The fine art of business

“It took me three years to call myself an artist,” said Sean Phillips, who began painting in 2011 and opened his studio, Sean Garrison Art, that same year. “In 2014 is when I decided I was an artist.” 

Although Phillips had been doing a lot of commissioned artwork for years, it wasn’t until he began painting “Walking on Air” in 2020, outside the Government Center in Minneapolis where the Derek Chauvin trial for the murder of George Floyd was taking place, that he achieved national recognition.  

In addition to painting, he writes poetry and screenplays, and has a motivational book that he’s been tinkering with for a while. He adds, “I got a novel sitting around that I want to write.”

MSR: What inspired you to start creating art?

Sean: In 2010, I was with this organization called the Council on Crime and Justice. They did an art fundraiser called “Art Injustice.” A woman who was in development asked me to do this painting so they could put it up for auction.

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The night of the auction, you know, my little itty-bitty artist ego is on my shoulder. I go in and I was looking at my art since it was a silent auction. There’s this White guy standing there, unassuming, with a bomber jacket and jeans. Really unassuming cat and he was looking at my piece. So, I introduced myself and asked if he liked this piece. He said, “Yeah I like this piece.” And I said, “I’m Shawn Phillips.” 

He goes, “Phillips, we could be brothers. I’m Eddie Phillips.” And we laughed for a minute. He looks at it and said, “You did this?” Then he said, “You’re in the wrong business.” No one had ever given me that high a compliment other than my mother.

So we’re talking at length for 45 minutes and the cat goes, “You make sure I get this painting.” I said, “Well, make sure you bid on it.” 

The next morning, I go into the office and people were panicking. They had all the bid tickets laid out. They forgot to connect the bid numbers with the people who won the bids. So they didn’t know who bought what.

I said, “I know who got my painting. Eddie Phillips got my painting.” She froze. I’m looking at her and she’s looking at me and I’m like, what’s up? She said, “You know who that is right?” I said, “No I don’t know.” She goes, “Remember that grant review two weeks ago to the Phillips foundation? You know, Phillips Vodka?” Oh, he’s that guy. 

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So this guy was the unassuming billionaire cat that owned Phillips Vodka and Belvedere and all these other things. I mentioned that because when he told me I was in the wrong business, it struck me. And I’ve never forgotten that. I can remember as plain as day the look on his face when he said it. It stuck with me.

I was gonna do this painting for the guy for this show I was gonna do, and then he passes away. So now the goal is to do this painting and give it to his son. But his son is Dean Phillips, the congressman. Whenever I can make it full circle, I’m gonna give him that painting. 

MSR: What kind of art do you do?

Sean: I do abstract work and large-scale performative and interpretive theater.

MSR: When did you start to see success as an artist?

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Sean: When brother George Floyd got murdered. I have a daughter in Delaware, and she saw what was going on in the news. When she didn’t see any captions she asked her mother, “Is that my dad?”

It struck me. I said, going forward I’m gonna use my talent to speak to something that edifies humanity and talks to things that we need to be talking about, that people don’t want to talk about.

To do stuff that looks great on the wall and in clinics, that’s great. Because I have that. But does that move the masses? Or does that say something that we need to talk about? And quite often it doesn’t.

The Chauvin trial was announced, and I told myself, when this dude’s verdict comes in, I’m gonna be out here on the streets. I’m gonna paint what I feel. 

I remember seeing those tanks in downtown Minneapolis lined up. I told myself, you know, I’m gonna go paint that energy, even if I’m between pepper spray, tear gas, and rubber bullets. I was planning to create every day until it was over with, and then donate the money to those doing the fighting.

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So fast forward [to] the day the verdict comes in. Two weeks prior to that I ran into a reporter at some event. I hand him my card. This is what I’m gonna do. If you think it’s newsworthy to cover some crazy dude downtown painting in an area which is like a war zone, that’s where I’m gonna be.

Day of the verdict, he calls me up. The verdict is gonna be handed down in a couple hours. Can you meet us at the government center? So I met him downtown. I started to paint and start off real dark. And then when the verdict came in the whole area just exploded like the Vikings won the Super Bowl. That’s how I felt. It was the most incredible feeling.

I thought we were all getting spoofed. I’m like, okay, somebody’s lying to me. I did not just hear what I just heard. I started painting this piece and got all this attention. I was on MSNBC for a hot second.

MSR: Is there a message you want to get across with your art?

Sean: Depends on the intent. With the live shows when I did the “Heaven or Hell” piece, it kind of revolved around George Floyd and what I witnessed. Those emotions range from confusion and anger to hope and peace at the end.

Another one I did recently is called “The darkness in my skin.” I painted a mass lynching. The bodies were hanging. That was to get people in a really messed up emotional space. And then, from that space come up with new solutions and new ways of talking about how we address the biggest elephant in the room of America—and that’s America’s relation with those of African descent and race. We still haven’t truly addressed that because we’re still having these conversations, and we’ll see manifestations of these hanging bodies years later.

By all intent and purpose, I think the show’s success was based on all the tears we had after the show and all the conversation we had with intent. With that show the intent was to evoke this pain, which I think is the most honest emotion that we got as humans.

MSR: How does your business impact the community?

Sean: My hope is that it makes people want to do something and it motivates people to speak up, or at least breathe on a subject and not be so apathetic. I want people to think. We don’t think enough, you know, and if we do speak, we don’t speak about what we think, because people are so comfortable. 

I don’t want people to be comfortable. There’s a lot going on in the community we need to be activated about. A lot of people are walking and jogging, and we need to be sprinting, because all these issues that we deal with aren’t new issues.

MSR: What would you consider your most important product or service?

Sean: Art

MSR: What’s the book you’re working on called?

Sean: “Love Lotus.” It’s a poetry book and it should be out by the end of September.

MSR: What has been your biggest challenge running this business?

Sean: The lack of sharing of information between artists that have info with those who don’t.

MSR: What did you do before art?

Sean: I worked with a nonprofit called Hired. I did development for guys that were coming off the streets trying to get them work-ready.

MSR: What’s your vision for your business? What does success look like for you?

Sean: To me success is when I can generate enough revenue from my art to start programs and help people. That’s it. 

When I did this painting called “Walking on Air” during the Chauvin trial, I got offered $100,000 for that painting and I declined it. Because the goal was to auction it off. I can maximize this moment and get enough coin off of that to go to North Minneapolis and start a program.

MSR:  What advice would you give to an aspiring entrepreneur?

Sean: Be freaking brave! There is no valor in cowardice. There’s no valor in not having any courage. No success in that. Safe and comfortable, that’s dangerous if you want to be an entrepreneur. You got to blow up that box and stand outside all of it.

The reason why I do abstract work is because my brain doesn’t stay in a box. And the analogy I use is to imagine a stable of horses. They got a space, they run around, but they’re limited as to where they can go. And there’s that one horse that got out, way out in the distance, and they can’t catch it. They’re just going to let him do what he do. That’s me.

You have to be brave enough to want to go that route. Because you know, there’s no one else out there. To be an entrepreneur, quite often it’s a lot of lonely nights and lonely days and plotting and planning on your own. It’s knowing that I’m either gonna sink or swim by myself. And then once I’m swimming, then I can bring other people along. But it’s a lonely endeavor.

MSR: What would you like to add that has not been covered?

Sean: Love every day as if it’s your last. Allow no one to steal your joy, because there are those out there who are trying to siphon off every bit of happiness.

You can find and purchase Sean Phillips’ artwork online at www.seangarrisonartist.com, or for commission work call 612-703-8739. You can also find his work on Instagram and Facebook.