Meet Holly Lane

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Holly Lane. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Holly below.

Hi Holly, thanks for sharing your insights with our community today. Part of your success, no doubt, is due to your work ethic and so we’d love if you could open up about where you got your work ethic from?

Being born into a middle class family where everyone worked; Dad, Mom, brothers and sister I learned at an early age that I had to work. Babysitting, house cleaning neighbor’s homes, paper route, yard work and pet sitting were all work I did from about 10 years old and onward. As I got older I had different kinds of jobs like clerical work, hotel maid, electronics assembly line worker and gas station attendant, which was my favorite. All these jobs were not in themselves enriching…they just ate up time and wore you out. So during college when I learned I could make art which was work that energized you, fed artistic growth and was enriching in itself, I was thrilled. If I could work 8 hours a day at menial job for a boss, I could easily do 8 hours a day of self-directed creative work. Now I have to be aware if I’m working too much, straining my hands, I’m so enthused about work!

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

I am an artist with a MFA in painting and have been working full time in the studio and exhibiting in galleries and art museums for over 30 years. I create art that fuses painting and hand carved frames into a whole, focusing on the themes of nature, philosophy and human psychology. Currently, I have a well-received solo museum exhibition at New Museum of Los Gatos, CA which is comprised of 25 works of art selected from work I’ve created over the last 14 years. The exhibition will be on view for five months – through January 5, 2024. This is my eighth solo museum exhibition. I find making art the most meaningful thing one can do with one’s life, time and attention. There is such a sense of potential and possibility, there is no ceiling, no end point.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

1) A thorough grasp of art concepts, art materials, processes and observational skills learned in undergraduate and graduate school.

2) A grounding in art history and philosophy which I feel has given me a wide scope of ideas.

3) Joy in creating.

My advice for people early in their art journey is to get all the art education you can, study art in person, up close in art museums and experiment, try things both with materials and ideas…do what feels most exciting to you even if no one else is doing it.

Who has been most helpful in helping you overcome challenges or build and develop the essential skills, qualities or knowledge you needed to be successful?

All my college art professors contributed not only to a variety of skill development but by encouraging experimentation and by taking me seriously as an art student.

Contact Info:

Image Credits

John Brennan
Patrick Tregenza

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