A Note From the Editor: As an editor, this piece almost makes me cringe now, considering that it was one of the first pieces I wrote in the field of arts journalism. It is, at best, a trial piece, but for all of that journalistic blunder, a great deal of Davis' character and passion comes through here. I'm proud to be among the group of journalists who has written about Davis' work and also thankful for all the artists who spoke to me back then for the completion of this rather "cheesy" article. The following piece owns a dateline of November 11, 2005.

On a summer night as rain drizzled down, 15 friends, shovels and pick-axes in hand, took turns digging one large hole on the grounds of a farm estate in Baltimore. There was no particular reason for the dig. The friends just all wanted to chip in, to see how far they could dig if they all worked together.

Among the group, Phil Davis, an artist and filmmaker, didn’t especially stick out, never once asking for special attention. Besides his trademark beard, he blended in organically with his group of friends and worked, as he always did, with dedicated focus and good spirit.

Though outwardly unremarkable, Davis proved himself, again as he always did, inwardly extraordinary. He emerged as the most relentless digger, giving generously his effort and dedication to meet the final goal, said Jon Moses, Davis’ friend and fellow artist.

“If you were in an Intergalactic Olympics, if Phil was on your side, it would be impossible to lose,” Moses said.

In his artwork, Davis applies this same strict dedication to craft and generosity of spirit to all of his pieces. His creative focus has made him successful not only in his college art communities for both his undergraduate work at Syracuse University and graduate work at the University of Maryland but also within the film festival circuit.

His short animation Cord a critique of American culture and media, took first place among Central New York filmmakers at the Syracuse International Film Festival in the spring of 2005. With each animated frame drawn by hand and scanned individually into a computer, the short is a testament to Davis’ persistence and passion.

Working in animation, documentary and experimental filmmaking, Davis plays with both an innovative child-like wonder and also a fly-on-the-wall, observational technique in his films. With a well-defined visual style and an emphasis on the positive, his work reaches past the cynical, post-modern mess of modern artwork to resonate in the heart of his audience.

For all of his boundless artistic energy, Davis had not always set his hopes on being an artist and filmmaker though. Born into a family of molecular biologists and entomologists, Davis thought he would follow tradition and spent his childhood collecting insects. He would search for tiger beetles, metallic insects that whiled away the day in sand pits and dirt roads. The hobby may later have influenced his minute attention to detail and observation in filmmaking, he mentions in passing.

It wasn’t until he took a trip to see the Ottawa International Animation Festival at the beginning of his junior year at SU that Davis started to seriously consider art and filmmaking as a possible career path.

“I always really liked animation, but I never really thought about it as something I could do,” Davis said.

Befriending fellow artists Albert Birney, Nicholas Gurewitch and Jon Moses and encouraged by the support of his girlfriend Rachel Bone, a print artist, Davis poured himself into creating comics for the SU student-run paper, The Daily Orange, working as an art director, while also volunteering on film sets.

Producing work in a creative community where one artist always inspired another, Davis began to settle into his creative humor and negotiate with his penchant for observation.

The work itself is very subtle, and very much like Davis himself, does not call attention to itself, said Miso Suchy, an assistant professor of transmedia studies at SU.

“He’s not trying to shove anything down your throat,” said Birney, a good friend and fellow artist. “He’s just doing it to do it. That’s what makes the work so great.”

“(The work) tries to capture the mood and atmosphere of a place or event or thought,” Suchy said. “Phil is a very quiet person, and his works are quiet as well.”

At the same time, Davis is also very engaging, Suchy said. During a presentation of the professor’s artwork, Suchy asked Davis to interact with small children and get them involved with artistic projects. Davis’ ability to share art with others and shirk egocentricity in the process made him an excellent teacher, Suchy said, leaning back slightly in his chair, face painted with a fond smile.

“Phil isn’t pretentious,” Birney said. “He doesn’t care about other people’s opinions.” 

Following his own original path, Davis has tremendous wells of expression and a spirit and excitement about the celebration of creation, Moses said.

“Today artists should be inventors,” Moses added. “The spirit of invention is evident in Phil’s work.” 

This invention comes out not only in Davis’ humorous animated work but also in the way he sees people and interacts with the world, Bone said.

“He’s always staring at things, making them artwork,” Bone said. “He can almost make a character out of someone before he picks up a pencil.”

Davis has always been interested in observation and applying it to art, he said. “I try to stay really open when I’m out in the field. I’ll amass a huge amount of footage. I’ll look at it over and over again. That’s how I end up with the whole idea,” Davis said. “The source footage is the basis, but it’s what you do with the source footage that’s interesting.”

Considering himself an editor first and foremost, Davis preplans much of his work, visualizing scenes early on. He recognizes, however, that creative works needs to grow and evolve with suggestions and new ideas. “It’s not like, ‘This is what you’ve got, and that’s it,’” Davis said. “You have to give and take with it.”

A step away from the grueling process of producing Cord during which Bone often sat by Davis’ side, massaging the cramp out of his drawing hand, Davis is working now on more experimental shorts. In a continuous series, Davis has been purchasing old video cameras and running tape as he destroys the recorder. He has thrown cameras up in the air and watched them shatter on the ground. He’s boxed them to death and dragged them behind speeding cars.

Through the course of these shorts, the viewer ends up sympathizing with the camera, their hearts going out for a machine, which in a matter of seconds is utterly useless, Davis said.

“The camera becomes a human almost. You feel for the camera, but at the same time, (the destruction) is really exciting,” Davis added.

The message speaks to the Cold War of media, a war in which one technology is always trying to get ahead of the others, Bone said. As for her own tastes though, Bone prefers Davis’ light-hearted animations that take so much reference from reality to build humor, she added.

Though it doesn’t yet tie into his filmmaking, Davis pointed out that he loves cheese, especially English cheese. “Whenever I think of fancy foreign cheese, I think of Phil,” Birney said.

The great challenge for Davis then may not be the future of his filmmaking but rather finding a future for his cheese in his filmmaking. Really, if that’s the only great challenge, then everything is looking up.

To see Davis' short films visit www.phildavis.net.

Also check out the work of Davis' equally awesome half, artist Rachel Bone at www.redprairiepress.com.