Born In Nurnburg, West Germany, in 1972, Phillip Spinks has lived throughout the United States
and Europe, from the mountainous deserts of the southwest to the Mississippi Gulf Coast and from
deep in the Bavarian forests to Colonial New England. He studied engineering, creative writing
and archaeology at Boston University. His influences are distilled from his sense of self, based
on a metamorphic southern heritage enhanced by his many travels and the cultures both urban and
rural, which he has encountered. This history invoked with a vivid imagination creates images
hauntingly surreal, yet vaguely familiar in the recesses of our primal memories.
Phillip Spinks is known for his abstract multilayered paintings and shows throughout the United
States. He has been in numerous juried exhibitions and has his work in many public and private
collections including Boston's Children's Hospital, Merck, and AG Edwards.
Recovering Memories
This current body of work is about taking what is lost or destroyed and creating new meanings
as well as anchoring what remains.
Aug 29, 2005 Hurricane Katrina struck both New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf coast.
Phillip's Parents' and his Grandmother's homes were gutted by the storm surge of Katrina.
Anything below three and a half feet was buried in sediment and debris. Ninety percent of
his family photographs were completely destroyed. As he and his parents sifted through what was left of their home they found items of their recent past. Broken china, splintered chairs, clothing and images lost in frames, melted by the ravages of the storm. What remained were fragments of memories, a face here, an arm draped over a shoulder, the edge of a building.
After smell, sight is the strongest sense linked to memory. Looking through photo albums
and frames the images both lost their meaning and sparked moments in times remembered.
Phillip saw the austere beauty in the imagery that remained, and as opposed to allowing the loss
of the images to create a void in his mind, he chose to reclaim these memories and create a new vehicle to contain them. This body of work is recovering memories.
