MEET THE ARTIST Phil Shelton

Twenty-odd years ago, Phil Shelton ran out of fuel on his way through Esperance. The town felt like home, so he decided to stay. Phil’s creative pursuits are varied, ranging from large-scale murals and bronze sculptures, to restoring Volkswagen Beetles and set building at the Bijou Theatre. Many of Phil’s works can be seen throughout town, including the Skylab monument outside the Esperance Museum, Royal Flying Doctor Service mural on Andrew Street, and ‘Spiritis Recentes’ sculpture at the entrance to Esperance Health Campus.

Where did your journey as an artist begin?

The label ‘artist’ has always sat a bit funny with me as it was never quite a choice, more like a compulsion noticed by others. I have always been creative in some way. As a kid, if I wasn’t drawing, building Lego or cities out of card decks, I would be using Mum’s nail file as a screwdriver to fix some gadget. My first mural commission would have been at 14 years old in an aged care facility dining hall, somewhere in Bendigo, Victoria, where I grew up.

Creatively speaking, how have you evolved over the years?

From cartoons, pencil drawings, and scale model building, to airbrush posters for friends. Then onto heavy industry and signwriting, accumulating skills over time, painting houses, guitars, cars and motorcycles, the occasional mural and illustrated highway billboard. My most significant evolution has come from my long-term collaboration with sculptor Chris Siemer, my friend and mentor. Being part of his practice showed me how these things we create can be imbued with meaning and able to affect people greatly. The reward was always as much in the journey as the outcome, quite often slapstick but always an enjoyable process with great outcomes. As another great local artist, Rob Maley, told me, “Art doesn’t change the world – it changes people, and people change the world.”

Your most recent work is the Tanker Jetty mural on the side of McCreeds Classique Jewellers. How did this piece come about?

Ernie McCreed had, for a long time, wished to do something to improve the visual impact his building had on the foreshore environment. The jetty was very much part of his growing up, as it was for many in Esperance, and his idea was to remind us of its history and preserve the experiences and memories attached to it. Many discussions were had and old photos pored over to develop an image that recreated the feel of the jetty’s influence on people’s day-to-day. For me, it’s telling the story to be told, and taking people to another place, to reflect, to think about how things were and could be, and look to the future with a broader perception.

You have several other murals around town. What draws you to large scale pieces?

I like working on larger scale pieces as it becomes visceral. You almost become part of the artwork. Touch, taste, see, hear, and smell. Night and day, rain and shine. Laying in the dirt, hanging off a platform in the sky, a full body experience.

How do you express yourself creatively through your business, Esprintz?

It’s a collaboration between my team and the customer to get the best outcome for the artwork. The subject matter is wonderfully varied, so it’s finding the story and telling it in a visual way using layers of colour, spaces, textures, and layout. I enjoy the diversity of what is seen to be ‘art’ or what has enough meaning in a person’s life to warrant preservation and presentation. It can be quite emotional at times. Objects, images, things that connect people to their histories and life events.

Lastly, what’s ahead for the rest of the year?

Right now, I’m pretty focussed on the new large format print technologies we have introduced at Esprintz. I’m also creating sets for the Bijou production of Les Miserable s, and consultations have commenced for a ‘Lost at Sea’ memorial on the foreshore, due to be completed early next year.