Sarah Francis Hollis - Artist, Former Teacher, Creative Consultant and Visionary
Sarah Francis Hollis’ talents and skills know no bounds or horizons. Insanely vast and varied, but yet meticulously refined and mastered, her conceptual work about life and relationships are introspective, eye-opening, and thought-provoking. She carefully merges and blurs the boundaries of being equally emotionally jarring and enlightening, while opening up conversations about topics that are most often ignored or too difficult for most people to discuss.
While sitting with her in her home studio/workspace, we went through some of her sketchbooks, and I was quickly reminded of why I fell in love with her art and the way her mind works so many years ago. When I met her, she was my college professor at the Art Academy of Cincinnati. She’s always been such an inspiration to me for a myriad of reasons. I’d like to highlight a few of her art works here that are exceptionally powerful, and talk a little more about her as an artist and as a human.
What is amazing about her is that her work always has a story, no matter the medium or media. There are layers to be peeled back, whether it be conceptually or through examining her process.
Children Live Here; US Migrant Refugee Camps, Mixed Media Collage, Sarah Francis Hollis and 2-year-old son Jonas, 2019.
Children Live Here; US Migrant Refugee Camps, Mixed Media Collage, Sarah Francis Hollis and 2-year-old son Jonas, 2019.
Children Live Here; US Migrant Refugee Camps, Mixed Media Collage, Sarah Francis Hollis and 2-year-old son Jonas, 2019.
Children Live Here; US Migrant Refugee Camps, Mixed Media, Sarah Francis Hollis, 2019.
One of her most recent works comments on the migrant detention centers in America. (Above). A number of those pieces are in collaboration with her 2 year old son. She created colorful mixed media collages that depict the outside of the detention center, and the images are combined with her son’s childlike paintings.
Detail of Children Live Here; US Migrant Refugee Camps, Mixed Media, Sarah Francis Hollis, 2019.
Painting the borders and barbed wire that imprison innocence, her son’s drawings remind us of the playful, hopeful lives and dreams of American children. This immediately allows us to draw a parallel with immigrant children, and question why the dreams and lives of immigrant children are less than, invalid or illegal, according to these detention centers. What happens to a child’s mind, imagination, and creativity when he or she is growing up in one of these places? If we peeled back all the layers on these pieces alone, we would be sitting here talking all day! And starting conversations about these topics through art is absolutely incredible.
Another topic she is passionate about is domestic violence. While I was in her drawing classes in college, I remember seeing a few paintings she had done that were about this, but I didn’t know much about them until later years, when she posted them on her social media and on her website.
Sarah and her sketchbook drawing that depicts the domestic violence of a past relationship.
Self-Portrait documenting effects of domestic violence, with Gouache and Acrylic Glaze, 2010.
Self-Portrait documenting effects of domestic violence, with Gouache and Acrylic Glaze, 2010.
Purpled, bloodied, busted lips and swollen, blackened eyes in self-portraits painted with violent hues and a raw, uncensored attention to detail documents her experience with abuse, and talks about what it’s like to go through it. The paintings and drawings are cathartic pieces that also allow her to process what happened and overcome the trauma.
Sarah’s ability to take things that happen in her life and transform them into therapeutic homages to certain pieces of herself is something that I’ve always admired. She approaches each artwork with a careful awareness of what media and/or medium she should use that will aid in telling her story in the most impactful way possible.
Her performance pieces and installations incorporate compulsions of holding on to memories and learning to conquer demons still leftover from childhood.
This performance piece is a collective work spanning 20 years, of having an obsession to collect an old metal lunchbox - the same one her father used to take to work with him each day.
The lunch box that inspired the work for 20 years.
Her father’s rusty lunchbox was one of the only physical things she had left of him after he took off. She held onto it throughout the years, and compulsively would buy identical ones, as if she could fill the void with them and still be connected to him. In the performance, she laid out all of the boxes in the snow in an orderly fashion, much like a cemetery. The boxes were the only way she could feel connected to her father, and having a ceremony of that coping mechanism was a way for her to overcome that weight.
Performance Piece
The freezing snow biting at her skin served as a reminder of all the pain endured throughout her life. In an Instagram post she made regarding this piece, she commented on how she strives to be a parent that leaves behind strength and love to her child, instead of only belongings, and how her child will never have to rummage through antique shops for 20 years to feel a connection to her.
She has also explored the mind, abuse, mental illness, and relationships through different processes and styles of writing poetry throughout the years. Some of her poetry, or automatic writing, can be found on this installation piece, which was displayed at the Contemporary Arts Museum in Cincinnati, Ohio.
A Novel About all the Things I Have Forgotten, Sarah Francis Hollis, 2012. Installation.
Constructing an elongated corner shelf with 83 custom, angled grooves that house 83 index cards, she displays an open novel. This can be read front to back, back to front, or in pieces, but in order to read it in its entirety, the viewer has to walk about the space, moving along with the piece.
A Novel About all the Things I Have Forgotten, Sarah Francis Hollis, 2012. Installation.
Sarah has always been drawn to office supplies for their discipline and order, but also because they are very unlikely surfaces for the creation of art. Many of the cards in this piece give the feeling that you are reading a diary; her thoughts are instinctively spewed out on each card in a way that resembles word-vomit, but that contrast between the order and disorder within the piece balance and celebrate each other ceremoniously.
Another way she has brought office supplies into her work is through these mixed media paintings/drawings.
Anywhere but here; Anyone but you. Sarah Francis Hollis. 2016. Gouache, acrylic paint, white charcoal pencil on clipboards.
Merging gouache, paint, and white chalk on repurposed clipboards, she creates dark, dreamy skyscapes, but they almost seem to have a light emitting from them. She created these during her divorce, which can be a time for grief and loss, but also for new beginnings.
All clipboards above: Anywhere but here; Anyone but you. Sarah Francis Hollis. 2016. Gouache, acrylic paint, white charcoal pencil on clipboards.
Even though these drawings give off a feeling of darkness, there is also a glimmer of hope in the bright white chalk and saturated blues. The fluid lines of chalk and paint melt gracefully into the rigid, orderly clipboards; much like the darkened chaos and loss of one life makes way for a new, brighter beginning.
Much like the previous works, the following landscapes from Sarah’s 2019 series, Flowers For My Funeral, are nostalgically dreamy and familiar. In this series, Sarah illustrated various Flowerama shops she would encounter in the US during her travels. For her, creating these served as an escape from the tumultuous world we live in today, and was also a reminder of a place where humans come together to celebrate or share emotions. Flower shops are where people find themselves while celebrating or attempting to grasp life’s many milestones; such as birth, love, graduations, thank you’s, congratulations, and funerals.
Flowers For My Funeral, Sarah Francis Hollis, 2019. Mixed Media Collage with Illustration and Gloss Glazing Technique.
The vivid, expressive brushstrokes in each piece are happily married with meticulous technique; surrealism dancing with realism in a way that makes each Flowerama location seem like it came from a memory. If you could illustrate a memory of a specific time or location in your life, it would probably look a lot like these mixed media collages; some areas are clear as day, and others mix together like watercolors bleeding and merging on a page.
Flowers For My Funeral, Sarah Francis Hollis, 2019. Mixed Media Collage with Illustration and Gloss Glazing Technique.
Flowers For My Funeral, Sarah Francis Hollis, 2019. Mixed Media Collage with Illustration and Gloss Glazing Technique.
Flowers For My Funeral, Sarah Francis Hollis, 2019. Mixed Media Collage with Illustration and Gloss Glazing Technique.
Clearly, Sarah is a jack-of-all-trades. She paints, draws, collages, builds, performs, and so much more throughout her artwork, while examining the most difficult aspects of herself, her life, and life in general. But she’s also helping other artists bring their ideas to life, too, even though she is no longer teaching.
Remember this article in Vogue about these beads that everyone was talking about all across the internet?
Far Left: Magnus Juliano, Photographer: Mystic Gooden. Far Right: Lil Kim’s Album Cover, Photographer: Michael Antonio.
Magnus Juliano. Beads: Eat Crow Studio
Photographer: Mystic Gooden.
Yep, those beads were created by Sarah and her husband, John Crowell, in their 3D printing studio, called Eat Crow Studio! They were made for the artist Magnus Juliano, who went viral earlier this year after posting photos of himself wearing the enlarged Luis Vuitton beads in his hair. One of those beads were even featured on Lil Kim's newest album cover! (Above).
I also hear there are even bigger projects coming in the future, so definitely check out Eat Crow Studios and follow them! You can check out their work here: https://www.eatcrowstudio.net/ INSTAGRAM: @eatcrowstudiogram
Also check out Magnus’ Instagram & website here: @magnusjuliano / magnusjuliano.com
Sarah is someone who uses her voice to turn her experiences into something meaningful, and into something we can all learn from.
She is someone who is fighting every day to be happier. She is someone who is giving her son a life she’d always dreamt of. Her life now is very different from when I first met her, but she has embraced the changes in the best way, and is still inspiring people through it all. Even though she isn’t teaching anymore, she is still helping others resolve and work through their creative ruts through her new job, mostly within businesses. She is a force to be reckoned with, and I couldn’t be happier to have her be the first woman on this project, because THIS is what power looks like.
You can follow Sarah here: www.sarahfrancishollis.com IG: @sarahfrancishollis @empathyarmy
Eat Crow Studios: www.eatcrowstudios.net IG @eatcrowstudiosgram