FROM ME TO YOU

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I would firstly like to acknowledge the Wurundjeri people, the Traditional Custodians of the land in which i live and work. I pay my respects to Elders past, present and emerging and I extend my respect to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people across Australia.

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Welcome and thank you for making it here. My name is Holly and i am a proud Aboriginal woman. I've always had so much pride in my family, my country and my culture and I consider myself so incredibly blessed. 

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Creativity was always encouraged so strongly in my home by my mum growing up. I am an only child so i was lucky to spend many hours drawing, colouring and painting one on one with her. I remember dreaming so young to one day colour inside the lines so perfectly just like she did.

I spent a lot of time as a child at my grandparents house. My uncle (Adam McLennan) their son and my dads brother was an incredible Artist. He spent lots of time away when i was young and would mail his paintings to my Nan where she would manage him.

I remember bringing in the ladder from out the back, inside into the lounge. I would help roll out the canvases when they would arrive and a brilliance of colour would unfold. Pa would climb the ladder and would photograph them on Nans camera. Nan was famous for her camera back then, there wasn't a single place she wouldn't take it. 

I was lucky to tag along with her to galleries where she would consult and see if it was the right fit. I would be left to walk around and admire the walls for as long as i could remember. To be surrounded by creativity and passion like that is still something i don't forget. I still remember many of those walls like it was yesterday. 

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My family celebrates and admires art so greatly. I feel lucky to be surrounded by people whose values are so aligned with mine. 

I feel that my art is gentle and soft spoken. It makes people perceptive to conversations that may not have been had before. I love the curiosity it encourages, how it opens minds to more. I love that it promotes more education which turns to understanding. 

Selfishly when i indulge in my paints, i feel safe. I feel still. It allows me to digest the outside world. Painting allows me to transform the feeling of happiness and love into a physical form of matter. But even more beautifully it allows my anxieties, my worries and my heartaches to run through me and come out the other-side light. No longer so heavy. 

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Holly xxx