Holly Wilmeth – Circle Foundation for the Arts

What themes does your work involve?

These images are a visual journey and a personal iconography into learning to love myself and unraveling the awakening of my soul. This is my story of going inward, opening the doors of my shadows, returning home.

Describe your creative process.

I allow my curiosity, my interest for the moment to be what is driving and guiding me to slowly start creating a new series of images. I love working in series because it gives me that sense of a beginning and an end. The images selected here are from a show titled "Returning Home". I had been working on these images simultaneously at the same time while working on another series, but it wasn't until I went on a seven-day silent meditation retreat that their meaning was revealed. These images were the first series where I allowed myself to just be guided by my visual curiosity without having a "theme" and discovering how they all came together in the end. This process was a process of surrendering to my mind being in control and allowing nature' to surprise me with curiosities.

What influences your work? What inspires you? Why do you make art?

I make art because its the way I get to express the way I see the world. Making art for me is like feeding my soul, like playing, like delighting in life's creations. What inspires me is nature, wildlife, music, my spiritual journey. And I have so many people whom I consider influences; Graciela Iturbide, Ruth Asawa, Rembrandt, to name a few.

What is good art? What makes a piece of art great?

For me good art creates the opportunity or door to stir emotions deep within us, that then lead us to discovering something new about the world through someones personal interpretation.

What is the role of the artist today?

I love what I do and when I am creating a piece to photograph time stands still, my essence is at play, and there is a moment where everything so perfectly falls into place and I know I have what I knew and yet did not know I was looking for. There are so many forms of art, we are all artist I believe in the details of life that bring us closest to our hearts. And when artists express themselves, it allows the collective to also experience in a way the joys, sorrows, anger, delights from the piece created.