Philip Carey
Bandages and wrappers find new life in Philip Carey’s work. In his cottage in the fishing village of Morro Bay, Calif., before he passed away in 2022, Carey repurposed material that others might view as trash to create art that reflected his health struggles, vivid dreams and singular creative vision. “Bandage Faces,” for example, is a series of self-portraits that he made from bandages from his dialysis treatments. His unconventional, innovative approach garnered him significant recognition—from winning “Best in Show” at the Bakersfield Museum of Art’s Lost But Not Forgotten exhibition in June 2013 to his life-sized medical self-portrait, Art in My Veins, appearing in the American Visionary Art Museum’s The Big Hope Show and the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2015 to a solo show at Intuit. His books, art envelopes and postcards are available in the Intuit Store.