Kelsey Phillips (@keymintt)

Hello, I'm Kelsey (aka "keymintt")! I received my BFA in Drawing and Painting in May 2022 and currently work in and around Phoenix, AZ as an art educator and freelance illustrator.

I am a fifth-generation Arizonan artist who uses natural imagery and symbolism alongside aspects of the uncanny to explore what it means to be human, nonhuman, both, or neither. In my traditional work, I approach my subjects with a naturalist intent; in placing them in reality or almost-reality, I render the fictional as something tangible and confront the borders of fiction and reality. The familiar Sonoran Desert is a frequent backdrop for my work.

Alongside the more traditional pen, oil paint, and acrylic paint, digital media is also a part of my creative process. My digital work is often character-focused and illustrative, but still maintains my ethos around monstrosity. Instead of realism, I approach human and nonhuman subjects with a semi realistic but energetic style to convey mundane stories in which humans and monsters are one in the same.