Phil was a tinkerer and experimenter from an early age. “I entertained my siblings making things like electrically-controlled puppets, an electric go-cart, installations using light and sound…” He studied Mechanical Engineering and Industrial Design at Carnegie-Mellon University. But it was when freelancing as a graphic designer that a gallerist client said, “You’re more interested in your creativity than my business needs. You should be an artist.” 

“It was like a bolt of lightning! Everything changed.”

Around the same time, a meditation practice helped shape a new direction. “I knew I needed to be making art and that emersion in nature aided my inner peace. I also wanted to share my life more closely with a group of people. I decided to move to a rural arts community” 

Based in rural Tennessee, surrounded by trees, creeks and a diverse community, Phil blends modernist form, abstraction and light, taking materials that reflect his love for natural beauty and transforming them into enthralling, glimmering, luminous sculptures. “All of my works have personality. I want them to come alive; to animate the space around them, and I imagine people becoming enchanted.”