Local artist Jennifer Phillips, who lives and works in Queen Anne, had $11,000 worth of her work stolen from her car on Friday, August 12. The items missing – over $7,000 in hand painted jewelry, and her purse, iPhone and Macbook computer – was her livelihood, and the result of over two months of work. Now Phillips has turned to the community to help her locate her missing pieces, in the hopes of salvaging some of what was lost.
“I was coming home from delivering new work to the Columbia City Gallery on Rainier and decided to stop by the local Good Will – my way of giving back to the community a little bit,” Phillips wrote to Queen Anne View. “[I] did a little shopping, and came out to the parking lot only to discover that my Jeep had been ransacked! A “brave” move for the thief because not only was I parked next to the busy donations line in the lot, but also because the lot is covered in security cams and lots of eyes patrolling the parking lot.”
Phillips is a full time artist who makes a living by showing and selling her original hand-crafted work at galleries and art festivals around the Pacific Northwest. The inventory stolen out of her car a few days ago – over 170 pieces of hand-crafted jewelry that took her several months to produce – were meant for a show happening later this month. Without them she will have nothing to sell. And unfortunately for Phillips her car was parked in the lot’s only blind spot and the security cameras didn’t catch anything on the thief.
“My work?… all miniature oil paintings that I paint with a magnifying glass and tiny brushes on exotic hard woods, suspended from sterling silver and brass hand assembled even on real twigs,” she wrote. “And today, some jerk takes them all from me. Gone in the blink of an eye and probably thrown in the garbage after realizing that it wasn’t money in the box he/she stole from me.”
Phillips hopes the unique look and design of her work will make the missing pieces more identifiable, and maybe even help her track some of them down. She is asking community members to keep an eye out for her pieces. Phillips, who is expecting her first child, is less concerned with the personal items she lost – for her the most important thing is recovering whatever she can of her missing art so that she doesn’t loose the last months worth of work.
“All my personal items can be replaced… but all the time and effort and creativity that went into making my art, will never be recovered,” she wrote. “Just a reminder to never get too comfortable with leaving things in your car.”
The theft took place around 7 p.m. on Friday, August 12 at the Goodwill flagship store off of Dearborn.
Brief description of loss: Macbook, iPhone, black purse, jewelry case containing over $7,000 worth of my hand painted original jewelry pieces that can not be reproduced. The case looks like an artsy cash box – brown “pleather” with plaid strips, hard case, with handle almost like a fancy lunch box. Jewelry has sterling silver chains and they are all contained in little zip lock baggies.
Phillips is asking anyone who spots any of stolen work to email her through her website, or contact Seattle Police Officer Ducre (#7527) directly at 206-684-4300. The case reference number is 11-264527.
Phillips interviewed with a number of local TV stations over the weekend to help spread the word. For more examples of what her work looks like, check out this piece by KOMO4 News.