September 6- October 1, 2022 (going on now), I am fortunate to have a solo show at Ceres Gallery in New York City. My work, in the last few years, exemplifies our current lives, in the form of emotion and turbulence. That is what viewers have said. All art is a reflection of the time in which the artist is living. But Covid 19, by killing millions of people, resulting in fear and a total lockdown of businesses and schools, has created a dramatic paradigm shift in our culture, to say the least. There will be a closing reception on Saturday, October 1, 2022 from 12noon-3PM.
This is another page from my sketchbook for The Sketchbook Project in Brooklyn at The Brooklyn Art Library. I owe a lot to the school where I received my BFA degree. In fact I talk to a group of my former fellow students every week on Zoom. These women all went to Moore College of Art and Design in Philadelphia, had the same teachers, went through the same grueling program.
Moore College of Art and Design was the same school Alice Neel attended. although in her time, the school was called Philadelphia School of Design for Women. When I went to Moore, there was a push to make it coed, but the board made a move to keep it a girls’ school, since the idea (new at the time) was that having men around as fellow students would make us less assertive and less competitive. A feminist idea.
After attending postgraduate classes at The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and the degree program classes at Atlanta College of Art (now Savannah College of Art and Design) where both schools were coed, I think as a society we were further along in our development and men were not a much of a deterrent. I don’t know if either of those two schools made me less assertive and less competitive. It seemed that in art schools, the teachers were always so “right” in their aesthetic that we as students were subservient anyway.
Back to Alice Neel, now showing in a major solo show in New York City at the Metropolitan Museum of Art went to the same art school as I did. She majored in Painting.
Hollis Hildebrand-Mills Copyright All Rights Reserved 2021-2025
Ceres Gallery is having their annual group show, “Raising Women’s Voices II,” June 25-July 20. I am exhibiting the piece above, made up of collage, oil and acrylic on canvas. There is charcoal in it as well. No internet images, just magazine tear outs. My piece, entitled “Coat Hangers,” measures 26″ x 36.”
The opening reception for the show is Thursday, June 27, 6-8PM.
Ceres Gallery
Suite 201
547 W 27 Street
New York, NY 10001
Hours: Tuesday-Saturday, 12:00-6:00PM, Thursday 12:00-8:00PM
I have been invited to participate in Art Papers 20th Annual Art Auction. The collage above is what I have donated. It is made up of magazine pieces, paint, pencil and pen on board. Framed in a 2 and 1/2 ” deep floater frame. The piece was started and completed last week. (2019) It measures 5″ x 5″ and is titled “It took So Long To Bake It”
My husband and I have gained some weight recently, and in spite our daughter’s pleas, ”Accept that you’re fat. Don’t buy a new scale,” we bought a new scale. A digital one to replace the one with the numbers on it. The old scale had this red needle that waved back and forth with uncertainty. We both felt confident we would know our true weight with the new scale. And surely it would tell us that losing weight would be easy.
It is a Weight Watchers scale. Well, having had a career in marketing before getting into the “art world,” there had to be some sort of catch. You know, “fish while the fish are biting.” Make people sign up when they know they’re getting fat.
Doug got on first. He had no idea he was that heavy. My weight, too, was way more than the old scale told me it was. Okay, we accepted it. Didn’t join Weight Watchers, but tried not to eat the fries.
The next day, Doug came down the stairs, exclaiming he had lost ten pounds! Oh, I guess Weight Watchers figured we would join after the first weigh-in. Then it would throw us a bone of encouragement the next day-hey this weight loss thing is a piece of cake! (so to speak)
My weight continued to drop one pound a day. Even though, on a routine trip to the doctor, the scale had me demoralized again. One day, our new digital scale read me the original first day weight again, and I yelled at it, saying, “What??? I thought I was losing weight?” And then, when I got on again, the scale read the lesser weight it had registered the day before.
Artificial intelligence is making its way into our lives. We are all nervous about it. We fear the power that computers may have over us. But none of us figured on it being easily conned. Like when I yelled at the scale, it was easily bullied. How about that?
My exhibition in the Chelsea section of New York is still going on, receiving high praise. I will be returning soon for a closing reception on the last day of the show: Saturday, May 21st. I will be there from 1PM- 4PM.
Here is Orion Crook at the closing reception of his curatorial exhibition “Living Case.” His face is framed by one of the rings I used in my installation, “Afloat” in New York a few years back. He used these squishy rings I made in a different way, making them a part of one of his themes, art is life, subject to decay. They worked well with the partially rough and jagged walls of eyedrum.
The rings also gave a person slight disorientation while entering the gallery, as he put them on the floor as well. Not knowing where the ceiling, floor and walls were, as these rings ran throughout…over, under and around the gallery.
I am very happy to have been a part of such a refreshingly creative group exhibition, filled with music, visual art, living creatures, plants, lighting, costumes, neon and performance art! An asset to Atlanta’s “art scene!”
As you can see, the pallet is in shades of pink. My usual: Dark to light, bright to dull. I can’t say that this sojourn back into the metaphysical world of painting is easy. It’s incredibly hard work. But so far, after the struggle and the dread. The knocking over the paint bucket and the general awkwardness of it all, it is finally giving back to me. The work is giving back to ME! This is why I keep going.
Copyright Hollis Hildebrand-Mills 2015 All Rights Reserved
Collage by Hollis HIldebrand-Mills/ Oscar Statuette courtesy of AMPAS
“If you build it, they will come.” – A quote from the movie “Field Of Dreams.” I am a believer in my ability to make things happen.
I could give you many examples of how I manifest my dreams. If a person is certain something will happen, and is focused enough on the goal, the subconscious mind will make it so.
A recent example of this: Although I am allergic to cats, I love them. Disregarding the allergist’s advice, I had two cats for many years, until they both died of old age. I have been catless for fifteen years. With a friend the other night, she told me Siamese cat dander is different – I would not be allergic to Siamese cats! And suddenly the possibility of having another cat was there!
A few days later, I was downstairs, hanging the remaining unsold collages from my “Afloat” show. They had been stored in boxes at my studio and I wanted to enjoy them. I looked out the window and there was a Siamese cat coming up the steps from our woods! I practically fell off the ladder! No! Not again! Have I manifested this?
You long-time blogger friends know that Vince Wiggins and I collaborated to make my animated video, “Bread In The Sky.” Not totally believing it, skeptical, of course, but all the same, together we have been occasionally visualizing winning an Academy Award for our video. (In the category of Best Animated Short Film.) Yes, a far flung dream. Yes, a long shot. Even so, he and I were at it again recently and we visualized the entire red carpet thing. A few times. We got to the place where we each brought our Oscars home. Vince knew exactly where he was going to place his statuette. But there, I was uncertain. I did not know where I would put mine. Did this mean I do not want an Academy Award? I mean, come on! Everyone wants an Oscar! Or did it mean I just cannot imagine (literally) receiving the highest award in the world for a short film? I mean, really, “Bread In The Sky?” It would certainly shock the art critic who gave it a bad review! The critic told me a few months later that after seeing it again, it was the projection room I built that made him feel claustrophobic. It tainted his opinion. He rewrote the original review in a slightly more positive light.
I am not saying that work does not help make your dreams come true. That projection room was not easy to build. Not to mention the months of tedious animation time I put in for that 17 minute film. Anyone who has ever done this knows. But where to place Oscar? Do I want this? Me not filling in that one important blank…..get this down, folks….. of knowing where I am going to place my statuette, signifies doubt and doubt prevents manifestation. Do I want to win an Academy Award?
I have not seen the cat lately. He must have a home. Or, because I have bronchitis, the cat will not appear. Intentions. Do they affect the outcome of the dreams in your life?
Copyright Hollis Hildebrand-Mills 2014 All Rights Reserved
I have been invited to participate in Art Papers 20th Annual Art Auction. The collage above is what I have donated. It is made up of magazine pieces, paint, pencil and pen on board. Framed in a 2 and 1/2 ” deep floater frame. The piece was started and completed last week. (2019) It measures 5″ x 5″ and is titled “It took So Long To Bake It”
Hollis Hildebrand-Mills 