5 between knowledge and dream

Phil lived in an apartment on Fawcett Street, just off Kensington’s antique row. He had a great sense of humor, which he inserted into the serious conversations he loved to pursue with his friends and neighbors. He loved to laugh.

Phil in his studio apartment, 2016 - photograph by Deborah JaffeHe surrounded himself with his writings, drawings, paintings and an eclectic collection of deconstructed antiques that made up the media he most loved to use.

Few people were invited into Phil's domain and even fewer managed to accept the invitation. Those who did were greeted by a breathtakingly touching venue, and left having experienced a surprising sense of the numinous. - photograph by Deborah Jaffe

Phil Kurz, my brother and a much-loved friend, departed Planet Earth on July 22, 2016. He has left an aching void for all who knew him. He has also left us his work – and our own memories of a life dedicated to love, beauty, and kindness.

.....These 5 pages are a short biography written for Phil's memorial by
- Cynthia K. Hatfield, Sister & Visual Art Professor, University of the V.I.
- Michael Causey, Neighbor, Freelance Journalist and Editor

I Drift Between Knowledge and Dream
I Am the In Between

Phil Kurz, “The Flute of God”

An Exhibiton of Phil's Work  is happening through June 3, 2018 and you're invited.
when? six days a week between 10am and 6 pm.  Closed Wednesdays.
where? the Flood Gallery in Black Mountain, see directions to the gallery on the following invitation.

See Keith Frederick's introductory talk from the show's opening -  on the May 15th blog below.

Update on Thursday, July 20, 2017 at 12:02AM by Cynthia Hatfield

These pages are a start (in blog format) to Phil's biography. Click to the Right to see them in chronological order; the Above header links to this page, where they are presented from most recent to his early years. Illustrations are a work in progress from photo galleries still under construction, so some thumbnails are not active & later images are not yet posted. Stay tuned for updates and please add your comments and stories about Phil and his artwork to the Blog page, by clicking on the PHIL KURZ tab on the header above, then on the "A BLOG: Phil's story..." tab to the right. - Thanks!

4 prolific poet. creative craftsman. mystic maker

Phil’s work shows the influences of the Expressionist and Asian artists he most admired, yet it is uniquely his own.

           

In addition to his myriad drawings and paintings, Phil was an incredibly prolific writer. He developed an extensive comic strip, produced journals, scrapbooks, abstract visual narratives, all enclosed in his custom wood-crafted boxes.   

 
He hand-wrote five volumes of handwritten philosophical treatises in which he outlined his own religion in a book called The Flute of God [title page and random excerpt below.]

His religion drew on Animism, Hinduism, Christianity and other world systems. However, like his art, the vision was his own and its bedrock was clear: Love and kindness for everyone. 

He was a familiar figure on the streets of Kensington, walking miles daily; nodding to neighbors, protecting and feeding animals, counseling friends, planting flowers in empty spaces, regularly picking up trash from the edges of his world and wordlessly engaging others to join in his constructive service.

Phil was his religion.
His religion was Phil.

3 his muse sticks by him through thick and thin

Over the next several decades, Phil realized a body of work astonishing both in its depth and its beauty.

 [above] "Vining Gold and Sky Crystals" watercolor on paper mounted on wood. 2012

[left] "Identity of the Person" Oil on Masonite - March 2008

[above] Matchbox Series of Miniatures (set to right contains a marble and a strip of velvet; used sort of like a set of personal 'Tarot' cards) watercolor - March 1984 & '84

Despite his illness, which caused him frequent retreats and much distrust and fear of others, my brother’s ability to share beauty in his artwork, his writings, and his philosophy of life amounted to a well of love deep in his being. 

[below]"In Memory of the Passage of Friendship"  Oil on Linen - August 2010  

 

The world can also be a hard place. Phil knew this all too well. His work, some of it dark, reflects that truth.

 

[above] One of a series of small watercolors. Part of Book 8.-  March 2015

2 adulthood agony and art

 
Phil battled with mental illness for the rest of his life.

'Dare Ye Open This Door?' - 17"x22" oil on wood panel, 1990

His time on Earth was marked by periods of great creativity

These are but a few of hundreds of 'journal cards' made daily during the 1980's, and as series 20 years later. On the backs, all are signed, dated and categorized in numerical codes, some are also titled, and some have intricate narrations & explanations.

Detailed images of cards are in the "KURZ ART" section of this site on the "Visual Art/decades of cards" webpage  (links to the right.)

This box, titled "HOLY FOOL"  is covered in streams-of-conscious fears, sayings, thoughts and advice from and to Phil's various selves. Inside it is filed: early poetry, very lucid business papers, copyright records for some of his writings as well as illuminating Artist Statements;all ranging between the 1970s to around 2014.

A close up of this file can be found in the Story of Phil Blog, page 2, "Adulthood Agony and Art." Some of the contents
are referenced in the "Writings" section of the KURZ Art webpages.

This small apartment is where Phil lived, worked and collected lots of cool stuff - some new, most old and re-purposed and ALL impeccably cared for and catagorized so he knew exactly where it was when he had an idea.

 deflated by long dormant periods...

 

Phil, at age 64. He was a kind and mild-spoken man, fighting a brutal interior battle, that he lost & won on a minute-by-minute basis.       -  photograph by Deborah Jaffe 

... when combinations of therapeutic methods and medications were tested, rejected, adjusted and tried again in an attempt to help him.

 

"Song#4" [above] is one of many visual songs made of painted 'melodies' [two shown] held together as sets in handcrafted boxes. These containers of series transitioned into his altars. Made as Phil became more practiced in his religion, he always gave them an offering, a visual image, a container and an actual source of light. 

Finally, with the help of a generous research psychiatrist from NIH, Phil was able to better harness the benefits of medication, strict diet, exercise and, of course, creating art.

Update on Wednesday, November 29, 2017 at 11:44AM by Cynthia Hatfield

Check out this amazing Ted Talk about Cecilia McGough, a remarkable college student with schizophrenia.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbagFzcyNiM

1 the young person

Phil was born in Washington, D.C. in 1951 and raised in Kensington, Md. by artistic parents. His extended family had already spawned generations of painters, dancers, artisans and writers who saw the beauty in the world and wanted to share it with others. 

Phil was also special. His keen intelligence was drawn to world history, theatre design and the burgeoning counter-cultural movement while still at Walter Johnson High School.        

                    He briefly attended the University of Maryland focusing on philosophy and the Chinese language, before taking off to experiment with a sixties communal life-style in Boulder Colorado. Phil soon returned to Maryland; began studying painting at the Maryland College of Art and Design in Silver Spring for just a few months before being de-railed by the unrecognized inception of Schizophrenia.     

He moved to Frederick for a while, looking for the quiet of a country life, before unhappily realizing he needed the support of his family in Kensington. A time of upheaval, suspicion and pain descended on him and the people who loved him as they worked to regain

clarity, health and well-being. It was like living in constant death, looking into shattered mirrors while fighting an unknown enemy.

Phil produced serigraphs and early gouache paintings during this time. However, it was also during this time that mental illness first took hold of him; he set fire to the bulk of his work.