Project Type: Studio Works

Paper Wings Fearless-Holly Wilson

PAPER WINGS: FEARLESS

PAPER WINGS: FEARLESS

21”x 23” x 13”, Unique Cast Bronze with Patina

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

Bloodline, Keeper of the Seeds

Bloodline, Keeper of the Seeds
2021, 30″ x 98″ x 18″ in, Unique cast bronze with patina, cedar, and steel

It is a matriarchal society that my family lineage comes from; the woman cared for the children and the stories of their family. They told the history and planted the seeds for the next generation. Their lives, my life, and that of my daughter are full of the twists and turns that women hold in our society.

The Cigar Figures come from a childhood Native American story that my mother told of the “Stick People.” The “Stick People” would run through the night and call your name; if you went with them, you were never heard from again. She never described the figures, and I was always drawn to the idea of what they looked like. The Cigar Figures are my reimagining of that story, now a story of family and my past—a complicated narrative of loss, survival, and resilience. The figures are made from real cigars and found sticks, all cast in bronze. The faces are of the ancestors and family shaped from the idea of a cameo or silhouette painting to capture the faces of the families.

When hung, the light casts a shadow of the figures on the wall. This shadow represents memory for me. Like a shadow, these memories cannot be held, and in the end, we are all only a shadow in history, shadows on this earth.

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 
  • Upturned Flower That Travels, The Volland Store, Alma, Kansas (November 6 – December 5, 2021 )

     

Bloodline Keeper of the Seeds
I Am-Holly Wilson

I Am

I Am

12″ x 9″ x 2.5″, Encaustic on Birch, 2023

I am Resilience I am Resistance I am Powerful I am Still Here

Available

For inquiries, please contact:
The Studio
Mustang, OK 73064 | 405.308.0239

Renewal The Belief in Hope-sv- Holly Wilson

Renewal: The Belief in Hope

They say that to grow a garden is to believe in hope; you must believe that the seeds you put into the earth will grow. The beauty of this simple act has captivated me since I watched my dad garden when I was very small. He would tie string so tight for the beans to climb that when the winds of Oklahoma would blow, the string would sing. It was as if the garden was a symphony in and of itself with the strings and the sound of the corn stalks rattling. The buzz of the bees as they made their way from flower-to-flower fat with the bright yellow pollen and the crackling hum of the cicadas in the late Oklahoma August months. I can close my eyes and am transported back.

“Renewal: The Belief in Hope”
Unique Cast Bronze with Patina and Birch Panel
40” x 30” x 8”

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)

Renewal The Belief in Hope- Holly Wilson
Renewal The Belief in Hope- Holly Wilson
Bloosline Building Community-Holly Wilson

Bloodline: Portrait of Community

Bloodline: Portrait of Community

Unique Cast Bronze, Patina, Cedar and Steel, 20” x 84” x 10”, 2022

There is the family you are born into and then there is the family you make. They are the friends you made in school, the neighbor’s you live by and the colleagues at your work. You watch the children grow and tell the secret wishes you have for them. You have meals together; you share in the joy the ups and the down and you bring them love and kindness when they have lost a loved one. We build an extended family that grows year by year and that makes for a community that is full of rich diversity, compassion, and love.

My mother told me of the “Stick People,” a Delaware/Lenape story; they would run through the night calling your name, beckoning you to follow; if you went with them, you were never heard from again. I am reimagining that story, now a story of family and friends. My family’s history—a complicated narrative of loss, erasure, survival, and resilience. The figures are made from real cigars and found sticks; I now call them “Cigar Figures.” Their faces are of the ancestors, family, and friends, echoing the form of a cameo or silhouette painting, capturing family images. They walk upon a cedar log from my land in Oklahoma; I have heard cedar called mother. She carries the people on her back, and we can see the paths made on her bark by the tiny animals that lived their lives below her skin. All these lives lived together as a community, listening to the secret dreams of our children whispered to the wind, growing year by year, full of life, compassion, and love, above, below, and here.

When hung, the light casts a shadow of the figures on the wall. This shadow represents memory for me. Like a shadow, these memories cannot be held, and in the end, we are all only a shadow in history, shadows on this earth.

Available

For inquiries, please contact:
The Studio
Mustang, OK 73064 | 405.308.0239

Exhibition History

  • Seen Unseen, Feb 21 – July 14, Duhesa Gallery Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado

 

Bloodline Building Community-Holly Wilson-back

Bloodline: Building Community

Bloodline Building Community-Holly Wilson-sv
Bloodline: Building Community
Bloodline Building Community-Holly Wilson-front
Bloodline: Building Community
Wind Rider-Holly Wilson-Detail

Wind Rider

Wind Rider

Unique Cast Bronze and Patina, 17” x 48” x 8.5” , 2022

My children and I love to pick up sticks that look like birds or dragons. In the story I made up with my daughter there is a young girl who is playing outside when she hears a rustling in the bushes next to her, as she looks closer, she sees this beautiful dragon emerge with a long body and tail. They both stare at each other in amazement and then the dragon says, “Can you see me? Only MY Rider can truly see me.” The young girl tells the dragon “I can see you”, and then they rode through the skies for the rest of the afternoon. When her mom looked out the window, she only saw her playing with a stick, but for the girl, she saw her dragon, and she was the Wind Rider.

As we get older, I think we forget to see the dragons that are hiding in the sticks and that we can fly through the skies with our arms outstretched, feeling the wind pass beneath us.  I try to remember, never stop looking for the magic, and that our dreams can come true.

Sold

For inquiries, please contact:
The Studio
Mustang, OK 73064 | 405.308.0239

Exhibition History

  • On Turtle’s Back, Pauly Friedman Art Gallery, Misericordia University, Dallas, Pennsylvania (September 8 – October 11, 2022)

 

Wind Rider-Holly Wilson-sv
Wind Rider

Wind Rider

Wind Rider-Holly Wilson-BV
Wind Rider
Wind Rider-Holly Wilson
Wind Rider
I Am More Than Fluff-sv-Holly Wilson

I Am More than Fluff

I Am More than Fluff

Unique Cast Bronze, Patina, Glass, Brass, and Feathers, 14” x 6” x 6”, 2022

I am more than the view that my people are frozen in time, lost to a romanticized ideal of who the Native Americans were, we are more, and we are still here. I am not this fluff; I am here; I am loud and larger than life.

Available

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)
I Am More Than Fluff-Holly Wilson
I Am More Than Fluff
I Am More Than Fluff-detail-Holly Wilson
I Am More Than Fluff

I Am More Than Fluff-open-Holly Wilson

Lost Within My History

Lost Within My History

Unique Cast Bronze, Patina, Glass, Brass, 14” x 6” x 6”, 2022

As a young girl, my dad had these amazing, beaded works of art that he made, and from time to time, I would start but then stop or walk away from learning, leaving pieces in mid-process. I was young, then later my life was busy, and one reason after another kept me from history and time. My dad has passed away, and that time I could have spent with him learning and hearing his stories of how and why the thread it pulled through the beeswax and the cut of the bead and the way to hold the needle is lost. I lost not just the history but him and that time with him. I am now looking to teach myself these ways, and I hold him in my mind and my heart as I go forward.

Sold

For inquiries, please contact Bonner David Galleries

Exhibition History

  • On Turtle’s Back, Pauly Friedman Art Gallery, Misericordia University, Dallas, Pennsylvania (September 8 – October 11, 2022)