​During the week Sputnik was launched, James D. Phillips was born the fifth of six children to a Scotch-Irish father and Italian mother in Houston. Phillips says, “The extent of my art education included my mother, who taught me to draw as a child, and my middle and high school art teachers.” Fifteen years ago, after a 30-year hiatus from making art, he tells us he was cutting down a tree and began doodling with a chainsaw on the fallen trunk. As a recognizable form emerged from the log, he was amazed, and the experience remains magical for him today. Within a year of that fateful day, his works were being selected for juried art shows, and on a trip to Galveston to collect wood from the removal of trees killed by Hurricane Ike’s storm surge, he was introduced to a woman who wanted to turn the dead trees into public sculptures. Phillips was soon selected to sculpt the first works for Galveston City Hall, the Galveston Tree Sculptures went on to become a huge sensation, and his works can now be seen scattered throughout Texas. His True North 2026 sculpture “beyond reach” playfully depicts a giraffe, stretching hopefully for the sustenance of a nearby tree. Elements of the work—its head, tail and mane—represent the artist’s iconic woodcarvings, and the body’s composition reminds us of an instantly recognizable and nostalgic assembly of popsicle sticks.