BIO

Christina J Phillips (blackcutwitch designs) born 1965, Middlesex.  After flunking school in typically dyspraxic style Christina started working in exhibition  promotions and modelling, at 19 she was modelling for Trevor Sorbies artistic director Vivienne Mackinder in photographs and at shows.

After travelling in Nepal she moved to North Wales where she met her long term partner with whom she has one son.  It was during her pregnancy that Christina started to play vinyl records (mainly techno and DnB) and began to dj at local venues.   Her 30's were spent in persuit of knowledge studying Mathematics, Physics and Oceanography culminating in a joint honours degree awarded in 2005.  It was at this point, at the age of 40, that Christina uncovered a remarkable talent for sculpture after being given a lump of clay to play with by a friend who also taught ceramics.  The friend helped Christina to source a kiln and more clay and by her fourth piece she made her first sale. 

Whilst teaching Physics part time and occasionally dj'ing at local clubs Christina has built up an impressive portfolio of work, much of which resides in private collections.   'I still look at my work and wonder how I could have had this ability for so long and yet not known it.  The yearning in my soul has quieted now, because I am finally following my true talent and passion' CJP.

Christina's work reflects her training in science in subtle ways; the almost fractal patterns in the mosaic of Heather Sprite for instance.  'I like to make in a way which is at once purposeful and intuitive' she says, 'allowing the moment and the material to partially dictate the outcome.  In this way I feel a connection to time, fate and the universe itself'.  Her faces are often of people who we seem to know but have never met.  She takes eclectic influences from fashion (Elegantly Punk was based on one of Vivienne Mackinder's hairstyles) to folklore and history, but most often uses the face to convey complex and ambiguous emotions and states, rarely using models. 

Christina's figurative work has an illustrative quality and her one off figurines have strong personalities of their own due to not using models.  By use of glaze and mosaic she adds extra dimensions to her work which speak through distortion of form, reflective/semi-reflective surfaces and colour.  Her tea pots/sets each have a unique character and are highly collectable.  Every piece she makes is hand made and Christina shuns moulding and casting; 'I like to put my energy throughout all of my work and love the idea that a creative moment is carried forward in that form, an imprint of time.  That these pieces are then enjoyed and loved by others is a dialogue between artist and art lover, an emotional dialogue of the highest form.'

Her erotic work is possibly the most controversial and yet playful.  Honest, bare and sometimes brutal, speaking of deeply hidden emotions and things we do not say.  It is a form used to express and question, which can have a deeply spiritual element. 'My erotica is my political rant - a comment upon our, at times,  ridiculous expectations and insistence upon defined roles.  Gender stereotyping and sexual suppression is a blight on our society and infects relationships.  I see it as my duty to confront these things and hope to evoke thoughtful contemplation of a confusing subject.' CJP

If you would like to know more about the artist there is an interview at http://chrissiebee.com/blackcutwitch-christina-phillips-artist-sculptor-scientist-mum-in-a-moment/