I believe I’m brave, and perhaps foolish to admit it, but I want my art to be fun. Fun to make. Fun to look at. Fun to think about.

But that doesn’t mean my pictures aren’t serious. I attempt to confront important issues, focusing mainly on human arrogance. There is a great need to poke, prod, and expose the hubris of Homo Sapiens in my work. Sometimes the irreverence is obvious, other times it comes at you slant. But it is rarely lacking, if you look.

For the curious (and I know you are), let me explain who Phil Knoll is. He began drawing before he was born. Onto the inside of his mother’s womb using the diminutive nail of his left index finger he etched complex images.  But one is not born a card-carrying artist. After years of study - absorbing, rejecting, applying, formulating and surviving rejection--Phil could finally call himself an artist. A big influence? Seeing Peter Saul’s work for the first time while attending the University of Texas, Phil said to himself, "Holy Crap, you can do that?!?!” Saul’s work gave Knoll permission to do what he wanted. Others, like Alice Neel, Saul Steinberg, and Man Ray converse with Phil in the studio on a daily basis. And friends like Geoffrey Young urged the graphically preoccupied Knoll into embracing color as an attractive addition.  

Admittedly, there is a cornucopia of divergent styles to be found in mon oeuvre. I challenge myself to imagine what might be a sane response to life on earth. Then I choose the best vehicle to realize the vision, whether via realism, cartoon, or by stepping into the sneakers of other artists for brief raids on their genius.  You can be certain I put my heart into my work, because there is nothing I won’t do to body forth the wit in my pictures.  Beauty, that ungovernable international sensation, is the supreme goal.  There is also an obsession to focus on the small within the large. What is the universe if not for its details? So as you graze these selections don’t trouble yourself with the trivial problem of continuity; please appreciate each image as the independent life force that it is.  Together we can make the museum of the world a more acutely sensitive place in which to live. 

-Phil

I believe I’m brave, and perhaps foolish to admit it, but I want my art to be fun. Fun to make. Fun to look at. Fun to think about.

But that doesn’t mean my pictures aren’t serious. I attempt to confront important issues, focusing mainly on human arrogance. There is a great need to poke, prod, and expose the hubris of Homo Sapiens in my work. Sometimes the irreverence is obvious, other times it comes at you slant. But it is rarely lacking, if you look.

For the curious (and I know you are), let me explain who Phil Knoll is. He began drawing before he was born. Onto the inside of his mother’s womb using the diminutive nail of his left index finger he etched complex images.  But one is not born a card-carrying artist. After years of study - absorbing, rejecting, applying, formulating and surviving rejection--Phil could finally call himself an artist. A big influence? Seeing Peter Saul’s work for the first time while attending the University of Texas, Phil said to himself, "Holy Crap, you can do that?!?!” Saul’s work gave Knoll permission to do what he wanted. Others, like Alice Neel, Saul Steinberg, and Man Ray converse with Phil in the studio on a daily basis. And friends like Geoffrey Young urged the graphically preoccupied Knoll into embracing color as an attractive addition.  

Admittedly, there is a cornucopia of divergent styles to be found in mon oeuvre. I challenge myself to imagine what might be a sane response to life on earth. Then I choose the best vehicle to realize the vision, whether via realism, cartoon, or by stepping into the sneakers of other artists for brief raids on their genius.  You can be certain I put my heart into my work, because there is nothing I won’t do to body forth the wit in my pictures.  Beauty, that ungovernable international sensation, is the supreme goal.  There is also an obsession to focus on the small within the large. What is the universe if not for its details? So as you graze through the selections don’t trouble yourself with the trivial problem of continuity; please appreciate each image as the independent life force that it is.  Together we can make the museum of the world a more acutely sensitive place in which to live. 

-Phil