John N. Phillips

This playful open green sand cast silicon bronze composition has an eclectic provenance. Issac Witkin did open sand casting at the Johnson Atelier in the early 80's,when I was an apprentice there. Issac and I had a sand casting party at his Pemberton studio some years later, with my wife Gina, and some other friends.

While surfing the net,  i was struck by a small stack of Barbie Dolls at a Burning Man event. I started collecting my own Barbies.

Renny Molinar offered me a one man show at the Imperfect Gallery here in Germantown in November, 2014.

Before starting to work on the show, I went on retreat to Wonderwell Mountain Refuge, to maintain my Ngondro practice. I thought that this might help ground my sculpture.

Ginny Naude's suggestion to achieve color in sculpture. I took this to be high color. One problem was I was so fussy, and so used to "dark metal", that it was emotionally difficult for me to try to match the usually high color of the object we had just cast in bronze with a similar high color hot chemical patina on the metal. It took quite a while for me to feel all that color as being OK...and then slowly... more than OK.

In 2013, my wife Gina Michaels and i visited India on a meditation retreat. We happened to visit the Ramana's uncle's house, in Madurai, where Ramana achieved enlightenment. Seeing the Meenakahi Temple in Madurai changed my understanding of color and sculpture forever.

The second problem was time. This is when it helps to have a good helper. The first helper was Gustavo Actis, and the second was Paige Miller. Both exceptional sculptors, and both good with patinas, among other skills.

Another important concept that guided the making of this totem series is called Wu Wei. Also Wu Shin. Both terms are explained at length by Alan Watts.

The sculpture here , Red Barbie Totem, weighs about 75 pounds, is 12'' wide, 6' 6' tall, and 3' deep.    POR

This 6,' 6" colorfully patinaed, sand cast bronze is a first free standing totem of a series begun in the Spring of 2014. What started me off was Renney Molinar offering me a show in November at his Imperfect Gallery here in Germantown.

Play therapy is a well known. How about play sculpture?

This sculpture was bought by a wonderful person at The Imperfect Gallery here in Germantown.