NM ‘draw-er’ combines traditional, contemporary imagery
Artist combines traditional, contemporary imagery in comic book about fracking
Astar-flecked cactus rocket piloted by an astronaut owl leans a diagonal trajectory in front of Larry Bob Phillips’ South Valley studio.
The self-described “draw-er” and muralist created the piece in the hopes of producing a fiberglass version. But the avian-meets-succulent greeter is something of an anomaly. The artist’s studio spills over with sheets and rolls of pen-and-ink portraits, magical landscapes and opposing murals of Phillips and his wife, Tammy.
The painter of murals at 516 ARTS and, most recently, Santa Fe’s Meow Wolf, is working on a comic book about fracking in New Mexico. Hydraulic fracturing is the fracturing of rock or tight sand by hydraulic pressure, using a combination of water, sand and chemical additives to extract natural gas and petroleum.
Phillips leafed through a stack of portraits of the players in the recent Sandoval County controversy. In December, county officials voted to reject a proposed ordinance that would have regulated oil and gas activities on unincorporated land for the first time because of overwhelming grass-roots opposition to fracking.
Meticulously inked black and white images of Gov. Susana Martinez, conservative financier David Koch, various county commissioners and activists lie across tables. Rolled drawings dangle from a wooden latticework hanging from the ceiling.
“It touches on a lot of things I’m interested in,” the artist said, “— how cultures change and learn. NASA had to tell New Mexico that it had a methane cloud over the Four Corners area.”
Methane is a greenhouse gas responsible for about one-quarter of global warming.
Phillips unscrolled drawing after drawing as he spoke about the project. He created shadows and shaping through what could be tiny pixels or Ben-Ray comic book dots.
“I probably wouldn’t call it photorealism, but a lot of it is photo-based,” he said. “There’s a lot of tension between the cartoon relationship and representational work,” he continued.
“I like ink on paper because I can make a lot of work and it’s not too precious,” he added. “One hundred dollars will get you through the year easily.”
516 ARTS Executive Director Suzanne Sbarge chose Phillips to complete three murals, including 2014’s “Brainbow Alley,” with its
mash-up of skeletons and portraits of Albuquerque artists splashed across the gallery’s back wall.
“He is extremely accomplished and versatile and he’s great to work with and he has an amazing vision,” Sbarge said. “He’s very grounded in the community and local culture.”
The mural in the Meow Wolf foyer swirls with Phillip’s trademark imagery.
“It’s arguably an alien landscape,” Meow Wolf chief creative officer Caity Kennedy said, “— a kind of abstract landscape in vivid colors. We worked with Larry Bob before we opened. He did a mural at the back of our building. Also, we love his painting; it’s very beautiful and psychedelic.”
Phillips grew up in Amarillo, Texas, with an artist mother and grandfather.
“By the age of 10, I had a sense of guilt around not drawing,” he said. “I was always the second-best draw-er.
“It’s OK,” he added. “Picasso was the first-best about cubism; Braque was the second-best- and I like Braque’s work better.”
Phillips came to Albuquerque to attend the University of New Mexico and stayed.
“I was living in New York and 9/11 happened,” he said. “I looked at my bank account and my studio life and I decided to go to graduate school.
“I fell in love with the history and the traditions (of New Mexico). “The general culture of the U.S. has obliterated traditional culture. And I’m blown away by the artistic traditions in New Mexico.”
516 exhibitions manager Claude Smith compared Phillips’ visual complexity to the Op art movement of the 1960s. “There were several panels he just painted on the wall without a sketch,” Smith said. “He has this unique ability to pull out historic art images and contemporary graphic novels. He’s comfortable with all that visual language.”