We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Holly Lane. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Holly below.
Holly, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s the best or worst investment you’ve made (either in terms of time or money)? (Note, these responses are only intended as entertainment and shouldn’t be construed as investment advice)
The best investment I made in my art career is time and focus.
When I entered graduate school I took a risk and obtained student loans so I could have the time to focus on developing my artistic skills and knowledge while earning a Masters of Fine Arts without getting fatigued by side jobs as I did during my undergraduate years. Six months before graduating with a Masters of Fine Art I sent my work to a number of fine art galleries in San Francisco and was overwhelmed with eight offers of representation. I did not know how to chose a gallery as we were told as students that we would most likely be rejected for at least five years after graduating. I picked the gallery that had artists whose work I admired and the gallery was in a good location, plus it helped that the gallery had a friendly dog in it. When showing at this gallery, Ivory/Kimpton Gallery, a New York art dealer, Schmidt Bingham Gallery saw my work and after discussions offer me representation. I have been able to devote myself full time to art making now for many years, and I paid off my student loans ahead of time. Along with decades of being represented by galleries in New York City, my work is represented by Winfield Gallery, Carmel, CA.
From taking that early risk I learned that it is key to know what you need to be the best artist you can be, and what each artist needs to thrive is very individual…for me it is to prioritize art making and all the things that feed the creative process even though its not a “normal” way of life or what other artists may find enabling and productive.
Holly, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I am, Holly Lane a California fine artist who combines painting and sculptural hand carved frames which I carve myself. After earning a Masters of Fine Art from San Jose State University, I have shown nation wide with nine solo shows in New York City, seven solo museum shows and have been included in over one hundred group exhibitions. Upcoming is another solo museum exhibition at NUMU, New Museum of Los Gatos, “Not Enough Time to Love the World”, guest curated by Helaine Glick. August 2, 2024-January 26, 2025. It will a two part exhibition, one room with about 22 works of art and another room “In the Artist’s Studio” that will show the many steps in creating a piece, with photos of the steps, explanatory text, preparatory drawings, tools, sketchbooks, studies and materials.
Conceptual development budded while I was an undergraduate in painting and I began to think about frames. At that time, if a painting had a frame at all, it was a thin line, serving as protection for the art and as conceptual dividing line. The frame was a demarcation that indicated that all that was within was art – the frame itself, and all that was outside the frame was not art. A good frame was to be inconspicuous.
While pondering the nature of frames, I found some illuminated manuscripts in the San Jose State University library, and saw how the borders visually commented on the text, sometimes even spoofing the text, that was a moment of epiphany. From this discovery I realized that a frame could be many things; it could be a commentary, an informing context, an environment, a fanfare, a shelter, it could extent movement, it could be a conceptual or formal elaboration, it could embody ancillary ideas, it could be like a body that houses and expresses the mind, and many other rich permutations. From that point I began to create pieces that fused frame and painting, with some pieces having doors that open and close over paintings to suggest; contingency, potentiality, future, past, or cause and effect.
To experience the space of a painting we project our minds into the painting, consequently I see pictorial space as mind space. The spatial qualities of sculpture exist in our own physical space; we walk around it, proportion our bodies to it – in part it is apprehended or ‘seen’ by the body. By fusing sculptural frames with pictorial images I hope to address both modes of aesthetic perception.
Some re-occurring themes are: nature mysticism/symbolism, eco-psychology, interspecies compassion, philosophical proofs of animal cognition (e.g. the correction of errors, pretense, and awareness of other minds), re-presenting women from a woman artist’s perspective and exploring the hidden implications, or the backstory of myths.
In addition to the frame/painting pieces, in recent years I have begun a series of purely sculptural pieces of gilded carved wood. Each gold sculpture starts solely with the relationships of forms and shapes guided by a love of proportion. Like our bodies, the gilding layers a radiant skin onto the form.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
The most rewarding aspect of being an artist is hours, days, weeks, months in the studio working on a new piece. Each step of the creative process from idea, to sketches, to full scale drawings, to color studies and then the painting and carving is deeply rewarding. While creating I feel connected to something bigger and greater than myself, somehow connected to the omnificent…the all creating force which is at work in the universe. This is an heighten experience and is deeply calming, clear minded and timeless, time passes without noticing.
How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?
Firstly, genuinely valuing the arts as an essential aspect of human flourishing and achievement. All people have aesthetic capacity and needs along side of biological needs. Much of our society does not recognize this deep quality of all humans (and some animals) and therefore so many people live lives of quiet desperation. As the poet William Carlos Williams said “It is difficult to get the news from poems, yet men die miserably every day for lack of what is found there.”
Secondly, support artists by buying their work.
Thirdly, on an organizational level, it would be great if art granting institutions could make their grant application process easier and simpler for individual artists and the awards more magnanimous.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.hollylaneart.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/holly.lane.940
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/holly-lane-93923240/
Image Credits
Photos by Patrick Tregenza, John Brennan and artist.