". Art is interactive, a dialogue, an unearthing of "what we need to proceed" in the adventure of living. The mistake is to make art a commercial product, a way of garnering attention to ourselves as competent technicians, brilliant "copy-ists", just another cog in the industrial world.  In effect, artists "think-on-the-page", we "think-on-the-canvas". Very fun. Very satsifying! Why? Because, we too are part of the canvas, what's going on there, what is "new", what is "discovered". We have "skin-in-the-game". What occurs on the canvas, occurs in the artist. No barrier. An interaction. Like heated sex with the person you love. No separation. Things, big things, big personal things, are changing, transforming. "Life reborn" sounds trite. The result is not (entirely) a continuation of the "old life"; it is the destruction of the old and static, and the advent of the dynamic. A dynamic "self", a "self-becoming"... blah blah, but that's what it is. It's like a strawberry. If you haven't tasted one, I can't describe it to you and give you knowledge of the taste. However, with the artwork itself, the ongoing dialogue within the piece, the dynamic is transferred! You can taste the strawberry, feel the energies and beauties of a scene, a human body, the curvature of an apple. 

More work from Phil,

 Pure Pleasure of Intersections by Phil Wagner

To see more of Phil's work stop by the gallery or check out his portfolio at www.gallerymoab.com