Philip van Voorst

FEATURED ARTIST— PHILIP VAN VOORST Philip van Voorst George Brosi Philip van Voorst was born in Amsterdam, Netherlands, where he received a diploma in designfrom aprivate institute. Afterimmigrating to the United States, he continued his career in graphic design for four years before entering college to pursue an art degree. He received his B.F.A. in design from Southwest Missouri State College and his M.F.A. in sculpture from the University of Kansas. Van Voorst has taught art at the college/university level for thirty years, in Colorado, Missouri, Ohio andWestVirginia, including courses intwo and three dimensional design, color theory, drawing, photography, calligraphy and graphic design. During his academic career, and presently as a full-time artist, Van Voorst has exhibited and continues to show work in drawing, photography and sculpture. Now living in St. Clairsville, Ohio, across the river from West Virginia, Van Voorst is a committee member of the James Wright Poetry Festival. As a resident of the Wheeling metropolitan area, Van Voorst serves as an Associate Artist and past president of Artworks Around Town. Van Voorst's work in this issue consists of sketches and drawings pencil, pen and ink, watercolor, pastel and color pencil. All of them are direct from life and sketched or finished in the open air. About this work, Van Voorst writes, "literally down a sidewalk, road or a path in a field is where most of the pencil drawings and watercolors in this group came to be. The simplicity of the subject matter seems very naturally matched by the plein-air commitment and lo-tech drawing and watercolor media. A drawing or watercolor is often finished in that period of presence, while sitting on the ground, a concrete step or a small folding stool. If not finished, I can, at leisure in the studio, play with the given forms. Once past the barrier of re-entering a drawing done at a different time and place, I can be free to darken, lighten, color, change, take out and add. Surprisingly, the original sense of the experience oftenre-emerges. At other times a drawing gives rise to new interpretations, and a newimagetransformsthe old. Iwishformywork to adequately represent the simplicity and dignity of the commonplace and provide a means with which to question our relationship to the environment, to objects and concepts of possession." 112 ...