Jim Phillips is the legendary artist behind the Screaming Hand, and that's just one of the innumerable designs he's created since he latched onto the burgeoning skate and surf culture of his hometown of Santa Cruz, California, in the 1970s. Before Instagram, and before artists worried about platforms and branding, Phillips hurled his eye-gouging illustrations into the world via the Santa Cruz Skateboard company — to be picked up, appropriated and cherished by generations of skaters, surfers, street artists, graphic designers, punk rockers and almost everyone in between.
Metro Denver resident Pat Milbery, a celebrated former pro snowboarder and visual artist, is a longtime fan of Phillips (not to mention a close friend of his son, artist Jimbo Phillips). It's no surprise, then, that Milbery is helping organize and promote a screening of the 2024 documentary Art and Life: The Story of Jim Phillips, on January 31 at the Oriental Theater — which will be the Denver premiere of the film.
"The concept behind the film is of real, human-made influence," Milbery says. "Before computers, when there was just ink. Influence that really shaped subcultures."
The film is directed by John Makens, another old friend of Milbery, and it traces the journey of Phillips from a hot rod-obsessed kid to one of the most recognizable artists in American graphic design. A host of celebrity fans give testimony about their admiration for Phillips, including skate pioneer Steve Alba and rock royalty Neil Young.
Milbery's art studio in the Berkeley neighborhood, Heartspace Studios, has also collaborated with Makens's company, Remind Insoles, on a pair of designer insoles made specifically for skaters and snowboarders.
"Jim really paved the way and road for so many alternative art minds," Milbery says. "This documentary explores Phillips’ unyielding commitment to his craft, embodying a testament to resilience in art and life."
Milbery, who created the "Love This City" mural campaign in Denver in 2016, has spent the last two and a half months doing installations in Mexico. "The voice and the response is almost louder down here than it is in America for what I'm creating," he says. "Art is a voice that transcends any language, any barrier, any anything, you know."
To that end, Milbery will be doing more than just hobnobbing with viewers and saying a few words before the film. He's also putting the finishing touches on an art installation that will be displayed in the lobby of the Oriental. Titled "Listen to the Screaming Heart," the piece will pay homage to Phillips's body of work and vast cultural impact, but without using the Screaming Hand explicitly.
Milbery doesn't want to give away too many details before the unveiling, but he is happy to disclose that it's interactive and incorporates the faceted, prismatic hearts that have adorned his many public murals in Denver — and that have become his graphic calling card.
"This is a great way to recognize an artist I love while he's still alive," he says. "I find that a lot of us, as creators, are most celebrated when we're not around anymore. I'd like to change that and make sure artists realize the type of influence they have while they're still alive.
The installation is fueled by Milbery's love for Phillips; accordingly, it's on a much more intimate scale than some of Milbery's more recent projects. During COVID, for example, he was approached by the Colorado Rapids, Major League Soccer and Adidas with a simple yet profound pitch: Design a jersey for the Rapids that not only helped promote a team Milbery loved, but also drew attention to the issue of mental illness.
The campaign led to to a mural that Milbery painted in the Rapids' home of Dick's Sporting Goods Park in 2022, a dream come true for the artist. "The overall project donated a percentage of its proceeds to mental health awareness and helping to raise a large conversation about it," he recalls.
Milbery has personal reasons for amplifying that conversation.
"It's been hard for me ever since COVID," he admits. "And this month has been extremely hard for me. I had a very close friend take their own life, and this is the second one in a matter of two months. Talking about your mental health shouldn't be made taboo, and it also doesn't have to be about some woo-woo shit or be, like, meditation-focused."
The current political climate has also cast a shadow over Milbery, whose bright, bold art usually reflects an almost radical positivity.
"When you put yourself out there on social media these days, with your opinions and commentary on social media and stuff these days, it's like people are just wanting to roast you," he says. "I'm trying to step back from a lot of that expression, from Facebook feeds and stuff. I'm trying to get back to just sticking to the art, you know? I like to think that our voices are way louder through our creativity."
He adds, "All the negative feelings that we're receiving right now, the stuff you hear from the government and media, it's like, 'Are you fucking kidding me?' I can't even believe I'm hearing this right now, much less that people are believing it. I want my art to be my reaction. My art has always been based more on loving and positive energy. I know how bad the political landscape can get, and the type of pressure it puts on us as a society. But it's also just as important to remind ourselves that art can be our voice. You don't need to engage in all the conversations and the confrontations."
Milbery cites Phillips as an inspiration in that regard. "That's really what this documentary is about," he says. "The creators of any era will be forever remembered by what they can leave to the future, what they can do to accurately provide a voice to the voiceless. We as artists and individuals should allow ourselves to rewire and reformat and reprogram ourselves, our brains, our practices, our habits. It's something that is really challenging to do. It takes a lot of letting go of the ego and reducing the ego or eliminating the ego. And that's one of the hardest things for any individual to do in this life."
So what does all that have to do with a skateboard illustration of a screaming, decapitated hand? According to Milbery, you might be surprised.
"When you look at the Screaming Hand, it's so powerful," he says. "You have to break it down and think about all the different things that, like, the tongue and that screaming hand represent. There's a lot there, and I love how subjective it is. It's super cool, but there's also a lot that you can feel from that piece. It's really an awesome lesson for us when it comes to doing anything with your hands and with your heart.
"People can feel that through the visual representation of a graphic or a sculpture or a mural," he adds. "It's something that I think people really need, communities really need, societies really need. Especially right now. Sometimes they don't feel that, and it's shunned in certain cultures, but the power of public art is so important. The power of creative expression is so important."
Art and Life: The Story of Jim Phillips screens at 7 p.m. Friday, January 31, at the Oriental Theater, 4335 West 34th Avenue; tickets start at $20. For more information, visit theorientaltheater.com.
