If you could give advice to any young artist, what would it be? What advice would you have given to your high school self?
“A piece of advice I would give to a young artist would be to just make freely. I was so concerned with content and style before I went to college to study, and truthfully the biggest lesson I learned was to keep my hand moving and create surface history. In my opinion, the best art has a history of tactile responses on the surface that relate to the whole. In simple words – just play around, see what sticks, don’t be precious, and have fun. Most importantly, comparison is the death of joy, right? Don’t be worried about what other people are doing, don’t compare your work to others especially when starting out. You’re in your own lane, just make stuff and your audience will come.”
Why do you think arts education and access to quality arts programs for young people is so important?
“Art is so integral to human experience; we are sentient creatures who somehow can make beautiful physical manifestations of that precious and individual experience. I think that everyone has creative potential and it’s a shame when art education programs are cut and dwindled down. It sacrifices potential for students, some of which very well might have a burgeoning interest in being artists. All I needed was the validation of two people that weren’t my parents. Sometimes that’s all you need, why would you squander that?”
If you were explaining your artistic practice to young kids, what would you say and how would you describe it?
“Well, in college I was taught this method called “the search”. In simple words it just means moving your hand to things you see around you. The paper, or canvas is your playground, and you move to every part of it as if it was a living thing. Your hand follows your eyes, there is no attention paid to any particular part of the piece over another. Everything is equal on the surface.”
Do you have a favorite color to paint with? Why is it your favorite?
“Easy, Phthalo Green! It’s my favorite color because it can act as it’s true greenish blue form while also acting as a neutral, a warm color, a cool color – all with addition of a little extra pigment in either direction. You can stretch it so very far, and on its own it has a beautiful semblance with nature.”
Attached is the artwork you created that was on view as part of YAM 2015. If you put yourself back in the shoes of 2015 Holden, what is this artwork about? What parallels do you notice between this artwork and your current work?
” To be honest I’ve always been a little nerdy. So, when I began making art I was making imaginary landscapes real, with the addition of some various source imagery to get it going of course. I played a lot of video games as a kid, and I made this imaginary wasteland in charcoal. It was the largest thing I had made when I was 15 and I worked from one corner to the other. When I finished, I felt so accomplished, it felt real to me which is what I was looking for. Not real in the sense that it was super realistic, but that I could jump into that world and that mindset I had been in. It certainly taught me to use my imagination, use many images, observe the world around me and keep my hand moving. There aren’t any real parallels other than that—the imagery I utilize is completely different now and I only really paint these days… drawing is always used as a tool to serve my paintings. All in all, the drawing wasn’t about anything, it was just an expression of the joy I feel making artwork. This is why I paint, because it feels as though it is something I was meant to do.“
