Holly Elkins' Artist
Profile
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"Painting.... a way of seizing the power by giving form to our terrors as well as our desires." -Pablo Picasso |
I was raised in Paris, Texas where my high school history teacher, Peggy Sikes, taught me that it is the people and places that are important in history. Their faces, their voices, their stories. She taught me what to look at.
I went on to study Acting at the University of North Texas and Cultural Anthropology at Blinn College before receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree in Theatre with a specialization in Costume Design from the University of Texas. While at UT, I studied painting, drawing, and rendering under internationally renowned Costume Designer, Susan Tsu. She taught me that painting is a skill of the eye, not merely a talent of the hand. She taught me how to see.
While attending UT, I wanted to combine my interests in history, cultural anthropology, and design. I designed costumes for an adaptation of "The Shoes That Were Danced To Pieces," a mythical tale from Cape Verde, Africa. Working on this project, I fell in love with the research process, stockpiling images to fuel my imagination. I fell in love with the faces of culture.
Today, my art is greatly inspired by research... photographs and images of distant lands with kindred faces. I am inspired by culture and history and news today. By seeing the beauty and anguish and fear in others, the same soul in the eyes, the very different forces and forms, by understanding these, we come closer to understanding one another.
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All original art Copyright © 2003 by Holly Elkins. All rights reserved worldwide.