A Foot in Two Worlds

Holly Wilson

Holly Wilson is a storyteller. As an artist, she began with the stories of others – those of her mother and her mother’s mother. Since having children of her own, those stories of the past, rich with her Delaware and Cherokee history, deeply intertwine with those of the present.

In her delicate figures, Holly sculpts emotions, emotions that you can put on like a skin and breathe in a moment frozen in time. She wants you to feel another’s life, to see we are all one, no matter color, shape or origin. Her figures serve as her storytellers in the world, sharing the sacred and the precious, capturing moments of our day, our vulnerabilities and our strengths. They are the quiet echoes of life’s delicate balance, telling of the fragility in both life and their own form.

In A Foot in Two Worlds, Holly told those stories in two distinct ways: through six of her individually cast, one-of-a-kind sculptures and seven large-scale photographs. She returned to an early love, photography, as one way of incorporating the next generation of stories, those of her children. There is a balance between the images and the sculptures: They feed one another, they inspire and they echo each other.

Holly’s process, done entirely without molds, is as unique as her art, and she shared that with Oklahoma Contemporary visitors in three ways: through an artist’s talk, a live demonstration of casting and a workshop for 8- to 12-year-old students.

Wilson is represented by JRB Art at the Elms.