Phil Day (artist)

Day, a lineal descendant of Wong Ah Sat, was born in Goulburn, New South Wales, living in the same house for his entire childhood and adolescent years. At age 16, he briefly trained as a graphic designer at the NSW Police Academy. Rather than pursue graphic design as a career, Day enrolled at the local technical college to study art. In 1992, he moved to Canberra to study at the Canberra School of Art, ANU (graduating with a Bachelor of Art with First Class Honours). While still a student, he worked as an illustrator and caricaturist at The Canberra Times.[http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/132461253?searchTerm=canberra%20times%20AND%20%22ice-cream%22&searchLimits=exactPhrase=ice-cream|||anyWords|||notWords|||requestHandler|||dateFrom=1994-01-01|||dateTo=1996-12-31|||l-advstate=ACT|||l-illustrated=true|||sortby Example illustration by Day for the Canberra Times.] 1995 He abandoned this path in 1996, choosing instead to work as a printer, binder, and designer of books for the Edition + Artist's Book Studio, ANU. In 1997, Day co-founded Finlay Press, and in the same year he lost the vision in his left eye due to a congenital deformity. In early 2010, he moved to Melbourne, founded Mountains Brown Press, and met his future wife. Together they moved to Toronto, Canada (2010), then to Brooklyn, NY (2011). Day lives in Melbourne,{{Cite journal | url=https://www.smh.com.au/national/unsung-artist-became-an-admired-mentor-for-many-20170629-gx1861.html | quote=Upon moving to Melbourne, Day joined a small social group of artists "A group of older artist met with Tony Woods every Saturday morning for coffee and conversation, including Alex Selenitsch, Petr Herel, Keith Stream, Alex Hamilton, Phil Day, and Kevin Lincoln, to discuss what each were doing." | author=Sheridan Palmer | title='Unsung Artist' became an admired mentor for many | journal=The Sydney Morning Herald | date=2017-06-29}} with his wife and their daughter.

Day first came to public attention in 2000 when he was invited to exhibit in the Australian Drawing Biennale.{{Cite web|url=https://cat2.lib.unimelb.edu.au/search~S30?/Xphil+day&searchscope=30&SORT=D/Xphil+day&searchscope=30&SORT=D&SUBKEY=phil+day/1,169,169,B/frameset&FF=Xphil+day&searchscope=30&SORT=D&6,6,|title=University of Melbourne Library / All Locations|website=cat2.lib.unimelb.edu.au}} There his drawings were shown alongside those of Davida Allen, Rick Amor, Guo Jian, Euan Macleod, John Olsen, Gloria Petyarre, and Harry Wedge, among others. The exhibition catalogue states:

"[Day] looks at things for himself … This is a rare quality, particularly when so many practitioners in the visual arts claim to be bored with image-making and, as a substitute, flirt with ideas."2000 The Australian Drawing Biennale. Australian National University. p. 18.

Primarily, Day's work is pictorial: at times detailed and realistic, while at other times brief and gestural – Peter Keneally describes Day's brief-gestural drawings as: deliriously smudgy and slapdash.Keneally. P, (2016)'Australian Poets: Lawrence;Page;Wallis;Giannoukos;' The Australian. 5 November 2016.

There is an understated mood in Day's work, both in subject and material. His pictures invite the viewer into a one-on-one relationship with common things, this includes domestic objects, urban animals, garden plants, and the occasional portrait. It also includes memories, thoughts, and imaginary figurative inventions. All of which, are almost exclusively worked on modest size sheets of paper with modest materials (often coloured pencil and watercolour). In 2003, Sasha Grishin, art historian and critic, said:

"There is a certain disarming honesty in [Day's] drawing, which are as much visual observations as they are thought-pictures ... between the seen and observed reality, and the realm of abstract thoughts and carnal desires."Grishin. S, Disarmingly Honest in Small Grabs, The Canberra Times. 3 December 2003.

From 2004 onward, Day has almost exclusively created images for artist's books, often in collaboration with Australian authors, including: Cassandra Atherton, Gary Catalano, Julian Davies, James Grieve, and Robin Wallace-Crabbe. In 2015, Day discussed aspects of illustration as a guest panellist on [https://soundcloud.com/adelaide-festival/day-3-on-collaboration-julian Collaboration] at the Adelaide Writers' Week.{{Cite web|url=https://www.adelaidefestival.com.au|title=Adelaide Festival|website=www.adelaidefestival.com.au}}

A brief biographical note states: Phil Day has enjoyed illustrating other people's writing, then binding the results into books, since he was sixteen.When Books Die, Braidwood, NSW, Finlay Lloyd, 2006, p. 145. {{ISBN|9780977567706}} An early example of an artist's book illustrated by Day is Imaginary Thoughts and Their Beings (1995).{{Cite web | url=https://find.slv.vic.gov.au/discovery/fulldisplay?context=L&vid=61SLV_INST:SLV&search_scope=slv_local&tab=searchProfile&docid=alma9930023653607636 | title=A book of imaginary thoughts and their beings | website=find.slv.vic.gov.au | first1=Ingeborg | last1=Hansen | first2=Phil | last2=Day}} Day became more prolific when he co-founded Finlay Press in 1997. By the close of Finlay Press in 2009, Day had illustrated 16 of Finlay Press's 23 titles. They are: [http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/2096455 Burly Gryphon] (1997), [http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/574154?lookfor=hungry%20magpies&offset=1&max=1 Hungry Magpies] (1997), [http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/2096465?lookfor=bomber%20finlay%20press&offset=1&max=1 Bomber] (1997), [http://library.sl.nsw.gov.au/search/q?author=pollock+james&title=fth&submit=Search Fth] (1998), [http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/574171?lookfor=the%20last%20lost%20doughnut&offset=1&max=74742 The Last Lost Doughnut] (1998), [http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/2096474?lookfor=formingle&offset=1&max=1 Formingle] (1998), [http://search.slv.vic.gov.au/primo_library/libweb/action/display.do?tabs=detailsTab&ct=display&fn=search&doc=SLV_VOYAGER1306863&indx=2&recIds=SLV_VOYAGER1306863&recIdxs=1&elementId=1&renderMode=poppedOut&displayMode=full&frbrVersion=&dscnt=3&frbg=&tab=default_tab&dstmp=1332211346858&srt=rank&mode=Basic&dum=true&fromLogin=true&vl%28freeText0%29=finlay%20press&vid=MAIN Household: Eleven Poems] (1998), [http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/3064119?lookfor=pile%20of%20hair&offset=1&max=2 A Pile of Hair] (2003), Top Ten Twentieth Century Monsters (2003), [http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/3548319?lookfor=through%20hoops&offset=1&max=21 Through Hoops] (2005), [http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/3548300 Familiar Objects] (2005), [http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/3776173?lookfor=goodbye%20eggcup&offset=1&max=1 Goodbye Eggcup] (2006), [http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/4364693?lookfor=cat%27s%20eye%20finlay%20press&offset=1&max=370259 Cat's Eye] (2008), [http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/4364704?lookfor=stairway%20to%20paradise&offset=8&max=12 I’ll Build A Stairway To Paradise] (2008), [http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/4581970?lookfor=day%20by%20day%20finlay%20press&offset=1&max=420927 Day By Day] (2009), Four Men and Their Ideas on the Erotic. Caren Florance remarked:

" ... some of the most exciting untraditional private press work in Australia."{{Cite web | url=https://www.slv.vic.gov.au/sites/default/files/La-Trobe-Journal-95-Caren-Florance.pdf | title=The changing face of contemporary letterpress in Australia | access-date=2024-04-26 | website=www.slv.vic.gov.au}}

In 2010, Day moved to Melbourne, and founded his private press – Mountains Brown Press. No longer having access to printing presses, Day altered his approach in order to continue his interest in making books. The most notable change being each book written in pencil by his hand. State Library of Victoria, History of the Book manager, Des Cowley observed:

"… [Day's Mountain Brown Press artist's books] represent an art stripped back to basics, a cathartic attempt to re-engage with the physical properties of the book, without the intervening layer of metal type and presses … there is a sense of spiritual renewal to be found here."Cowley. D, 2013. Mountains Brown Press: the recent artist's books of Phil Day, Imprint, Autumn. pp – 18-19.{{Cite web | url=http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/sites/default/files/La-Trobe-Journal-95-artists-books-photo-essay.pdf | title=Artists’ books from the collection of the State Library of Victoria: a photo essay | access-date=2024-04-26}}

As of 2017, Day began collaborating with lithographer Adrian Kellett (of Sunshine Editions); artist and intaglio printer Greg Harrison; and designer binder Suzanne Schmollgruber (of Centro del bel libro Ascona, Switzerland).

• [http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/6536927?lookfor=phil%20day%20mountains%20brown%20press&offset=8&max=516463 New Leaves] (2010)
• [http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/6536958?lookfor=phil%20day%20mountains%20brown%20press&offset=5&max=516463 An Amateur's Look at Ornithology Around the World] (2010)
• [http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/6537348?lookfor=phil%20day%20mountains%20brown%20press&offset=9&max=516463 A Very Short Poem] (2010)
• [http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/6536976?lookfor=phil%20day%20mountains%20brown%20press&offset=4&max=516463 The Elusive Moose] (2010)
• [http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/6537226?lookfor=phil%20day%20mountains%20brown%20press&offset=2&max=516463 The Day is Hers] (2010)
• [http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/6537334?lookfor=phil%20day%20mountains%20brown%20press&offset=3&max=516463 Look Look! Chook! Chook! Tuk-tuk! (Gorakhpur)] (2010)
• [http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/6537295 425] (2011)
• [http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/6537370?lookfor=phil%20day%20mountains%20brown%20press&offset=10&max=516463 Poppy-cock (sure)] (2013)
• [http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/6537334?lookfor=phil%20day%20mountains%20brown%20press&offset=3&max=516463 Look See! Said the Cyclops] (2013)
• [http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/6537456?lookfor=phil%20day%20mountains%20brown%20press&offset=7&max=516463 Nothing Doing] (2013)
• [http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/7054079 Sketch-Notes (Vol. 1, 2, & 3)]. (2015)
• [http://search.slv.vic.gov.au/MAIN:Everything:SLV_VOYAGER3483079 Dilly Dally]. (2016)
• [https://cs.nga.gov.au/detail.cfm?irn=328710 000001]. (2014-2016)
• [http://dro.deakin.edu.au/view/DU:30088877 Sketch-Notes (Vol. 4)]. (2018)

• [https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/232108058 Shoe is Undone]. (2017)

Day's earliest writings appear in two Finlay Press titles: Familiar Objects (2005),{{Cite book | url=https://onesearch.slq.qld.gov.au/discovery/fulldisplay?vid=61SLQ_INST:SLQ&docid=alma9912435004702061&context=L&search_scope=Everything | title=Familiar objects | publisher=Finlay Press | year=2005 |first=Phil | last=Day}} and Goodbye Eggcup (2006). From 2010 to 2013 all Mountains Brown Press titles contain his writing. In 2012, Day wrote an essay for publication and review: Why Qi Baishi is better for me than Damien Hirst.Lost Art, Two essays on cultural dysfunction. {{ISBN|9780977567768}} Scott McCulloch, Australian Book Review, commented:

"Spontaneous in his approach, Day utilizes various bits of visual information: tables, lists, Shakespeare quotes, typography that verges on concrete poetry … it sounds messy, but the connection and slippages of these digression make for an intoxicating and dissonant piece of prose."[McCulloch. S, 2012. Big Business, [https://www.australianbookreview.com.au/component/k2/75-october-2012/1161-julian-davies-and-phil-day-lost-art Australian Book Review, No 345]. p. 42]

{{quote box|align=right|quoted=1|width=40%|fontsize=95%|quote=Exaggerated self-reflection [...] makes the joy of beauty, or art, hard to hold. It's like picking up fresh snow with the dirtiest mittens. Not only do you tarnish the clean white snow, you can also no longer feel its soft powdery touch.|source=Phil Day, 2014. Why Qi Baishi is Better for Me than Damien Hirst.Day. P, 2014. Why Qi Baishi is Better for Me than Damien Hirst Lost Art. Finlay Lloyd. p. 62|salign=right}}

Day has continued to write using 'connections', 'slippages', and 'digressions', evident in his A Chink in a Daisy-Chain (2017), the first in a three-book series. A Chink in a Daisy-Chain concentrates on the embattled nature of individual intellectual and creative autonomy. Fiona Capp (Sydney Morning Herald) comments:

"In the spirit of the absurdist and playful logic that characterises the Alice books, A Chink in a Daisy-Chain takes us into the rabbit warren of Day's mind as he free associates, one thought leading to another in a stream of consciousness ..."{{Cite web | author=Capp. F | year=2017 | title=A Chink in a Daisy-Chain review: Phil Day rambles through his consciousness | url=http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/books/a-chink-in-a-daisychain-review-phil-day-rambles-through-his-consciousness-20170428-gvv14g.html}}

Similar to his artist's books, included in Chink in a Daisy-Chain is a drawing by Day illustrating The Wasp in a Wig – the suppressed chapter from Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There. Day's illustration recreates the style of John Tenniel's original illustrations.{{citation needed|date=March 2021}}

• Lost Art: two essays on cultural dysfunction (with Julian Davies) (2012) {{ISBN|9780977567768}}
• A Chink in a Daisy-Chain (with a foreword by Anna Welch) (2017) {{ISBN|9780994516527}}

• Beating Richie Knucklez: the making of a Space Invaders world champion, (Mon 12 Nov 2018){{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/games/2018/nov/12/beating-richie-knucklez-the-making-of-a-space-invaders-world-champion|title = Beating Richie Knucklez: The making of a Space Invaders world champion|website = The Guardian|date = 11 November 2018}}
• Three Artists' Relationship to the Book, Imprint, Volume 49 (2014)
• When a Book Becomes a Work of Art, Verso, 5. (2017) ISSN 2205-4405

I995, while still a student, Day held his first solo exhibition displaying his illustrations for François Rabelais's Gargantua and Pantagruel. Inspiration from these early illustrations have carried into Day's recent work. Dorothy Johnston, Sydney Morning Herald, observed:

His line drawings enhance the mood of each scene, lightening it, sending up characters locked in earnest or self-serving conversation, or hopelessly in love; at other times giving a darker, sinister flavour to events ... revellers disguised as politicians, celebrities and cartoon animals tumble over one another right out of the frame.

Day has created illustrations (cover or page) for the following titles.

• Lost Words, Xavier Hennekinne (author) (2019) {{ISBN|9780987619167}}
• Call Me, Julian Davies (2018) {{ISBN|9780994516541}}
• Pika-Don Cassandra Atherton and Alyson Miller, (2017) {{ISBN|978-0646979823}}
• And Jump, Adam Collier (2016) {{ISBN|9780995090705}}
• Who said what, exactly, Hartmann Wallis (Robin Wallace-Crabbe) (2016) {{ISBN|9780994516510}}
• Trace,{{Cite web|url=https://rochfordstreetreview.com/2016/02/24/a-world-of-connections-owen-bullock-reviews-trace-by-cassandra-atherton/,|title=A World of Connections: Owen Bullock Reviews Trace by Cassandra Atherton|date=23 February 2016}} Cassandra Atherton (2015) {{ISBN|9780987592996}}
• Crow Mellow,{{cite news | url=https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/books/book-review-crow-mellow-by-julian-davies-modelled-on-aldous-huxleys-debut-20141223-12cvor.html | title=Book review: Crow Mellow by Julian Davies modelled on Aldous Huxley's debut | date=3 January 2015 | first=Dorothy | last=Johnston | newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald | accessdate=28 July 2019 }} Julian Davies (2014) {{ISBN|9780987592941}}
• Six, John Clanchy (2014) {{ISBN|9780987592934}}
• The Wild Goose, Mori Ogai. English translation: Meredith McKinney (2014) {{ISBN|9780987592927}}
• Bruno Kramzer, A. S. Patrić (2013) {{ISBN|9780987592903}}
• Something in Common, James Grieve (2010) {{ISBN|9780977567744}}
• The Harp & The Sword, John Kelly Q.C. (1996) {{ISBN|0867861819}}

The first public exhibition of Day's work was in Switzerland at Museum of Art, Le Locle, Switzerland (1995).Barness. R, ed. 2001 Artist's Books and Limited Editions. 3 (exhibition catalogue), Canberra. ANU. His books and drawings have since been exhibited in numerous exhibitions both locally and abroad. Most recently: Mirror of the World, State Library of Victoria, Melbourne (2016); and Impact 9, China Academy of Art, Hangzhou, China (2015).

VicArts Grants (with Cassandra Atherton & Alyson Miller),{{cite web |url=http://creative.vic.gov.au/news/2015/$1.3m-investment-in-victorias-independent-arts-sector |title=$1.3M Investment in Victoria's Independent Arts Sector |publisher=creative.vic.gov.au |date=1 June 2016 |accessdate=5 October 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161120214637/http://creative.vic.gov.au/news/2015/$1.3m-investment-in-victorias-independent-arts-sector |archive-date=20 November 2016 |url-status=dead }} for international research and development of a graphic verse novel, that reflects on the anniversary of the first atomic bomb being dropped on Hiroshima and the 150th anniversary of the publication of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

Artist-in-residence at Edith Cowan University (ECU), Perth. 2013. While at ECU, Day commenced and complete an artist's book: [http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/184579286?selectedversion=NBD51924690 And the dead & And the beast] (Fold Editions).{{Cite web|url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/184579286?selectedversion=NBD51924690|title=Trove|website=trove.nla.gov.au}}

2020, Day was invited by Julia Leigh to illustrate her cartoon captions and concepts for submission to The New Yorker. Their first cartoon was published in the 31 August 2020 issue of The New Yorker under the initials 'J.P'. New Yorker cartoonist, Michael Maslin, said of Day's illustrative style: '[...] reminded me, stylistically, in various ways, of Felipe Galindo, C.E.M.[Charles Elmer Martin], and ever-so-slightly, Edward Gorey.'{{Cite web|url=https://michaelmaslin.com/the-monday-tilley-watch-the-new-yorker-issue-of-november-30-2020/|title = The Monday Tilley Watch, the New Yorker Issue of November 30, 2020 | Inkspill|date = 23 November 2020}}

2018, Day was invited to compete at Meow Wolf's Score Wars: Galaga World Championship, Santa Fe, New Mexixo, USA.{{Cite web|url=https://meowwolf.com/watch/phil-day-score-wars-artist-profile|title = Video: Phil Day | Score Wars Artist Profile | Score Wars | Meow Wolf}}

2015, Day wrote, designed, and illustrated Sol, a tabletop role-playing game. {{ISBN|9780994411303}}

2009, Day claimed the world record for the arcade game Galaga officiated by [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wl05hLlCkw8 Twin Galaxies].{{Cite web|url=http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/games/aussie-smashes-arcade-video-game-world-record-20090830-f3zn.html|title=Aussie smashes arcade video game world record|date=30 August 2009}}

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Category:1973 births

Category:Australian printmakers

Category:Australian illustrators

Category:People from Goulburn

Category:Australian National University alumni

Category:Living people

Category:Private press movement people