>La Grande Observer | Union and Wallowa Counties' News Leader

Glennis Phillips glazes a group of figures that will be high-fired at 2300 degrees in an EOU art studio. (Observer photos/PHIL BULLOCK).

By Jeff Petersen

Staff Writer

Art might have saved Glennis Phillips' life.

The Union 56-year-old began her adventure in art in 1971, prompted by a mental health therapist.

"We had lost a baby, and I was very depressed," Phillips says. "She recommended taking a class, doing something different."

The hand-building class at Eastern Oregon State College, instructed by George Nightingale, fired up the kiln of her interest.

"I was hooked after that."

She has worked at art off and on ever since.

Phillips for the second straight year is part of the Honored Artists showcase, which opens Saturday at Nightingale Gallery. The show features the works of five honored artists from those entered in the second annual Artists of Eastern Oregon art show, which ended July 30.

Phillips' interest in clay may have started much earlier.

She grew up on a farm in New Mexico, raised as she says on "Angus cattle, wheat, sorghum and hard work."

Her interest in ceramics was piqued when after summer rains she would chase "mudpuppies, toads and frogs and enjoy the pleasant, warm sensation of wet clay oozing up between our toes."

Today, the art work helps her deal with life and its challenges.

"I am a bipolar person. I do a lot of work, and then I don't do much," she says. "People need to have a better understanding of what bipolar is, that it's very treatable. People should seek help. There are a lot of professionals — doctors, nurses, the CHD (the Center for Human Development) — out there who can help."

She spent several decades working as a nurse.

Especially enjoyable were emergency room and intensive care work.

"I miss the adrenaline rush," she says.

Her last health care job involved investigation of abuse of the elderly.

"That was very difficult, having to go up against people I knew," she says. "Sometimes it ends up in court. I just couldn't do it anymore.

"I have returned to clay with a passion and as a refuge," she says.

As a teacher of, and mentor to, the younger art students she rubs shoulders with at the university, she says she tries not to offer any advice unless somebody

asks.

"But then I'm very willing to give my opinion," she says.

Working with a kiln is challenging. The work that goes in comes out after firing just a little different.

"I'm not a perfectionist," she says. "If I had to be a perfectionist, it would just drive me nuts."

Her pieces "are made by slab construction, thrown on a wheel, extruded as tubes, or done with a combination of methods.

"I especially enjoy experimenting with the fluidity of ash glazes which at times can cause havoc in the kiln," she says.

Most of her work is "high fired" to about 2300 degrees.

Currently she is taking a summer class with new art instructor Peter Johnson, who is replacing Tom Dimond, who retired. Johnson may be young enough to be her son, but he is stretching her creativity in new ways.

Other people in the art community have high praise for Phillips.

"People involved in ceramics speak of Glennis with awe and appreciation," says Moira Madden, Eastern Oregon Regional Arts Council fund-raising coordinator. "She would never admit it because she's an extremely modest person, but every artist I've spoken to considers her a true mentor. Not only is she a talented artist, but she's a real teacher, one of the rare kind."

Most of Phillips' work comes across as gracefully beautiful.

"I hope that the wistfulness of my youth and the grace and beauty of nature are reflected in my work," she says.

Phillips' work, however, is not all about beauty. She is now working on a more serious piece tentatively titled "Geraldine." It's about a Rwandan family and that country's genocide. The harrowing ordeal involves rape, murder and being threatened with a hatchet. Masks represent the people, how some were massacred, how some survived.

Phillips hopes to make more serious statements with her art in the future.

She and her husband, John, have three grown children and eight grandchildren. She sells her work at Crossroads in Baker City, the Pendleton Art Center and Carnegie Art Center and Blue Creek Gallery in Walla Walla.