Artist-sculptor Phillip Harrington
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At the McCain Art Gallery’s Chalk the Walk event at Florenceville last month, Harrington, in foreground, used his graffiti skills to “tag” his name. Look carefully< at his complex chalk art, which is nearing completion, and “PHILLIP” becomes evident.
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Phillip Harrington grew up in the Bristol NB area and attended Carleton North High School before heading to Halifax and the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University (NSCAD) on a Fred Ross Scholarship.
His artistic résumé is certainly diverse: painter, carver, etcher, potter, graffiti artist. He now lives in Woodstock after a brief sojourn in Yellowknife where he, among other things, worked for an airline and “picked up” soapstone carving.
He has exhibited at the Beaverbrook Gallery and McCain Art Gallery; his sculpture and paintings were recently on display at the Craig Gallery in Hartland.
Phillip, you have an impressive range of creative experience for a relatively young man. Where did it all begin?
Aside from doodling, I got started, really, by drawing with a pencil in middle school. My parents always supported that and later at Carleton North, my art teacher encouraged me to go further as did my English teacher. So I applied to NSCAD not really thinking I would get in. I just wanted to make my art teacher happy but I guess I was doing something right and I got accepted.
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This watercolour was shown at the
Craig Gallery in Hartland NB this summer. |
Tell me about your three years at NSCAD.
When I got there, I realized how lucky I was. It was inspiring. Very challenging teachers and their feedback was really good. It was a much bigger world at that university with so many media to choose and lots of great courses. I loved sculpture but spent most of my time in lithography, making prints. I like the etching process a lot ─ it’s hands-on ─ and I have thousands of plates. In fact, I’ve sold a lot of those prints lately.
So, those were good years for you in Halifax.
Without university, I probably would have gone West so I’m pretty happy with the way things turned out. As far as making a living from it though, it’s a lot harder than people think. I have a full-time job so art is just a bonus in my life and I enjoy it ─ maybe a little too much!
You’ve mentioned your interest in sculpture and I noticed a number of your soapstone carvings at the Hartland gallery. I don’t see a whole lot of that kind of sculpture around here.
I learned from the Inuit in the North, just by watching them carve. They were doing huge works ─ I started smaller. At NSCAD, I had tried stone and plaster. I drew before I carved and, for me, sculpture is like releasing another dimension.
Although you are a very accomplished artist, you mentioned that you also like graffiti.
At NSCAD, it was something I did with an airbrush (as opposed to cans of spray paint). There were also designated places in town to paint like the concrete walls in parking lots. Now that I’m back here, I find it’s just as easy to do on canvas. You can create amazing things with a piece of cardboard and a can of spray paint.
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| Salmon two ways: top in pine, bottom in soapstone. Of the latter, Harrington says that the sculpture “started as a ten-pound stone ─ the biggest so far,” referring to the two in the background. |