Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Sarah Holloway. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Sarah, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s something crazy on unexpected that’s happened to you or your business

Since my art is so inspired by ancestry, healing, spirituality, and my environment- it was wild to realize how connected I was to my film and studio location in Oxford, England. I had just completed my MFA at the Ruskin School of Art, and I was spending a lot of time in coffee shops and ancient churches- constantly applying for jobs, drawing and entering into shows when I could. One day I walked up to the pulpit of University Church and realized I was standing on a Holloway tomb from the 1500s. This led me to the university library- where it felt like a pair of hands guided me by my shoulders to a huge book about York Minster. I quickly found an ancestor, buried there, who was the Vice Chancellor of the university- and that helped me find hundreds of other direct ancestors. His granddaughter married the first Holloway to move to 1600s Virginia. So suddenly I had all this information and connections that explained my odd feelings around Oxford- and explained a lot of dreams. That whole experience still influences my work today! I love the idea of living a parallel story to your ancestors: pushing and pulling your life today with the memories that they impressed into the land during their time. The idea of dreams and intuition allowing you to access those layers has informed my work for some time.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

Art was one of the first activities that I can remember being healing rather than kind of stressful. I got into it when I was just old enough to form memories- particularly drawing and ceramics or hand building. I like the idea of making work that gets the average viewer wondering what their last dream was- or if they’ve ever had a spiritual encounter or experience. I’d like to think that I’m making something that helps more people consider what we don’t know, and don’t understand- especially about the spirit world and our connection to our ancestors. The layering of time, earthly beings and structures, and our ability to permeate these layers through spiritual practice leads me to continue creating.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

Well firstly I had to unlearn that I was not spiritual. My definition of spirituality didn’t match the definition of very conservative religious folks around me. So for a long time I thought I didn’t “believe” in anything because I confused their truth for mine. This caused a huge shift in my work- when I thought I believed in “nothing,” or that I only believed in delusions, my work was incredibly dark. When I realized how open and happy I was to inhabit my dreams and talk freely about my experiences, my practice became more lighthearted and nature-oriented. I actually had a better relationship with my physical natural environment, my background, and obviously spirituality, when I started thinking for myself. I had to unlearn fearing what other people think for a lot of reasons.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

Probably Instagram, which feels funny to say. It’s actually not because I sell work successfully or get a good response from posting my work. It’s mainly because I post a bit of everything there- art, music, photos from hiking trips, living as a vegan, and I share a lot of spiritual anecdotes there. Folks who relate to me for non-art reasons end up connecting to me because we have other commonalities. So occasionally they’ll buy a piece from me because of an interesting synchronicity or specific draw to a piece I’ve posted after we had a cool conversation about trees, ghosts, prophecy, guitars, broccoli, etc.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.loveholloway.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/love_holloway/
• Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/100067958530995/
• Youtube: https://m.youtube.com/user/omnomusic

Image Credits
Sarah Holloway