Andrea Phillips | Staten Island, New York USA
Andrea Phillips settled on Staten Island in 1963 after marrying Maurice Phillips, African-American artist and native of Staten Island. Andrea embraced and was embraced by the black communicty and its fascinating folk-like culture. It fed her creative and spiritual nature. Artists and musicians from near and far congregated here and creativitiy flourished among them. Maruice passed away in 1972.
Andrea's art form began to take shape when she discovered that she could piece scraps of fabric into functional items for the family; clothing, quilts, couch covers, drapes, rugs, anything that could be stitched. People knew to drop of any unwanted fabric or clothes to her. This method of working with fabric strongly influence what her husband and his mother told her about the rural south. As years passed the piecing developed into pictorial quilts and then collages. She and her son, artist/musician Saintmaurice, co-founded the Living Arts Gallery in the early 1990s in West Brighton, Staten Island, bringing art and culture to the community.
The work presented in this auction "Fences" represents the culmination of Andrea's art forms with the use of cloth, paper and fabric to create a mosaic of different textures and surfaces. This collaged work almost looks alive at close distance.
