Meet our Gallery at Iona Artists: Winter 2015

We sat down with Artist in Residence Nancy Fève and Special Guest Artist Phil Brown to learn more about their creative processes. Check out their artworks on display in the Gallery at Iona through January 22, 2016.

Q: Describe to me your relationship with art. Has it changed as you’ve aged?

Phil: I enjoy craft art in particular – working with glass, fiber, wood, clay, polymer — and especially when that creation is an artistic one, not a kitschy kind of thing. I started learning in 1975, and by 1980, I had a piece in a show. I’ve had pieces in shows on and off ever since. Today, I have a reputation for my curved shape in pieces. People see my work and know it is a “Phil Brown.” Overtime, my creative process has become a little more refined. It’s evolved. I often do variations of the same thing, discovering what else I can do new to these same shapes or designs. For me, that’s what is exciting about creative expression.

Nancy: My relationship with art is more like a hunger for it than a relationship. I love beautiful creations and interesting ideas behind new means of expression. I collect, with delight, examples of art formed with unexpected ingredients used in surprising ways. The pleasure of discovery evokes the sense of wonder I had as a child and which I try my best to retain as I age. Growing older has freed me from ever feeling the need to curb my enthusiasm, which is my principal fuel. I unabashedly explore a new direction until I feel I have found its essence, and then I’m off onto a new path. I have so many projects in my head that I can’t imagine ever running out of the urgent need to make new and different work. I feel most alive when I’m trying something new or making work that excites me.