Phillip Shore's artwork is informed and influenced by his travels to and the study of the archeological artifacts from Ancient Greece and the relationship between humans and the environment. Mr. Shore is an artist and an educator who divides his time between living rurally in Michigan and residing in an urban setting in Texas. Mr. Shore received his MFA from the University of Notre Dame and his BFA from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University. Over the twenty plus years in which he has been making art, Mr. Shore has exhibited extensively throughout the United States and was invited to attend an international sculpture symposium in the Republic of Georgia.
Mr. Shore has received grants from the State of Michigan, Arts America and, most recently,
he was the recipient of the Haggar Scholar Award through the University of Dallas. His
work is represented by Craighead-Green Gallery in Dallas, Texas and by Sue Greenwood
Fine Art in Laguna Beach, California and is in many public and private collection
including Purdue University, the City of Fort Smith, Arkansas, Rustavi International
Sculpture Park, Rustavi, Republic of Georgia, and Akin, Gump P.C., Dallas, Texas to
name a few.
Artist Statement
Wendell Berry, in his 1989 essay Nature as Measure writes, "But we know too that nature
includes us. It is not a place into which we reach from some safe standpoint outside
it." This quote embodies the overarching thesis of my work: the relationship humans
have established with the physical world and questioning why we see ourselves as separate
or outside of nature.
I am influenced and gain insights through the exploration of artists and authors who
consider the land and our place within it. This information, along with my own investigations,
result in natural and manmade forms, shapes, colors, textures and lines being acquired
from the world that I interact with on a daily basis, reimagined and incorporated
into my sculpture. I am interested in how the tools I use in the garden, woods and
studio act as an intermediary as we interface with our surroundings. The vining tendrils
of plants, the color and shape of insect life and seeds, the graceful curves found
in the trees, the texture of bark, the movement of water, etc., initiate the foundation
and inventory so integral to this work.
In developing forms and compositions, my process involves a balance between reason
and intuition mediated by formal concerns. Within my work, I connect disparate elements,
an acorn cap placed on a chicken egg, a branch with foliage of feathers and, in the
same vein, I use cast elements of the human form, hands and feet, atop reliquary-‐type
vessels containing elements from nature to express the interconnected relationship
of humans and the environment.
This work emerges from a personal exploration, an exploration seeking my place in
this natural system. The work is neither declarative nor didactic but is rather evidence
of this exploration.