More Than Driftwood, Rocks

The whole point of these doodles in nature are to say, in effect, a sentient being with opposable thumbs was here, and this proves it because no other creature has the ability to do this, or could be bothered. It’s kind of a secret handshake for members of the human club, because nobody else can create or interpret it.

And that’s the great thing about Philip’s work: Anybody can do it. By this, I don’t mean to say that it’s run of the mill stuff – it’s not. It’s remarkable and it’s uniquely Philip Burgess. But anyone can gather interesting rocks, pieces of wood, hunks of plastic washed up on beaches, leaves, twigs, whatever catches your fancy and use it to create art. If you don’t want to bring it home and add it to your already overwhelming pile of stuff at home, you can just make your sculpture at the beach, if you can live with the fact that it will be gone in a couple of days.

I’d direct you to Philip’s website to see his work, but he doesn’t have one. Doesn’t even have an e-mail address. But that might be for the better, because it’s best to see his work in person. He works on commission and can be reached at 822-6730.

Finally, I want to mention the group show, Keeping the Faith,which opens with a reception July 5 at the Piante Gallery in Eureka as part of this month’s Arts Alive! The invitational is a manifestation of Brian Tripp’s gathering of artists, and will feature no less than 14 locally and/or nationally known Native American artists. I’ll be writing about it for my next column. It makes my head spin a little just thinking about talking to them all and speculating where the conversations may lead.

1 2 SHARE