Phil English

About the Artist

Phil English says of himself: "I have completely, totally, and abysmally flunked retirement three times."The first retirement was from the U.S. Marine Corps, where he was an officer of Marines for almost thirty years. Phil goes on to tell about how his last business, sold in 1996, involved designing and manufacturing American Folk Art woodcarvings. That business is what led him into woodturning.

A prospective buyer requested that he turn some lighthouses. He described then as "a cone with a walkway,"a Chinaman's hat with a ball on top and candy-cane stripes twisted all around." Phil took the order for 900 lighthouses only to discover that among his 21 employees, eight of whom were master woodworkers, he had no wood turners. As he says, "By the time I taught myself to do woodturning and finished nine hundred lighthouses, I was beginning to develop the knack of woodturning."

Some years later a personal friend who was a woodturner brought into Phil's shop a well-known Australian woodturner. When he asked Phil how he had done some intricate off-center pieces, the reply was, "I just did it." One of Phil's employees heard the friend comment with a laugh, "He (Phil) is so stupid he doesn't know something can't be done, so he just does it." For example, look at some of his multiple-center wall medallions.

When asked about art shows, art schools, prizes, honors, etc., he replies that most of his buyers are sophisticated art collectors whose homes are filled with turnings and other forms of art from really well-known artists. "I cannot imagine a greater honor than having them include one of my pieces in their collection. Their knowledge or what they find interesting and worth buying mean a great deal more to me than honors or awards".

Over a number of years, Phil's art has evolved. He is steadfastly evasive about designs: "God made that burl; I just let Him use my hands to display his handiwork" or "The pieces which sell most quickly (sometimes before they're totally finished) are the ones in which the wood showed me what shape it wanted to be."

What makes Phil's turnings different from others? He will say, "There are many excellent turners producing marvelous pieces. Some of them compromise on quality. On even my tall, skinny pieces, the inside is sanded and finished almost as well as the outside. I sand the piece to 1200 grit after turning. If I don't like a finished piece, I won't sell it no matter how much the original block may have cost.

The woods I use are the most beautiful and expensive exotics I can find. Very few turners will spend hundreds, even thousands, of dollars for a piece of wood to be turned. We all know full well that piece may 'blow up' or be ruined during the turning process. But what I do is make the most beautiful turning I can produce from each block of wood. I put everything I have into each piece. I don't hold back or compromise - not ever."

One other "Phil-ism" that will be helpful as you look at his turnings is: When I flunked retirement the last time, I said, " Lord, I've never done anything in my life except supervise other people. Please let me become good at doing something myself in the years left to me here." And he hopes that those who seriously observe his work feel that prayer is being answered.