ARTIST STATEMENT:
Photographer Elliott Erwitt said “To me, photography is an art of observation. It’s about finding something interesting in an ordinary place …I’ve found it has little to do with things you see and everything to do with the way you see them.”
My art starts with my own photography, often of simple, common items or scenes, and then I embellish, change, add to, delete parts, or emphasize others through computer photo-editing. Many of my pieces have textures added, and some have color overlays. Always the editing adds to the original.
BIOGRAPHY:
She was born and lived her early years in Saskatchewan, Canada. After many moves that included a lumber camp in northern British Columbia; a steel-mill-town in PA; a resort town in Door County, WI; several other small WI towns; followed by ten years in a seniors’-only city in AZ; she is back in Madison, Wisconsin.
As a youngster she ‘drew” pictures and entered a Mother’s Day contest of a portrait of her mother. She was assured by the high praise she got, and by entering a competition in a Chicago Art Institute that she was destined to be an “artist”.
She calls her work PhotoArt. She uses her own photography and then “improves and/or changes” it with computer editing to make it “speak to her”, and hopefully to her viewers.
While a mother with 3 young children and a 45-mile commute to UWGB, in Green Bay, she took classes in Art & Design, Art History, Oil Painting, Life Drawing, and Clay. Those classes developed her “eye” and it is that which she uses now to finish her pieces. The “techniques and programs” that she utilizes are all self-taught.
While in AZ she entered and won both ribbons and cash prizes in many competitions including SCW Photoclub; Arizona Photo Club; Photographic Society of America; and several galleries in nearby cities.
Back in Wisconsin, the Whitewater Arts Alliance in 2020 rewarded her with a First, two Honorable Mentions, and prize money for Viewers’ Choice. Three Honorable Mentions were earned in 2021.
A group of her “Automobile” photos are available in the Talbot Gallery in Madison, and on-line sales are available at the website: https://phyllis-holler.pixels.com.