with phoebe
an interview by kate white, visual arts editor
Phoebe-Agnès Mills, current Sewanee senior and this month’s featured cover artist, currently has a gallery at Stirling’s. Be sure to visit before it’s gone, you don’t want to miss it. With one look at her pieces, the viewer is transported to singular and simple moments that evoke a certain melancholy of the past. With each stroke of paint, Mills conveys what it truly means to be human. I recently sat down with Phoebe to ask her about her artistic process and inspirations.
What is your artistic process typically like?
My process begins with pictures I take in my day to day life. I take my camera everywhere I go. My friends will tell you I’m always whipping out my camera to take pictures. I try to make my images as spontaneous and true to life as it can be. They are real moments to me. When I begin to paint, the reference photo is just a guide. I rely on the paint to add the feelings that photography can’t do.
What artists inspire you?
I find I’m not as inspired by older, more well known artists. Contemporary artists are who inspire me the most. The recent art movement called “disrupted realism” inspires me a lot. Disrupted realism seeks to cross and overcome stylistic boundaries. I create something grounded and skew it in a way that is subjective. I look to Alex Kanevsky, Jennie Saville, and Mia Burgeron (my former painting teacher in high school) for inspiration as well.
What does your work aim to say?
I want to be able to represent real moments in my life and to breathe magic into these moments; real magic. I’ve been accused of being a romantic in a derogatory way throughout my life. Both romanticism and realism have great aspects. I wish to bring the two together to create a certain special kind of magic. The things we see on a day-to-day basis are magical. For example, Froggy Heaven was a real moment that I was able to bring magic to. Life is guided by knowledge of inevitable death. Every moment we live through is eventually going to slip away. I want to hold on to these moments and make them precious.
