Art, Arithmetic and Life: Meet Workhouse Artist Denise Philipbar

Workhouse Arts Center artist Denise Philipbar can sing, dance, paint, sculpt and solve math problems that would leave most scratching their heads. She experiments with glass water clocks, robots and hidden video cameras in her art, in addition to painting and sculpting. She also speaks five languages (French, German, Italian, Spanish and English).

"If you pick up a second language you realize that there are common patterns with other languages. It's all about patterns. Paintings have abstract patterns and you learn the patterns to make the paintings interesting," said Philipbar in a recent interview with Patch.    

Philipbar was raised in Albuquerque, NM, to a dance teacher mother and carpenter father. She's the middle of five children and grew up on on five acres of desert. 

"My mother would send us outside with spoons to dig up the back yard and tell us to come back when it was dark," she said. "I was introduced to art in my first year in high school, and I stuck my hands in clay and I just couldn't get them out."  

Philipbar studied and taught ballet for more than a decade before moving to Colorado with her husband Michael (they met as bouncers at a night club in New Mexico). She received her Bachelor's and Master's degrees in mathematics from the University of Colorado and pursued a career as a software engineer and architect before leaving it all behind 13 years ago to pursue an artistic life. 

"There was a time in my life when I wanted to be taken very seriously. I later gave that up," she said. "Things were going well. I was doing ten shows a year, and selling $10,000 - $20,000 a show." 

But the downturn in the economy crushed her art career, so the couple said, "Let's blow this pop stand," and moved to Lorton with their two parrots in 2007. Michael now works as a government contractor for the Department of Homeland Security. 

Philipbar moved into the Workhouse last summer, and got her Master's Degree in art from the University of the Arts in December.

"I am the MacGyver of art. if there's no clay or oil paint I will make a piece out of PVC pipe or glass - whatever is around," she said. 

A recent piece, "Scrutiny", features 32 plaster forms of Philipbar's face mounted on PVC pipe, each wearing different goggles. One of the forms has a hidden video camera. It grew out of the idea from French philosopher Michel Foucault and his social theory "Panopticism", which states that humans are willing participants in being surveilled, and, ultimately controlled by unseen forces.  

"Isn't that what we do now with Facebook and iPhones? As long as it looks fun and innovative like Facebook, we allow it to go on," Philipbar said. "The beauty of art is you don't have to make judgements. You present ideas and people take what they want away from it."

You can see the work of Denise Philipbar in building 10 of the Workhouse Arts Center, and at the Schlesinger Concert Hall at Northern Virginia Community College from June 14 - July 15. 

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