Phila Hillie is an architecture graduate, artist and illustrator from South Africa. She is a pioneers and adept of the digital art.
Hillie’s artwork is an exploration of women, culture, tradition and space through the use of form and color.
The idea is to simplify the subjects and themes without extracting their beauty and presence. Phila is interested in creating spaces in which women feel safe and can explore themselves without the pressure and standards that society often projects on to them.
Here is Phila Hillie exclusively for FXLB Mag.
I would say my interest in art started when I was very young but, due to a fear of not being able to get work, I decided to study architecture for my undergrad degree. I remember being inspired by how talented my peers were and I think this inspired me to explore photography, styling, fashion and ultimately I fell in love with art again. My friends and I hosted an art show and I had recently started using Photoshop for my architectural presentations. I started playing with collages, forms and colour and eventually taught myself how to produce digital illustrations. By the time I was finishing my first degree, I had accumulated a lot of works or experiments and decided to share them and the interest in those works catapulted me into the world of digital illustration and freelancing.
I loved painting but soon realised that my university schedule left me with very little time to finish the paintings I had started which was frustrating. Digital art was amazing because I could produce a large number of works in less time. I also enjoyed being able to have access to more tools and colours through the palettes that were available on platforms such as Photoshop. I also enjoyed being able to use myself as a reference and manipulate that image through collaging or illustration.
In my experience, the constant sharing of my work on my social media platforms helped me with getting visibility and clients. I also had to really learn what kind of work and products my clients wanted from me (i.e., selling prints vs. commissioned artwork in my style) so that I could fine tune and deliver products/services that I knew would generate a profit. However, I think it’s important to understand that while commercialising your art can be successful, it’s important to love the work that you do and stay true to who you are as an artist because that love and passion is what sells and makes you happy. Balance is important.
I think I found a good balance when I was able to differentiate between the Phila who provides a service through commissions/selling prints and the Phila who makes art in her free time. I think having a good work/life balance is also important. Living and breathing art sounds great but sleeping, getting fresh air and keeping certain parts of my craft for myself or more as a hobby and not a job is important to me.
I am influenced by women, my culture and how I experience it as a woman despite it still being quite patriarchal; colour and I think space and the things I learned when I studied architecture still influence me.
I think in the beginning, social media can be quite vital if you do not know people in the art industry. It helped me gain quite a lot of visibility. However, lately I haven’t placed a huge focus on it because I think sometimes you need a break from being so intimately aware of what people think of your work. I think you need a break from seeing the likes, figuring out the algorithms and being aware of how far you still have to go before reaching certain goals like solo exhibitions or high profile campaigns. It’s great for visibility and getting in touch with and celebrating your peers but I think breaks are important as well.
I would like to think that I create artworks in which the stories and bodies of women are in the foreground. I also want to create stories/images that are reflective of our experiences or feelings and celebrate us as much as possible. Showing women and artworks of myself as confident, disjointed or happy is my way of illustrating that we can celebrate the journey through the lens of another woman who gets what it’s like to go through many confusing and amazing phases in life.
I am currently working on packaging for a feminine hygiene company that wants to destigmatize conversations surrounding menstruation and also celebrate bodies. I am also about to start my masters degree in Media Technology which looks at how art and technology can meet and provide solutions for people.
