Holly Holmes Resonant Spaces September 12 - October 3 2023
Artist Statement
Over the past couple of years, I have been working with tension between abstraction and representation. The subject of my work is taken from everything around me, from the landscape to the inside of bus stations, to current events and news. I use references written, visual and real life experiences to make my art. This current work is making versions of a space or combinations of situation and space. My working process for this body of work is to produce a quick sketch, a drawing or a snapshot of a place or of an idea. Then using the first version as the reference in the studio I kind of transcribe the information to form an abstract version. Often taking spatial drawings and then flattening them and using color to push these found forms from background to foreground. Often while making the preliminary drawing I will be overtaken with feelings as the atmosphere resonates with me, be it wonder for the new place I am in or uncomfortable situations nearby. In a few cases I have had uneasy feelings from what is going on in the news to having motion sickness and this affects how the work gets made in the studio.
-Holly Holmes
Partially funded by a Part-time Faculty Development Grant from Columbia College Chicago