Kristen Phillips is an artist based in Bend, Oregon. Her abstract paintings explore process, perception, and the subtle structures that emerge through sustained attention and repetition. Working intuitively and without a predetermined outcome, Phillips approaches painting as a form of inquiry rather than illustration.

Her practice is rooted in slow accumulation. Through repeated gestures, layered marks, and evolving fields of color, forms are built, disrupted, and reassembled over time. This open-ended process allows the work to remain responsive, embrace uncertainty, and reveal the tension between emergence and control. Each painting unfolds according to its own internal logic.

Phillips’ work invites close looking. Shifts in color, rhythm, and density create environments that ask the viewer to register subtle changes and resonances. The paintings do not offer narrative, but instead operate as perceptual spaces where feeling, memory, and sensation can surface indirectly. In this way, the work reflects an ongoing interest in how meaning arises through attention rather than interpretation.

Biography

Kristen Phillips holds a BFA in Visual Communication and a BA in Art History from Northern Arizona University. She has pursued additional study at the Honolulu Academy of Art, the Art Students League of New York, and the New York School of the Arts.

Alongside her studio practice, Phillips has worked in graphic design, communications, and endurance sports coaching. These experiences inform her disciplined, process-oriented approach to making, though painting remains the central focus of her work.