It started with looking at my children playing and making their other world, if they needed wings they would make them from paper and sticks tied together. Their masks were transforming and all-consuming for them they believed and they became the bird.
We use a mask as a facade to be the thing we sometimes can not be, to fill that spot or give us courage.
Sometimes it is the unknown that we fear so we do not step when it is the step into that unknown that we need to live and breath. The figure prepares to fly away on her paper wings. It is a leap of faith that her wings will hold. In that moment she must be fearless to take the leap.
Available
For inquiries, please contact: The Studio
Mustang, OK 73064 | 405.308.0239
Exhibition History
EXPO Chicago 2023, (April 13-16) Center for Native Futures, Chicago Illinois
The Thread that Connects, Spiva Center for the Arts, Joplin Missouri (January 14 – March 4)
On Turtle’s Back, Pauly Friedman Art Gallery, Misericordia University, Dallas, Pennsylvania (September 8 – October 11, 2022)
Holly Wilson: Talk Story, C.N. Gorman Museum, University of California-Davis (January 9-March 16, 2018)
Paper Wings Fearless-at CN Gorman Museum-Holly Wilson
I Am Not a Trophy
2021, 31” x 7”x 4.5”, Unique Cast Bronze with Patina, Cedar
I Am Not a Trophy
We are not a thing to be collected we are each individual, holding more than a time in our cultural history which has been frozen, largely erased, and then romanticized into a historical loop of time.
There are 12 girls, and each girl is made in 24 colors from a Crayola Crayon box making a total 288 girls.
I think if we could see ourselves as all the colors in the crayon box in all the shades, we could be kinder we would be able to feel if just for a moment another’s life and our world could change in such a way that children would not worry about if they are too light or too dark to belong. We are more than a classification in terms of a position between two extremes, I see the light within us all and the variations that make each of us, we are all the colors and an untold number of possibilities.
The way we see others and how one is seen has been a subject that I have had in my life since I was small. I am both Native American and Caucasian, but growing up I felt more times than I care to count that I was not enough of one or the other and that pull made me question all parts of myself. If I did not look like _____ could I be ______? Where did I fit if I was not a part of this or that group? I have had conversations with many that are from other races and nationality and they too have struggled. Is my skin too dark or not dark enough, the texture of my hair or the accent that one hears when I speak. All this history, this past came to a head one day while getting my children ready for school we were pulling together pencils, colored pencils, folders, and crayons. They had to have 4 sets of 24 crayons each and we had leftovers from sets of the past years, some colors had never been used, and we were combining them together so we’d know how many new boxes would be required. The kids were talking about their friends at the new school and friends of their past school. In the conversation, they were describing the children “the girl with a big laugh, she has yellow hair, or the boy I ate lunch with, he was a helper and he told the funniest stories”, in a very casual descriptive manner with no malice to the differences. This made me think more about how we see people and how one is judged. The smell of the crayons, the vivid colors, and the thoughts of my youth brought me to this crayon project. How we change in our viewpoints of people, and how we judge people based on race and color. We are all one below that surface, that surface of skin, no matter the color, the shape, or the origin.
Available
For inquiries, please contact:
The Studio
11400 Riverview | Mustang, OK 73064 | 405.308.0239
Exhibition History
The Thread that Connects, Spiva Center for the Arts, Joplin Missouri (January 14 – March 4)
On Turtle’s Back, Pauly Friedman Art Gallery, Misericordia University, Dallas, Pennsylvania (September 8 – October 11, 2022)
Weaving History into Art: The Enduring Legacy of Shan Goshorn, Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, OK (October 9, 2020 – March 28, 2021)
On Turtle’s Back, Dunedin Fine Art Center, Dunedin, FL (Sept 13, 2019 -December 23, 2019)
Monarchs: Brown and Native Contemporary Artists in the Path of the Butterfly, Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Overland Park, KS (March 7 – June 2, 2019)
On Turtle’s Back, Museum of Contemporary Native Art, Santa Fe NM (May 25, 2018-January 27, 2019)
21C Museum Hotels Oklahoma City (August 2017 – February 2018)
Four by Four 2016: Midwest Invitational Exhibition, Springfield Art Museum, Springfield, Missouri (September 10 – December 4, 2016)
A View From Within Under The Skin by Holly WilsonA View from Within Under The SkinA View from Within Under The Skin
A View From Within Under The Skin – Detail by Holly Wilson
Unique Cast Bronze with Patina, 30” x 30”x 4.5”, 2016
In the moments before I fall asleep, I feel like I am floating in a large body of water with all the days happening and all the possibilities mixing around me like fish in the ocean, each one a choice I can make in my life that could lead to many different outcomes, the path is unknown and each different from the other.
Sold
For inquiries, please contact: The Studio
Mustang, OK 73064 | 405.308.0239
Exhibition History
Art for a New Understanding: Native Voices, 1950s to Now, Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis, Tennessee, (February 22 – Oct 20, 2020)
Art for a New Understanding: Native Voices, 1950s to Now, Nasher Museum of Art
at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, (August 29, 2019 – January 12, 2020)
Art for a New Understanding: Native Voices, 1950s to Now, Crystal Bridges Museum of Art, Bentonville Arkansas (October 6, 2018, through January 7, 2019)
Four by Four 2016: Midwest Invitational Exhibition, Springfield Art Museum, Springfield, Missouri (September 10 – December 4, 2016)
Bibliography
“Art for a New Understanding: Native Voices, 1950s to Now”, book by Mindy N. Besaw, Candice Hopkins, and Manuela Well-Off-Man; p 182-183 (2018)
2017, 29”x 27”x 24”, Unique Cast Bronze with Patina, and flex cord
The boarding schools cut the hair and stole the language of Native American children. But inside, they were still there. My sister lost her hair to cancer and people stopped making eye contact, leaving her to feel invisible. But she was still there. The old tree was cut down, but its power to lead to the spirit world is still there. Through everything, they whisper, “I’m still here.”
Sold
For inquiries, please contact: The Studio
Mustang, OK 73064 | 405.308.0239
Exhibition History
The Thread that Connects, Spiva Center for the Arts, Joplin Missouri (January 14 – March 4)
On Turtle’s Back, Pauly Friedman Art Gallery, Misericordia University, Dallas, Pennsylvania (September 8 – October 11, 2022)
Upturned Flower that Travels, The Volland Store, 24098 Volland Road, Alma, KS (Nov 6, – Dec 5, 2021)
Weaving History into Art: The Enduring Legacy of Shan Goshorn, Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, OK (October 9, 2020 – March 28, 2021)
On Turtle’s Back, Dunedin Fine Art Center, Dunedin, FL (Sept 13, 2019 – December 23, 2019)
On Turtle’s Back, Museum of Contemporary Native Art, Santa Fe NM (May 25, 2018 – January 27, 2019)
Holly Wilson: Talk Story, C.N. Gorman Museum, University of California-Davis (January 9 – March 16, 2018)
2019, 29” x 27” x 6″, Unique Cast Bronze with Patina
Finding my way back, to my home to family to the stories of my history and of my people. They are both the past and the future the seeds of tomorrow that we hold and collect for the next generation.
SOLD
For inquiries, please contact: Bonner David Art Boutique 22 E. 81 ST | New York City, New York 10028 | 929.226.7800
