Ellen Phillips walks along the road near her home. Phillips turned to artwork as a means to cope with a series bad events in her life. A life debilitating prognosis which lead to the break up her marriage. Arthritis in her neck lead a doctor to believe she would be confined to a wheelchair in five years. However, a second opinion, offered more hope. Now Phillips walks 5 miles a day, except sunday and during warm weather when she alternates walking and kayaking. The walking keeps her body healthy and the art keeps her mind healthy. Photo by Jon C. Lakey, Salisbury Post.

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Ellen Phillips in her home studio where she creates artwork. Phillips turned to artwork as a means to cope with a series bad events in her life. A life debilitating prognosis which lead to the break up her marriage. Arthritis in her neck lead a doctor to believe she would be confined to a wheelchair in five years. However, a second opinion, offered more hope. Now Phillips walks 5 miles a day, except sunday and during warm weather when she alternates walking and kayaking. The walking keeps her body healthy and the art keeps her mind healthy. Photo by Jon C. Lakey, Salisbury Post.

Ellen Phillips explains her process of painting the driveway at her home. in the style of famous artist Jackson Pollock, who slung paint randomly. Phillips turned to artwork as a means to cope with a series bad events in her life. A life debilitating prognosis which lead to the break up her marriage. Arthritis in her neck lead a doctor to believe she would be confined to a wheelchair in five years. However, a second opinion, offered more hope. Now Phillips walks 5 miles a day, except sunday and during warm weather when she alternates walking and kayaking. The walking keeps her body healthy and the art keeps her mind healthy. Photo by Jon C. Lakey, Salisbury Post.

Ellen Phillips walks along a trail in Dan Nicholas Park. Phillips turned to artwork as a means to cope with a series bad events in her life. A life debilitating prognosis which lead to the break up her marriage. Arthritis in her neck lead a doctor to believe she would be confined to a wheelchair in five years. However, a second opinion, offered more hope. Now Phillips walks 5 miles a day, except sunday and during warm weather when she alternates walking and kayaking. The walking keeps her body healthy and the art keeps her mind healthy. Photo by Jon C. Lakey, Salisbury Post.

By Shavonne Potts

spotts@salisburypost.com

Each day, rain or shine, snow or heat, Ellen Phillips walks. She begins at her front door and ends up on a trail at Dan Nicholas Park.

This may not seem like a great achievement, but for a woman who in 2005 was told she'd be in a wheelchair by 2010, it's pretty miraculous.

In 2005, Phillips began having back and neck pain. Where most people have a curve from their spine into their neck, her neck is straight. She suffered severe arthritis in her neck and spine.

"I was unable to walk. The pain was unreal at times," she said.

Several years before the pain started, Phillips was on her way to pick up her daughter, Hailey, from school. A woman talking on her cell phone crossed the center lane and hit Phillips' vehicle. The pain didn't begin right away but over time. The accident happened in the late 1990s.

"One doctor said for me to stay in bed," she said.

So that's what Phillips did. In 2007, she found herself bedridden with constant, severe pain. The pain was so severe she didn't want to live.

"I begged God to let me die," she said. 

"I was angry at God. I felt like 'Why (is) this happening?'" she said.

Phillips and her husband divorced, and she walked away from the business they owned together.

"At first I was really angry," she said.

She went to church, attended Bible study and she witnessed to others about her faith.

But there were the negative feelings to deal with.

"I was an angry white woman," she joked.

She took some of her frustrations out on her driveway. Like Jackson Pollack, her favorite artist, she splattered bright yellow, pink and blue paint all over the driveway.

Phillips' neighbors may have thought she was a little nutty, but she felt much better afterward, she said.

One of her doctors told her to lose at least 50 pounds, which she eventually did through diet and exercise. She now eats lots of fruits and vegetables, but no sugar or caffeine.

One day she began to draw just to say she had done something that day.

"I've never been a person to sit and do nothing," she said.

So she picked up a pen and paper.

"It was like wow, I didn't know I could do that," Phillips said.

She took her drawing ability as a gift from God.

Her mother, Blanche Cutshaw, always drew when Phillips was a child. Cutshaw still draws for herself.

Phillips slowly began drawing more things and eventually got out of bed. She started walking to the end of her driveway. She slowly took more steps.

"Walking ... helps me to heal," she said.

She now walks five miles every day, except Sunday. Phillips has added daily yoga and meditation sessions to her routine. She kayaks in the summer every other day.

Phillips also hikes at Dunn's Mountain Park and Morrow Mountain State Park in Albemarle. She'd like to hike Mount Everest.

Hiking Everest is one of the many adventurous items on her "bucket list." Parachuting from a plane is another.

She buys a new pair of walking shoes every six months. She usually wears down the soles by that six month period.

"Usually I'm talking to God when I'm walking," she said.

Phillips said she's told God whatever it is he has going on in a given day, she wants the opportunity to be a part of it.

"It's been hard, but it's been the best thing," she said.

She took her first art class in the summer of 2007. It was an oil painting class.

"It was a refuge for me," she said. "I never thought of myself as an artist."

Phillips soon took her camera out while on her walks. She took a few of her photos to class. Her classmates noted she had an eye for photography, so she continued to take more pictures.

Phillips is now working toward a degree in fine arts.

Several of her photographs and paintings are on display at the Looking Glass Artist Collective, North Lee Street. Her work can also be found on her Web site, www.ellenscapturedmoments.com.

One of her photographs is on display inside the Arby's on Jake Alexander Boulevard.

She also conducts art programs at area nursing home facilities. Phillips works part-time at Waterworks Visual Art Center, East Liberty Street, Salisbury. She also volunteers with the Rowan Baptist Association.

"A lot of it is therapy release," Phillips said.

Each day she is busy working on some art project. Her latest endeavor is learning how to do mosaic.

"I am forever learning," she said.

She's found that many of her drawings, paintings and photographs begin with an emotion, whether its anger, happiness or sorrow.

"If I can get it out of my head and on canvas, it's a release," she said.

Phillips said her mother's pencil drawings are more detailed than her own.

"She's very meticulous, but she doesn't want to share it," Phillips said. "I want others to enjoy it."

Her father also worked with his hands. He was a stonecutter who helped construct Elvis Presley's gravestone.

"It's passed down. I just happened to catch it," she said.

Phillips has gotten through her ordeal through faith and the prayers and the support of her church family, she said.

She attends First Baptist Church in Rockwell. She may not understand it all, but knows she's on this earth for a reason.

"I know he has a purpose for me," Phillips said.

Even church members say they see a difference in her.

"One of my friends said she can tell I'm stronger," Phillips said.

Now looking back on the last several years, Phillips said she knows God didn't abandon her.

"He was with me. It was I who left," she said.

She admits her faith has been challenged. Phillips hasn't overcome all of her obstacles. She still struggles with pain.

"I used to look at every day as a battle; now every day is a gift," she said.

Even the end of her marriage was a blessing in disguise.

"That was the best thing that man could've done for me," Phillips said. On her own, Phillips had time to discover things about herself.

"I found who Ellen was," Phillips said.

She remembers to never give up and to keep trying — words she lives by each day.

"You don't always get what you want, but you sometimes get what you need," she said.

An recent X-ray revealed that the spot where the arthritis was is getting smaller.

"In every situation whatever life throws at you, God will help you get to where you need to be," Phillips said.

In the beginning she was angry, but she's released the anger as she's forged a new identity.

Her role used to be wife and mother.

"I now have a name. I'm Ellen and do artwork," Phillips said.