There is nothing quite like the artwork of Renee Phillips. Her artistic process is rooted in the layering of color and manipulation of paint to achieve these mesmerizing textured results. The texture of her work cracks, rips, and bubbles over like the work of our most infamous mad scientist, Victor Frankenstein. The daughter of a scientist, Renee was a perfect candidate for the Frankenstein Art Novel.
Mirroring Victor Frankenstein’s process of experimentation and engaging with the themes of sublime nature found in the Frankenstein Art Novel, her staggering abstract pieces depict the raw power of nature in a way that is both wholly unique and yet instantly recognizable.
“My work often depicts aerial imagery of Earth’s surface and the rapidly changing landscape along our sea and shoreline due to human impact," Renee says of her process. "Having witnessed those changes, I believe that the destructive impact we have had on our planet is the sole responsibility of the human race."
"Like oil meeting water, Renee's artwork relies on the intermix of differing paint chemistries to create a familiar visual tension. Acting as a scientist, Renee manipulates the environments in which her colors settle. Her natural abstractions exist by way of gravity, temperature, wind, and color. When I look at Renee's artwork, I am called to celebrate Nature's grand design, such as how a view of a river delta seen from space looks similar to cell structures seen beneath a microscope,” Bond & Grace Art Director Maggie Lemak adds.
In Renee’s work Sublime Nature, she draws inspiration from the arctic landscape in which Frankenstein’s opening and final battle take place. Shining and gorgeous, Renee deftly combines silver and turquoise to evoke a plane of ice. Yet the texture of the piece should remind us that such beautiful landscapes are often volatile and unpredictable. The paint stretches and erupts into cracks of white, indicating the danger of the environment. Victor thinks of nature as something to be claimed and controlled, but it is this sublime landscape that ultimately beats him.
Wind and Fog explores the sensory environments that occur throughout the novel, both in the Arctic and in the mountains and valleys of Geneva. The power of nature is a recurring theme in Frankenstein and is captured here in Renee's signature use of latex and spray paint. Rich blues melt and combine with gray, black, and white in this painting which is somehow both simple and staggeringly complex.
“By means of wind and water, wet paint is manipulated as a field of flowing color. Harnessed natural forces become integral to their own expression,” Renee says of this work.
In Revenge, Renee complicates traditional narratives in which red indicates violence and rage through the addition of silver, rose gold, cream, and black. The result is a stunning composition as beautiful as it is unsettling. In further exploration of the violence and turmoil throughout the novel, the distinct texture of the piece is the result of paint ripping. Notice where the paint becomes taut, where the pressure is building, and where the conflict ultimately erupts.
The Color Journal comments on the scientific process Victor uses to create the Creature by revealing Renee's own process for combining and manipulating paint. Noting the behaviors and textures of each medium, Renee meticulously transforms her process into the final product itself. Victor’s single-minded focus on creating life blinded him to the horrific things he had to do to create it. Perhaps his story might have been different had he more thoughtfully considered his process?
Lastly, in Nature vs Nurture, Renee comments on the tension between innate biological attributes and the reaction to lived experience. This connects directly to the Creature’s innate goodness and the violence he learns from mankind in Frankenstein. Renee captures this dynamic in a meeting of texture and color, creating an ambiguous conflict in which it is unclear who is winning and who is losing. Interestingly, rather than these two matters meeting in the middle, they join at the bottom of the canvas in a flash of white, indicating that perhaps in the joining of nature and nurture we create something entirely new.
Renee’s staggering collection is available for purchase at bondandgrace.com
Renee Phillips received her art education from the University of Miami, the University of Paris, and the School of Visual Arts in NYC. Her work has been shown at the DeJi Museum in China, the Kunstwerk Gallerie in Berlin, and more.
