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ECLIPSES OVER EGYPT

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Active Japanese Novelist of Broad Interests

Ralph Ellison

THE NEW TIMES HOLLER!’S military consultant, General Funkeshoe.

Deep Cough

  
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AN INTERVIEW WITH ROBIN HOLDER:
PRINTMAKER, EDUCATOR, ARTS ADMINISTRATOR
February 24, 2009


Special for THE NEW TIMES HOLLER! By
© Amir Bey, 2009

 
 
At work: Holder is a gifted artist whose work encompasses spirituality, social commentary and personal experience.
ROBIN HOLDER


Robin Holder, printmaker, educator, whose work can be found in private collections and in public site specific installations, is having a busy year in 2009. A retrospective of her work will be held in Atlanta, and there are three other exhibitions that are in the works.

HOLLER!: Tell us about your upcoming retrospective in Atlanta; what areas of your work will you be focusing on, what is your concept for it?

HOLDER: My retrospective, with the accompanying catalogue, is sponsored by The David Driskell Center of the University of Maryland in College Park. It has been about 2 ½ years in planning. It really was the concept of the center, its Executive Director, Dr. Robert Steele, an avid collector of contemporary work on paper by African American artists and his Deputy Director Dorit Yaron who are co curators for the exhibit. The show includes some 70 works from a number of series I’ve developed: What’s Black and White and Red All Over?; Behind Each Window a Voice; Musicians, My Beautiful Red Dress; Karnak and The Warrior Women. They also want in some way to include imagery from some of my site specific public art commissions.
Collaged stencil monoprint with hand painted and drawn elements and text.
Plate:32"x 22" Paper: 38"x28"
Robin Holder: BRUSHED NICKEL IS SO ELEGANT 1, 2007
HOLLER!: What were your earliest art experiences?

HOLDER: When I was in grammar school we had a book in the house: Things to Make and Do. I had a box with: Mucilage glue), scotch tape (which was a treasured item), crayons, scissors, glitter, construction paper and other odds and ends of things: twigs, cotton, cardboard scraps. On rainy days I would make things, dioramas and figures. When I was about 8 or 9 a friend of mine from Woodland Camp, Yolanda…her mom was the artist Inge Hardison, a powerful sculptor, we would go over to their place on CPW to visit. That was the first “real visual artist” that I ever met.
In addition my mother used to say repeatedly that the best gift you could give some one was your time and consideration and make them something, not just buy a gift, so I was always making things for family members.
In the 4th, 5th and 6th grade I used to make all kinds of 2D and 3D projects for my book reports and science studies. I liked making things because I was very aware that I could do whatever I wanted which was great because I didn’t have much trust in or interest in most of what adults had to offer in the “mainstream” world as I was convinced that most of them were either deluded by capitalism and racism or simply nice but ignorant.
The other wonderful thing for me in making art as a youngster was that I had great fun day dreaming up projects and challenging myself….just to see if I could figure it out. That feeling is still very much with me. A lot of what I do is really about an adventure to see if I can pull it off. I’m usually trying to create something that’s at least just a bit out of my reach.
When I was in 7th grade JHS 44 would not let me take “shop class” as a girl I had to take “home economics:” sewing and cooking. I was very, very, very upset about it so my mother signed me up at the YM-YWHA on Lexington and 92nd street where I took shop with Al Feldman, a colleague of hers at the 23rd St School for the def. So when I was 11 I started learning about power tools and absolutely loved it.

Robin Holder: Collaged stencil monoprint with hand painted and drawn elements and text.
Plate:32"x 22" Paper: 38"x28"
CHOCOHOLIC DREAMS 1, 2008
HOLLER!: Who were the first groups of artists that you worked with?

HOLDER: That would be fellow students at the High School of Music and Art, then students at The Art Students League.

HOLLER!: Are they still making art?

HOLDER: Yes, a few are.

HOLLER!: You came of age as an adult artist during the late 60s and early 70s; how would you describe that era for a young African American artist, and how do you see artists who are coming of age during the present era?

HOLDER: The era when I was a teenager and young adult was pregnant with conflict, expectation, re identification, passion for cultural expression. There were the: anti war, women’s lib, integration, psychedelic drugs, eastern, interest in Eastern religion, black power, non violent, Black Muslim movements. It was very charged, saturated and exciting. People were involved in expressing and defining themselves, reclaiming the truth about history and demanding justice.

HOLLER!: How have arts institutions changed between those periods?

HOLDER: With the advent of large pools of municipal, state, federal, corporate and foundation money available for the arts from the seventies till recently (when funding levels began to decline), we experienced unusual growth of diverse and unique arts organizations some of which actually have become institutions. Because of this plethora of arts organizations there was a great deal of support and resources for individual visual artists (who by nature tend to work more as individuals than collaborate in teams like performing artists). In order to developed and stabilize funding, arts programming started to become formulated to some extent. Many of the more truly creative, unpredictable adventurous approaches to making, practicing, sharing and documenting art have become predictable.
.
Robin Holder: Collaged stencil monoprint with hand painted and drawn elements.
Plate:32"x 22" Paper: 38"x28"
NEVER ENOUGH SHOES 1, 2008
HOLLER!: You knew the master printmaker and founder of The Printmaking Workshop, Robert “Bob” Blackburn when you were quite young. How did you see him then, how did your interactions with him serve in your development as an artist?

HOLDER: When I was an adolescent, Bob was the funny man who came to visit and stood on his head. All the change in his pockets would fall on the floor.
When I returned to the states in fall 1977 I went to the Printmaking Workshop and showed my portfolio of black and white lithographs to Bob. He offered me a job. From 1977-1987 I wrote all municipal, state, federal, foundation and corporate grant applications and reports for the Printmaking Workshop. I represented the Workshop to prospective contributors, administered the outreach program, documented and cross referenced the; guest artist, outreach, general workshop, editioning, print collection/exhibition and class programs. In addition I started the Fellowship Program, co produced 2 portfolios and coordinated several exhibitions and special events.
Working both administratively and creatively at the workshop was a unique and invaluable period for me. I was able to see, watch a host of artists and printmakers conceptualize, experiment and develop their work. I met hundreds of fascinating artists from literally around the globe. Many have become friends with whom I still have active relationships. In addition since I was writing all of the grants and funding reports I learned how to create proposals, administrate and document programs.
Robin Holder: Collaged stencil monoprint with hand painted and drawn elements and text.
Plate:32"x 22" Paper: 38"x28"
HOW COOL IS THAT 2?, 2007
HOLLER!: Was he the inspiration for you to enter printmaking?

HOLDER: I did my first printmaking in high school in my junior and senior years, etching, which I did not particularly like. In Mexico I worked on some silk-screening.

HOLLER! How would you define your work in terms of whether it is personal, social, political, and myth-related or..?

HOLDER: It is all of these.

HOLLER! Your brothers Mark and Kim are activists and your art often reflects a social perspective and connections from a personal viewpoint. Was there a time that their world view as activists differed from yours as an artist?

HOLDER: We were raised with a very, very, very strong sense of social responsibility, humanitarianism, political and racial history and were trained to think very critically. As youngsters we were taught to question any and all motives behind the accumulation and distribution of resources, information and power on every level imaginable. I think one aspect of my interests that differs from my two brothers is that, since my early twenties, I have tried to learn of and understand how spirituality and the human psyche relate to politics, history and human existence and endeavor.

HOLLER!: What vision do you have for your work’s destiny, where -physically, socially, spiritually- would you like to see it eventually be?

HOLDER: I would like it to be looked at, discussed, studied, criticized, identified with and be a source of inspiration.

HOLLER!: A California artist named Fela who believed in reincarnation once said that art from previous eras are markers we left to guide us in our present incarnations. Following that concept -whether you believe in reincarnation or not - what markers did you leave for yourself? What markers are you leaving behind?

HOLDER: I absolutely am convinced that re-incarnation is part of the cycles of life and death and life. Everything I have ever done, thought of, questioned, experienced is a marker for the future and a response to the past. Any evidence of my activity that remains in a physical form, as a mental, emotional or spiritual impression on any other living creature would be a marker. More work and information by and of Robin Holder can be viewed at:
Fine Art America – Robin Holder

Artist’s Portfolio – Robin Holder

contact:info@thenewtimesholler.com
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