Meet Phil Spaulding | Surreal Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Phil Spaulding and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Phil, why did you decide to pursue a creative path?
I have always been drawn to the idea of creating and expressing my thoughts and experiences since early childhood. My parents have stories of me as young as 2 years old drawing on the walls of our trailer and always having some form of medium in my hand to create. I can’t think of a time that I haven’t been creating and expressing myself. I would draw during class from elementary through high school, often getting in trouble for not paying attention or the subject matter I was drawing. I think choosing a career that is creative was something that I didn’t even consciously think about, it choose me in a way. I went back to college when me kids were young and decided to try to take a more conventional path in business to make money and provide for my kids. It wasn’t long before I was switching majors and going back into the arts. I felt constricted by the business degrees and wanted to expand on my skills as an artist and go into a creative field. Those first few semesters I felt like I wasn’t able to breath, however when I switched my major to art it was like I could breath again. It is almost like a deep calling from within that requires me to create and be part of the conversations visually. Once I stopped trying to conform to the societal expectations of a safe career the creative drive over took me and I began my journey into the creative arts.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I work primarily in the world of the surreal. I utilize different mediums and style to create a narrative that allows the individual to embark on their own journey through the piece to create meaning. My main medium of choice has always been graphite. As I was growing up I always had access to pencil and paper so I began to learn at an early age how to manipulate the medium. By working in black and white it allows my pieces to not be set in a time line, it can be the past, present or future; however it can also be all of them as well. My pieces have always been viewed by others to have a darker undertone, which I wouldn’t dispute, but sometimes beauty can be found in the darkness. I do not create pieces to have a shock value, the imagery when combined create a memory from my past. They have a meaning to me that would differ greatly for an individual that is viewing my work. The viewer visually reads the piece and attaches their own experiences, memories and hierarchy of understanding to create their own narrative for the piece. I do not discuss the meanings of my pieces because I want the viewer or individual to create the meaning themselves.

Although I work mainly in graphite and the surreal, I also create and work in different mediums and styles. In 2018 I had my first of 3 brain surgeries. The first brain surgery did not go as planned and I was having a hard time with many daily life tasks. One of those was being able to hold a pencil and draw. I was in my studio one day about 3 months after my first brain surgery and became extremely frustrated with not being able to do what I was able to do just a few months ago. I began throwing things and destroying my studio in a rage. I collect antique real photo postcards and would use them for my work in the past as references for my drawings. When my rage and frustration subsided a bit I began to look at what I did to my studio and noticed something laying on the ground. When I picked up an antique real photo postcard it has a scratch across the eyes of one of the subjects. This gave me an idea to begin to work directly onto the postcards. That moment of frustration and anger turned out to be an inspirational motivation to create something new. I began working directly on top of the postcards utilizing mixed media to create trading card sized one of a kind pieces. While I have over time been able to create with graphite again, which I do regularly, I have added the postcards to my creating process.

I continue to push myself after having the brain surgeries and have learned that sometimes in the darkest of days we see the little light that leads us to something new. My work now ranges from my surreal graphite drawings, to paintings, to upcycled mixed media postcards, to fan art for horror movies, to still life’s. I feel when we limit ourselves to one medium and one style we do a disservice to the creative child that lives within us and wants to just leave something for the world to remember us.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
This is a hard question for me, not because I don’t live in the city anymore, but because I am a homebody. I am a simple person that likes quite and being alone. However, for the sake of the question lets see if I can answer this with what I would actually do. The mountains have to be the first thing on the list. Anywhere in the mountains is my happy place, just being in nature. Going on adventures and hikes and just being surrounded by nature. I think no mountain trip would be complete without stopping in Idaho Springs for some Beau Jo’s pizza. From there we could head to the city for other adventures. I love museums and Denver has some great museums. The art museum would be a definite stop along with the Museum of Nature and Science. But we couldn’t forget to swing by the aquarium and then Meow wolf. The zoo would be on the list as well. Obviously this would take a few days to get to see everything, so where would we eat? I think we would be driving around to grab different food from all over. Tommy Sub’s in Morrison, Ali Baba’s in Golden, Wasabi in Lakewood, Machete in Cherry Creek. No chain restaurants on this trip. And finally if this friend/family member was up for getting some ink we would head over to Singularity Tattoo to get a memory permanently etched into the skin. Like I said, I am a homebody for the majority of time, but I do like learning and being in nature so whoever gets me as their tour guide of Denver and Colorado is in for some education.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
There are so many people along my journey that have either mentored me or inspired me. I would say that Sandy Lane had a huge impact on my art and career as an artist. She was my main drawing professor at Metro State and really took the time to guide me in not only technical abilities, but context and content. She pushed me to be better and without her I would not be the artist I am today. I would say that other influences that have guided and directed my art are too many to list but a few would be Edgar Allan Poe, Rod Serling, Alfred Hitchcock, Carl Jung, Salvador Dali and Chris Mars. I could go on and on, we are touched by everything and everyone that we come in contact with so I believe that everyone in my life has some credit in shaping me into the artist I am today.

Website: https://www.surrealthoughts.com

Instagram: @philspauldingart