Home Page
Who We Are
What We Do
Join Us
Registry
Join the Registry
Resources & Partners
Keep in Touch
Return to the Registry
Interview: Lani Phillips September 8, 2005
1. How long have you been a resident in Siskiyou County?
I have lived in Siskiyou County since 1997.
What brought you here?
The mountains mostly. I lived in Medford and I realized it was too much city and too many people. Everything was closing in.
2. Can you give a short explanation of your specialty or your artistic medium?
I would describe myself as a photographic artist. I create fine art photographic portraits both in a digital medium and analog form. I shoot both medium format and 35mm. Because of the recent projects I have been doing, I would also consider myself a photographic collagist. It is like weaving stories into pictures.
3. How long have you been making art (professionally and unprofessionally)?
Unprofessionally, since I was a little girl and professionally, since 1994. Interestingly enough, when I was shooting as a little girl in 6th and 7th grade, they were intimate photographs even at that time. I lost my art for many years to alcoholism. Then, when I got sober in 1994 everything started coming back along with the realization that I had some artistic gifts.
4. How have you learned your art? Have you had any formal art education? If so, where, when and for how long?
I am self taught and I have had different mentors over the years; people who I have emulated and who have taught me technical aspects of photography.
5. Have you had any special mentors that have influenced you and your style?
Joyce Tension of course, although, she is not a big divulger of her work. She doesn't go into details about her work. Her work is very private and very much her own. I would have to say, the number one person who influences me now, today is Ruth Barnard. Not in that I try to emulate her work but that I try to emulate her thoughts, her craft and her attention to the world. I shoot very quickly and Ruth Barnard would take all day long for one shot.Ruth turns 100 years old this year. What I like about Ruth is that she sees things that no one else sees or thinks to think about. The last time I took her to dinner she was 96. We were sitting in this restaurant and as the cars would drive past the restaurant they would have to take a turn so the headlights would shine up onto the walls. I looked over and I saw Ruth taking the little tiny white vase with a tiny white orchid on a small plate and she was arranging it so that she could see the perfect shadow of the orchid on the table cloth as the lights went passed. She would mention, "Oh look, watch." and she would say as the headlights came through the window she could see everyone's shadow's leaning up against the wall. So, this is the stuff that she was still seeing at 96. Remembering her and her thoughts help keep me balanced and motivated.
6. Can you talk a little about your experience as an artist in Siskiyou County? (In other words, what is unique about being an artist in this area?) (Pros and Cons) (economic, cultural, physical/geographic)
When I came to Siskiyou County I had only been shooting professionally for a couple years. It was unique for me, watching young people, mainly high school seniors see themselves for the first time. I was photographing a lot of people who were really unhappy with who they were and were struggling in their own skin. It was really great to photograph them for the first time and have them see something new in themself. Now, that probably could have happened anywhere, but it happened for me here.
For whatever reason I ended up in Siskiyou County and lots of things have happened since I have been here. I have been given opportunities that couldn't have happened anywhere else. It is like a crossroads where people intersect and where synchronicity is really strong. The paths that are crossing here for me are incredibly important and I work at keeping my pathway open for other people to cross.
7. Do you feel like living in Siskiyou County has influenced your art? What aspects have you drawn inspiration from?
Absolutely. Just from each individual. I think it goes back to the last question in that everything is influenced as people are coming through my life.
8. Do you feel like art in Siskiyou County has any prominent trends or patterns? If so, how do you see your own art in relation to these?
I think honestly, what I would like to see artists in Siskiyou County do more is to break out of Siskiyou County. I think what happens is that it is a nice little cellular package and people have a tendency to stay in that cellular package and not get out of the box and go for it. I think that if you have a craft or a passion then you should leave and get all the knowledge and experience that you possibly can and then bring that knowledge back to Siskiyou County, like what you are doing.
9. Are there any other things you would like people to know about the relationship between your art and the place that you live.
I think that my art right now between the Wisdom of the Crone and the Journey of the Maiden deck is all about where I live, it is all Siskiyou County. The Crone Cards are distributed throughout the world and so the whole world is getting a slice of Siskiyou County. When people come to this town and buy a deck of the Crone Cards they are really excited that these are all people from this County. It's like taking Siskiyou County with them.
10. If you had to describe your style in a few words how would you do this? First 5 words that come to mind?…
I think my work is eclectic; it is my vision. I think my work stands for something. When I was a kid I was raised with a completely analytically mother who was a doctor and so my art was totally disregarded as a child, it just didn't exist. Now I realize that I have a gift to create things that brings something back to the people. I feel like the messenger more than anything.
11. Do you teach art in anyway or are you interested in being a teacher?Tatiana, you have to answer that question. Of course you, and your work has proven to be wonderful and unique to yourself. There have been a few people who have come through the gallery who have worked for me and have now created a world for themselves in the business of photography. And then there have been people who have really found the artistic side of it. I think of you and Deva as people who have taken what they have learned and gone way passed that and created your own style and technique. That is a joy for me to see.
12. Do you have one particularly interesting story about your adventures as an artist? The most unusual work you've done, the hardest work, the most interesting commission, celebrities you’ve worked with, your biggest success story or biggest failure, or your earliest memory of making art.
I would have to say photographing the 54 Crone Cards which took three years. I think that in photographing the individual women who came from Siskiyou County but also from the Bay Area and from Scotland, they had a big impact on me. For me, especially with the Crone deck (all older women above the age of 50), these women are now immortalized. At least for me, they will always be on that deck of cards. Since that deck has been published we have lost some of the women who are on the cards. For me, photography is that amazing thing that stops time.
I think some of my fondest memories would have to be photographing Dick Bliss with Ruth Barnard when he went to go meet her. I think of the two of them sitting on the stoop looking like brother and sister in their 90's. The one moment I wish I had was when we were leaving and I put Dick in the truck and Ruth came over to the window that was closed on his side and she was kissing the window. I was like 'Oh God, where is my camera!' Luckly I also have a strong photographic memory.