Featured Artist: Phil Ponce

Insects #1

Tyvek

7’ x 30”

Phil graduated from Indiana University with a degree in English and received his Journalism degree from University of Michigan. He is best known as the host of Chicago Tonight, a nightly television magazine of news and culture on WTTW11, the most-watched PBS station in the country. Nationally, Ponce was an anchor on The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. When he’s not engaged in his paper-cutting obsession, Ponce conducts nightly interviews with news-makers, authors and artists or moderates panels on topics ranging from business and medicine to the arts and education. This is the first public exhibition of his inspired art.

Artist Statement:

When I was a child I used to watch my mother endlessly crochet and embroider birds, flowers and other decorative elements from nature. I must have downloaded that impulse somehow because as a young adult I started doing the same thing—but using paper and scissors instead of needle and thread. 

I also love the Mexican papel picado tradition in which small decorative banners are strung together for parties and celebrations. The pieces I do have elements of papel picado but are one-of-a kind and much larger. Also, I use the building material Tyvek, which should make these pieces last a long time. My goal is simple:  to create something that reflects the beauty of nature in a way that pleases the viewer and gives the viewer a moment of delight.