Jay and Sherry Phillips
Jay and Sherry Phillips grew up in the St. Louis County area, were childhood sweethearts that lived across the street from each other and now live in Chesterfield, MO. Their medium is primarily wood but they also weld metal to create functional art and use their laser machine to enhance, and make unique, a lot of their wood art. Jay owns his own IT consulting firm and has been a woodworker for almost 40 years, building furniture, remodeling their home and turning wood on the lathe. Sherry is a retired hospital social worker who has been turning wood on the lathe and using the other power tools in their shop for over 15 years. They have taken workshops, private lessons and network with other wood workers in order to evolve their style and work by experimenting with different creative methods to make their pieces artistically unique. Jay grew up watching, then working with his father building and creating things out of wood as a hobby. Sherry began woodworking watching Jay and having him teach her the art of woodworking. They are motivated by their appreciation of and respect for nature. The beauty of wood and how each piece is unique provides their incentive to create pieces that enhance that unique beauty within their finished pieces. They particularly enjoy upcycling local Missouri wood and are proud to create with it rather than have it discarded as worthless. Jay and Sherry are juried Best of Missouri Hands Artisans, juried members of the Greater St. Louis Artists Association and members of Webster Arts . They have been juried into numerous art shows over the past 9 years, including the MO Botanical Gardens Best of Missouri Market (for 9 years), Webster Arts Fair, Kirkwood Artists Boutique, Richmond Heights Art Fest, Art in the Park at Francis Park in St. Louis Hills, Art in the Park in Columbia, MO, Schlafly Art Outside, Old Capitol Art Fair in Springfield, IL, Wildwood Art Festival, Queeny Park Art Fair, and Midwest Salute to the Arts just to name a few. They have 4 adult children, 6 grandchildren, a sweet goldendoodle dog and enjoy camping, hiking, fishing, bike riding and traveling the country in their motorhome.
