If you’ve been on the hunt for local art—whether it’s meant as a gift or for yourself, we’ve got something for you!
Victoria digital artist, Meaghan Lovis (Phaest), has been experimenting with different artistic mediums since she was very young, and has now turned her drive to create into a growing business.
Just recently, she dropped a new line of products on her online store, featuring fun and expressive pieces on totes, shirts and sweaters, which you can check out Phaest’s shop here!
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In an interview with Victoria Buzz, Lovis shared that her focus and style has fluctuated quite a bit over the years, particularly throughout university as she dove further into digital art and moved away from performance art and painting.
For example, a lot of her prints draw inspiration from Pagan and mythological-style artwork, where viewers will find a unique mix of whimsy, statement pieces and modern takes on ancient folklore and figures.
This includes her modernized greek god prints that have been reimagined and depicted as women, as well as stunning visual interpretations of feminism, queer rights and sexuality.
Her wearable products, on the other hand, embrace more of a simplistic approach, bringing to life animals, insects and people.
Despite the different artistic approaches depending on her project, her work still holds a distinct signature of wonder and cheeky humour.
“It took me a really long time to get to the style I do now,” Lovis said.
“In university, I was traditionally trained, so I was doing oil painting and performance art—like interactive sculptural stuff. I didn’t actually take courses in digital art until my last year…but I was doing print making and it kind of just transformed into digital art.”
She laughed and added that if you scroll down far enough on her Instagram people might wonder if it’s even the same artist.
Lovis admitted that she hadn’t really imagined a career in art, as the general rule of thumb in our society is that you never make any money.
However, she said that her art teacher in high school, Paul Young, was the first person to really encourage her to pursue a fulfilling life and career creating her own pieces.
“He was the one that showed me that you can in fact make art and make money…that there’s a lot of career opportunities in the field. From there it evolved,” she said.
“I loved art and did it constantly, but I didn’t think of it as a career until I had him in high school.”
It was because of him and her drive to grow as an artist that pushed her to pursue it in post-secondary, but she knew there would be challenges.
Indeed, when she was nearing the end of her university degree, and was working a retail job, she hit a low point.
“I quit Russell Books and I was so disillusioned by life in general, and was having a bit of an existential crisis and was like ‘What am I doing? I have this degree,’ and other than my gap year I had never had complete control over my life,” she said.
“So there was a good six months there where I wasn’t working, and I call it my hiatus, it was my hiatus from life. I needed a moment to figure some stuff out.”
To bring herself joy during this difficult time, she began to focus more on her artwork and ended up spotting an advertisement for a market, which is something she’s always been meaning to do.
“Knowing nothing about markets or marketing myself, I signed up. Then I got an email saying ‘We’d love to have you,’ and I was like ‘Oh s***, what did I get myself into? So within two or three weeks, I got myself set up.”
“It really kicked me into gear…and I thought ‘I can do this’…and it tumbled into something bigger.”
Having these markets to look forward to gave her an end goal and revived the drive to look beyond and fight for the life she picked for herself.
Lovis said she couldn’t be happier with how it turned out, and that she’s thrilled that those opportunities found her when they did, and that she was ready for them.
“I’m just so incredibly grateful, I was at such a loss, and I was very down on myself. All the existential dread that a lot of people go through when they don’t get a job in their degree right out of school.”
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When asked about her goals for the future, Lovis mentioned that she would love to start bringing more of her print-style pieces on feminism and sexuality into her online shop.
“The actual aesthetic of the artwork [a.k.a. the colour vibrancy, the positioning and so on] is a lot more complicated and doesn’t translate as well onto totes and shirts. I just have to figure out how to do it.”
Some of her other goals for the year include expanding her wholesale and getting into more retail stores, as well as continuing her pursuit in artistic learning and trying to absorb as much information about new programs and techniques as possible.
You can find her work at the Bug Zoo and Colage Creative Locals Market, and she’s hoping to find more as well as a couple off the island as well.
If you’re hoping to get your hands on Lovis’ work, not only can you find her online or at the above retail shops, she’ll also be appearing at some of the holiday markets!
She’ll be at Touch of Saltspring, Magic of Christmas, and Candy Cane Lane—you can view the dates on her website.
