Cover Art and Interview for the Rooster Magazine

Chances are, if you’re a festival goer and enjoy the visual art scene, you’ve seen, heard of, or come across Phil Lewis’ work. He’s a staple of the Colorado art scene with his vibrant colors, playful themes and mind-altering canvasses. With a successful career routinely releasing art for physical prints and beyond, Lewis recently released a passion project he kept close to the chest for three years, inspired by a card game he played with his son and his time foil surfing in Central and South America. It’s called Go Fish Reborn! And as you can imagine, it’s illustrated in a way only Phil Lewis could envision. We sat down with the Boulder artist to learn more about what makes him tick, the growth of his brand, and why his Go Fish game is some of his strongest work he’s ever done.

What inspires your art?

It really kind of comes from everywhere. Anything that comes my way can potentially be an inspiration for artwork. I feel very in tune with the natural world and animals. Anytime I’m hiking in the mountains, or lately being in the ocean, encountering wild animals lights a spark for me. Being outside, witnessing sunsets, being in the natural environment is definitely where I mostly get inspired.

What’s your process when creating art?

My art goes through many phases before being the finished product. The absolute beginning is pencil drawings. I’ll freehand pencil drawings on paper. I’ve developed this technique where I then take a picture of that drawing and bring it into Photoshop on a tablet. Then I’ll zoom in on the pencil drawing and redraw all the line work digitally with the stylus on the screen by hand. It’s extremely time intensive. It gives me a really high definition, digital version of that drawing that I can then add layer upon layer of color, lighting and shading and effects and filters. In the end, my artwork is a digital media that’s printed in one form or another, whether that’s on canvas, metal, paper, skis or snowboards.

What have you learned being a full-time career artist for the past 20 years?

To let it flow as best as you can. The best art I feel I’ve done has been the stuff that has not been under pressure. Try not to rush your art. Try not to put it into a box that it’s not meant to go into. Make the art for art’s sake and it’ll work out.

Your Flatirons piece gained notoriety in Colorado. What are your feelings on the piece?

It is an oldie but goodie at this point. It was the culmination of living in Boulder for a few years. It was my expression of how powerful the Flatirons are. That geological feature is so prominent from anywhere in town. Anywhere you are, everywhere you are, you can look up and see them. It’s like a beacon, a sense of reference for where you are and what’s going on. There’s many amazing trails up in those hills. When you’re driving from Kansas, it’s one of the first things you see as you come into Colorado are these jagged, red rocks. I really wanted to capture that Boulder energy in something. It’s just been awesome to see that so many people connect with it in a similar way. It’s what I would consider a grand slam in terms of a piece of artwork that has been recognized and has helped me gain support and friends and followers over the years.

What work have you done in the festival and music art realm?

I’ve worked with String Cheese. I’ve worked with YODO, Soundtribe, and dozens of bands over the years. A lot of that has been through the nonprofit Conscious Alliance. They’re based here in Boulder as well. They do awesome food drives at concerts. I’ll make a poster for a show, then Conscious Alliance will have the poster printed. People can go to that show and donate food in exchange for a copy of the poster.That food is donated to a local food bank generally near the festival site. One of the best examples of that is Electric Forest out in Michigan. I’ve done three posters for that festival over the years and raised tons of food and donations at those festivals. It’s a win-win for everybody. For myself as an artist, I get to work with big bands and big festivals and gain a lot of exposure through them.

Does your outdoor adventure passion influence your art?

I’ve always been into water sports from a young age. I grew up on Lake Tahoe, standing up on boogie boards behind a little dinghy before wakeboards were even a thing. I progressed through a series of board sports and ultimately began foiling. I took subsequent trips to Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Peru and became fully immersed in foil surfing. I’m making this artwork about sea life creatures and I’m in the ocean a lot. I ended up creating pieces of artwork that are based on specific locations we were surfing in. It was serendipitous that I fell in love with this sport at the same time that I’m making this sea life series. There’s a lot of pieces in this series that are inspired by actual locations of surfing around Central and South America.

Why have a brick and mortar store on Pearl Street?

I’ve been in Boulder for 24 years now. It’s very much home. I wanted to establish something that was a little more permanent. I’ve been in the space for seven years now. Prior to that, I was renting warehouse spaces and shops and working out of my garage. It was my vision to create a space that was going to be permanent. This is headquarters and a home base, not just a retail outlet. We have tons of meetings back here, and it’s a working studio where I have my UV printer, laser engraver, inventory storage and web order fulfillment. It’s a hub for my whole business.

Why put your art on outdoor apparel?

I want people to be able to engage with things that I can make. When you’re wearing a piece of apparel, you’re out there in the world, so people are going to see it as they see you. It’s a fun way for it to get shared beyond just the walls of your house. I’ve done everything from puzzles to phone cases, to Frisbees, to golf discs, apparel, skis, snowboards and skateboards.

Your latest project Go Fish Reborn! is an artist-illustrated take on the classic game. Can you tell us about how your largest body of work under a single theme came about?

About seven years ago, I was playing the card game Go Fish with my son. He was three years old. It was the first card game that he could understand. We ended up playing it a lot. He was obsessed. I remember playing the cards and looking at them and seeing clipart of a goldfish and or a little turtle or whatever. I tried to see if there were any more interesting versions of Go Fish online. I couldn’t find any anywhere. I had this idea that I could create my own Go Fish card game.

What does the Go Fish Reborn! project mean to you?

I think it’s some of the strongest work I’ve ever done just because it wasn’t for a particular client.It wasn’t for a festival or a band or anything. It was just art that I wanted to make and I was feeling inspired by. This whole Go Fish series took me just under three years to finish. It’s a long-term project, but I really appreciate it not having any deadlines. That’s definitely a luxury of having an established career if I can take my time with passion projects.

Why did you choose to stockpile the Go Fish Reborn! collection before its release?

My traditional M.O. has always been to finish a piece of art and then put it out into the world, share it, develop products from it, and then move on to the next one and add it to the catalog. Over the course of the last 20 years, I have over a hundred pieces of artwork that are all in that vein. But this time, I knew I wanted to release it at once. I kind of kept everything behind the curtain. And that was super challenging to do because people would always come in and ask me like, ‘what’s new? What are you working on? What’s going on?’ And I’m always like, I’m working on the same thing, but I can’t tell anybody about it.

How have you seen the Colorado art community evolve?

It’s building in terms of there’s more independent artists deciding to take the leap and do it as a full-time gig. I’m seeing more people becoming successful with their art, which is really inspiring and awesome to see. I think a huge contributor to that has been live performance painting and working with festivals, and the uptake of art as a significant contribution to the festival scene. When I first started vending festivals so many moons ago, I was definitely one of very few artists who set up a booth and sold art. I can see that continuing to grow as more artists see that you can be successful with art as a career path, more people will try it. More people will hopefully find success expressing themselves through an artistic medium, whether it’s art, dance or music.

What would your advice be for emerging artists?

It’s all about exposure. Taking feedback from your friends and fans, family and followers, implement that and try to learn and grow every step along the way. It really is about eyeballs on the art. The more people who see your art, the more feedback you’re going to get, the more chance you’ll have to develop and grow.