oh, Celosia how your mysteries continue to morph and unfold before my curious eyes… are your secrets knowable?? but as Murakami put it in his amazing new 1Q84 “if you can’t understand it without an explanation, you can’t understand it with an explanation.”
oozing and morphing all over my counter top these squashtaterrestrial beings have taken on a life of their own… are they alien seed pods, ready to burst forth with new freaky life or are they themselves the disfigured embryos of some futuristic or totally primeval life forms?? who is to know? i for one am not taking my eyes off them for fear of what they might become…
as the hayride pulled away taking pumpkin-laden families back down muddy tracks a heavy silence settled over the patch and the uncounted sheep in the distance blurred in my fields of vision… sticky squash blossoms unfurled their reptilian petals to the brisk afternoon sun and i sunk like so many a heavy gourd down into the the soft mud & twisted vine and tapped into an earthy network whispering autumnal thoughts into my ears, hinting at nature’s ancient secrets, beckoning me deeper still…
and i might have stayed to spoil in the sun and decompose back into plowed, primordial muck if the tractor hadn’t rumbled its way back into my consciousness dumping throngs of rowdy pumpkin hunters searching for their own rewards…
found ourselves cataloging our feelings along with various species of plant matter,
casting about for proper names for unexplainable natural phenomena in order to file them away alongside things we thought we already understood in a vast scientific system that we barely comprehend
it’s always fun to look back at the first sketches of a sculpture once it’s all said and done.
these are some of the petaled creatures/ icons of nature worship from my recent POLLINATOR installation @ Harmon Art Lab as they sprung from sketchbook onto gallery walls…
Check out my new POLLINATOR gallery on Facebook!
and more sketch 2 sculpture to come…
just returned from the healing waters of Siesta Key beach in wonderful Sarasota Florida.
the days down there bring sun, abundant flora, powder-soft sand, massive cloud towers, but the real magic begins when the sun gives up its reign of the blue skies and sets the whole place aflame on it”ts way out. some of the most amazing sunsets i’ve witnessed in my days…
have you seen a lotus flower at its tallest? an ancient rhododendron bush sprawling over a hillside?? have you seen a full grown dahlia with blooms the size of your head??
THEN WHY AREN’T YOU TERRIFIED?!?!
Kate Bush was playing quite a bit during the mad production phase of my new installation POLLINATOR @ Harmon Art Lab, (Artist Talk this Saturday @ 2pm!) so how couldn’t i pay tribute to her with this batch of explosive cloud formations that rolled across the city this sunday, we could only stare, slack-jawed as they rolled by in a relentless march into the evening dusk…
“you want my reply? what was the question? i was staring at the big sky…” -Kate Bush
come and see my installation POLLINATOR alongside painter, Randi Reiss-McCormack. at the brand new Harmon Art Lab, started by two super talented artists Peter e Harper & Thomas Drymon.
The show is up until October 1st by appointment only, but you can come this Saturday for an artist talk at 2pm! Harmon Art Lab 1716 14th St NW Washington, DC 20009
Also, check out an interview about my work on the HAL website, here
Matt Hollis creates abstract-organic sculpture, drawing & photography in his studio at 52 O Street Studios in Washington, D.C.
