Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Hollis Brown Thornton. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Hollis Brown, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today. Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?
I graduated from the University of South Carolina with a BFA in 1999. I started school as a business major, with the intention of working at a family business, but was interested in art growing up as a natural hobby and I eventually gave in to the desire to be a full-time artist. It was a decision that took about 2 years to finally decide upon, which I made halfway through my junior year. I then spent several years out of school commuting from my parent’s house to a studio out of town and then living in a family lake house without heat and air for over a year. Basically surviving and going through the process of developing outside of the university environment.
Hollis Brown, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I essentially paint, draw, and make prints. My two main themes are memory and change. I work with the objects of my past, from pop culture to family photos, and fragment this imagery, similar to memory fragmentation. I more or less work for myself. I enjoy showing my work in public, but that doesn’t propel my productivity. I do commission work occasionally, but I don’t work with clients in the sense of problem-solving for their needs. They typically come to me for things I’ve already done and developed over time. I take pride in the simple accomplishment of committing to being an artist and doing all the little and large things that come with that decision.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
From the summer of 2000 until the summer of 2001 I lived at a family lake house. It was a house built in the late 50s, very modest yet comfortable lake house we grew up going to during the summers of my childhood. But it was rarely used in the fall/winter/spring. No heat or air, minus a heater in one of the bathrooms. I lived there during my second year out of college. Right when I arrived, I finished a painting that I’d been working on and finished nothing for over 6 months. I was probably painting 10 hours a day and could never finish a painting. It was rough, both the cold weather conditions and the lack of tangible productivity. But I stuck with it and the following spring I started finishing work again. And that painting that I finished and looked at every day for 6 months is sitting about 5 feet away from me as I type.
Alright – so here’s a fun one. What do you think about NFTs?
I think the simple fact that they are so convoluted to get involved with is a red flag. During the Super Bowl this past year there were about 5 NFT commercials. I am also very skeptical of the virtual reality world in general. And, I just find it really uninteresting. I’m just a risk-adverse person in general. I’d rather eat something that has been known to be healthy for many, many years than take a chance on a new product that has a lot of marketing behind it.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.hollisbrownthornton.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hollisbrownthornton/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hollisbrownthornton