Holden Willard: Portland Art Gallery Artist

Lisa Belisle: Hello, I'm Dr. Lisa Belisle, and today you are listening to or watching Radio Maine. In the studio I have with me artist Holden Willard. Thanks for joining me today.

Holden Willard: Thanks.

Lisa Belisle: Holden, you're a Maine guy. You grew up in Maine and graduated from high school in Maine, and you're back in Maine again. So tell me about your connection to Maine.

Holden Willard: I grew up in Raymond, Maine. My parents, Megan and Dawn, are also from Maine. Both were farming families, so they met long after they had gone to college together, and they wanted to have a family, and staying in Maine was a natural progression for them. My dad was the town manager of Raymond, and he really wanted to raise that family in Maine because of how amazing Maine is, and I'm really happy he did. It's been a really good time, and I think it was a natural progression for me to come back to Maine because of the art scene here, the art history of the state. The teachings that I got in college were very much a heavy emphasis on modernism, so I was looking at Marsden Hartley and these Maine cubists, and I was really into that long history of plein air painting and reactive painting. So my connection to Maine only strengthened that desire to want to continue my studies here.

Lisa Belisle: So reactive painting, that's the one thing that I'm picking up on that I actually don't know that much about. Tell me about that.

Holden Willard: I like to think of it through the lens of experiencing something and then reacting to it, looking at something directly, observing it, synthesizing it. So taking bits of information from it, movement, color, sound, trying to figure out how that can be translated into the mark. A good example would be Arshile Gorky. He would go out into the field where he worked outside of his barn, and he would paint outside, and a lot of his paintings were reactive because they're not direct representations. So I guess that's what I mean, that I'm taking bits of information, I'm synthesizing it, and while I am leaning more on the side of representation, my work is more about that synthesis of all of that information.

Lisa Belisle: That's really interesting. Having looked at some of your work online, not in person, and I know there's a difference between those things and how you react to things in the moment versus looking online. You do a lot of self-portraits, and you use figures in your pieces, but they're not a traditional sort of figurative approach. Tell me about that. It's very unique.

Holden Willard: So I had a teacher in college, his name was Timothy Harney, and he was the guy who taught me a lot about modernism. So I'm looking a lot at the early modernist period, like the fifties, sixties, early seventies, that's getting into the mid modernist period. But he taught us the teachings of Hans Hofmann. He was a little bit more of a colorist, and his work was mainly non-objective, but it's all about this push and pull of color theory. Actually, my paintings, although I'm using the figure as a vehicle for understanding, are essentially about color. So my paintings are mainly about that push and pull, that desire to create paintings that vibrate, that have two values set together that create that vibration. So I just am obsessed and have always been obsessed with figuration because I am constantly trying to be as honest as I can with my representations.

And for me, my honest way of representing is through color and through mark. But yeah, I think the color came a lot from my teachings with him. If you were to look up Hans Hofmann paintings, it is a lot of this very use of vibrant color. I think I saw his paintings in person for the first time at the Peabody Essex Museum when I was in school at Montserrat in Beverly, Massachusetts. He had a retrospective. He's long since dead, but his retrospective was really enlightening, seeing him move from figuration and representation himself all the way to abstract color fields, or even just very stark blank canvases with very subtle transitions of color. You can see a life of searching, which is essentially what Tim taught all of his students. This drawing method called the search. So I actually had a very in-depth drawing history with him. I took three years of drawing with him and a year of painting with him. And that desire is essentially color.

Lisa Belisle: When we talk about color theory for people who are non-artists or don't have as much experience with that, can you expand upon that a little bit? What does that mean, and why is that important to creating art?

Holden Willard: Yeah. Well, I personally don't think of color theory in the traditional sense of your secondaries, your tertiaries, your complementaries. Clearly that is an important factor, but personally for me, it's more of getting a sense of color. So for me, my color theory is intuitive, but for others, color theory is a very strict regimen of, I'm going to add three-fourths amount of cadmium red or something. But I'm not thinking about that when I'm going into color. I do do color studies, and I try and simplify and tweak my colors, but for me, color theory is intuitive. So it's kind of hard to say how I think about theory. It's not really about theory. It's about that intuitive sense of looking at that table right there that has that plant on it. I'm going to try and pick up some of the browns, the siennas, but I'm going to exaggerate it a little bit. That sense of color is intuitive for me. If someone else were to ask me the same question, I'd probably say the same. It's hard to gauge how I make these choices, but mainly it's based on my interest in other colorists and seeing what they're doing, mixed with my own intuition.

Lisa Belisle: So as I'm hearing you talk, I'm hearing a lot about the importance of the historical perspective and also theories and other artists' processes and the way that they approach their own art, and how you use that yourself, how you integrate it into your own work. So you're not necessarily strictly following somebody else's path, but you're saying, how do I bring this into my own pieces, and how do I experience this and do this work myself? So it sounds like even that is a bit of an ongoing search and experimentation.

Holden Willard: Yeah, for sure. I think a lot about art history, and I'm always trying to compare that obsession with art history with what's going on in the contemporary moment. So some of my favorite colorists, like Jennifer Packer, are using the figure as that vehicle, but I would say their work is also mainly about color. I definitely am always trying to search for new ways to be honest within my work, and over the past couple of years, it's been a lot about upping the color, upping the vibrancy, and trying to challenge myself a little bit more with that vibration aspect. A lot of that comes from setting these colors that are the same value, but maybe they're in a different hue, or maybe they're very close in hue. A good example that most people would probably know is when you look at a Rothko painting and you see these two colors that are very close in value and in hue. He said that the meaning of his paintings is in between the color passages. And I hope that some of that emphasis can be felt in my paintings, because there's many layers, and there's a history that belongs to every single one of them that I take away and I show.

Lisa Belisle: If I'm hearing you right, it's a little bit about not just what's there, but what's not there. It's the space in between. So when you're thinking about or intuiting the work that you're putting together, is there an element of subtraction that you're always working toward?

Holden Willard: Yeah, there's always a lot of that. The emphasis that I was taught in college was an additive and subtractive process. I'm putting paint on, I'm taking it off, I'm drawing through paint, I'm taking it off again, glazing, scumbling, sanding. It's a lot about a process of reevaluating every single choice you make. I want everything to be worked up to the same degree, the whole picture frame activated. There's a lot of artists who focus from part to part, and I was taught to stray away from that. The way to keep a work honest and alive is to be reacting to every single part simultaneously and see how everything reacts as a whole.

Lisa Belisle: So I'm interested, when you and I first sat down this morning, you had mentioned that initially you went into art education, and that wasn't the place that you were at, and what you were doing wasn't a good fit for you. But initially you did have an interest in doing art education. Is this something that has in any way carried through for you?

Holden Willard: Yeah, for sure. I've taught a couple of workshops. I've also helped some friends out and taught them impromptu drawing and painting courses. I feel like I could be a good teacher, and I'm actually hoping to teach at some point in my life. I only have my BFA right now. I got it in 2021. So I'm waiting to get my master's for a little while longer, probably until I'm a little bit more into my twenties. But at some point I plan on getting my master's, going back to school. I love school. I really enjoyed college, and higher education meant a lot to me as a painter. I felt like I got a lot out of it, and I'm just waiting until I feel like I hit an impasse and I need to go back to school and reevaluate. And then after that, hopefully I get to teach. We'll see.

Lisa Belisle: When you're working with people who have questions about art and are looking to get into it from the very beginning, what are some of the things that they bring forward as challenges or concerns or things that keep them from actually engaging in art in a higher level way?

Holden Willard: I'll put it through my perspective. When I was going into art school, I felt very cocky. I felt like I could draw, and my teacher was like, you can't draw. You're not looking, you're not seeing, you're not reacting to everything around what you're trying to portray. You're leaving things out. So whenever I approach drawing, the drawing emphasis that I'm teaching is the same that Tim taught me, which is the search. So I'm trying to teach people how to see, and that is a challenge, because you have to teach people how to see and then move their hand with their sight and make that connection real on the paper or the canvas or whatever. So I think the biggest problem that I run into teaching people is just getting their eyes off the paper and getting it on what they're looking at. A funny anecdote that Tim told me once was, you don't know anything, why are you looking at your paper? What you need to be looking at is what you need to be looking at. So that's the biggest thing that I try and emphasize with any kind of informal teaching that I might do.

Lisa Belisle: That's a really fascinating thing for me to think about. The idea that you're not necessarily teaching a craft in the beginning. You're actually helping people to perceive the world in a different way. And how do you do that? How do you help people to actually see something if they're not seeing it in a more in-depth way?

Holden Willard: I think if the student is struggling, it helps to bring out examples of the similar kind of thing that I'm trying to emphasize. So I have a lot of art books. I collect a lot of those, so I have a lot of those out. And if someone like a friend was struggling with it, I'd be like, hey, look at this guy. This guy was doing this, or this person was seeing it this way. I think seeing examples is always really good. Then people have a framework for understanding. So I will try and set up that framework if there's a little bit more trouble.

Lisa Belisle: So when you talk about the history of art in Maine and you referenced Marsden Hartley, for example, do you think there's something about Maine that caused so many artists to come here and to work here, spend time here, work with other artists here? Is it something specific to the state, or is there something else?

Holden Willard: For me personally, I think Maine is absolutely beautiful. There's a lovely arts community here that I found myself a part of and embraced by. I think the community is the really big thing, because the Maine arts community really sticks together and helps each other, supports one another. And I think that's really special, because I've gone not to many places, but the few places that I have been, competition always seems to be a huge thing, and that's not really the case in Maine. No one is trying to compete for social clout or art. It's not really a thing here. And I think a lot of people get that sense from Maine and want to come here. I think there's a lot of young people from New York City that are getting tired of working and living there and are looking for a respite and are coming to Maine. And I think to some degree that's a really good thing. I wish I could keep it a best hidden secret for me and all my friends, but Maine is just absolutely beautiful as well. And I think it's really special in terms of the fact that there is mostly wooded areas in this state. So it's very easy to isolate if you want to and really look inwards to yourself, but also outwards to the world. It's perfect for the work I make.

Lisa Belisle: So we've been talking about your work as an artist and somewhat about your work as someone who's educating other artists, but there's also a commercial element to art, and there's always a balance that artists who want to have this as a profession have to seek. So what does that look like for you, and how does the idea that your work will belong on somebody else's wall because they will buy it, hopefully at some point, how does that work in your situation?

Holden Willard: Well, it's tough, because I personally don't have any context for art within my family, other than my parents enjoying doing it casually sometimes. So it's been mainly a process of trial and error ever since I was 19. I've been showing in group shows, and you kind of just learn off the cuff and figure things out as you go along. And that is a little tough. Sometimes you screw up, you maybe don't make the right choice, but you've got to make a choice. But I would say the best advice is to just make artwork. A lot of people say, oh, you're so talented, and that's lovely, I appreciate it. But talent is time spent on a passion. So I'm spending the time, I'm putting in the effort, and like I said, just learning as I go. Mainly for the past four or five years I've been my own business with my art, and that can be tough.

I don't know anything about business, but I've been figuring it out. And mainly my biggest thing was running that business on Instagram and posting and being active and being in online communities. And that has really grown my reach quite a lot on Instagram, and it's gotten me opportunities. So I'd say the best advice is to work as much as you can without burning yourself out. And obviously being attentive to that, I have burned myself out, and it is a constant struggle, a balancing act. But I would say just working and posting if you can, and the opportunities will eventually come. I think for any kind of art, you just have to find that market.

Lisa Belisle: So one of the things that you've talked about is your teacher who came in and said, well, you don't really know how to draw. And my experience in talking with people who have gone through true art education is they have to be comfortable with critique, and they have to be comfortable with other people commenting on their work, which feels like it could be something that you have to learn over time, because being challenged as to something that's deeply personal is not, for everybody, an easy thing. So talk to me about that a little.

Holden Willard: Yeah, critique is clearly a really heavy thing. I remember being in school and some people just not taking it well at all and crying, and it's awful to see, but I think critique is the most important part of art. I'm going to be living in a home in Brunswick with a bunch of other artists, and we're all going to be hopefully critiquing each other and being critical of one another's artwork. I think it's the only way you can get better, and you need someone in your life who's going to tell you straight up how you're doing, and it's never from a place of malice or contempt. It's always from a place of understanding. When I do critiques especially, it's always from a place of understanding, just asking questions, and it's never a comment on the, well, sometimes it is a comment on the content, but it's mainly never right out of the gate a critique on content.

It's more of a critique on how the physical image or sculpture or whatever is working. And you always try and be educated with critique. I think the worst thing that you can do is get your own personal opinion wrapped up in critique when you're trying to be critical. I don't think it's a good idea to be super emotional about it, like, oh, I hate this, it makes me feel like that. It's more like, oh, well, I don't think this is working, and maybe this is what the issue is. Tell me how you're working through this problem. That's what I mean about coming from a point of understanding. So I think if you come at critique like that, you can't go wrong, and I think only constructive things can be garnered from that kind of conversation.

Lisa Belisle: It sounds like one of the reasons why it's important to actually have a community around you is that you build up enough trust so that you're trusting that person is coming from the right place when they are offering you that critique.

Holden Willard: For sure. Trust is a huge thing. And obviously in art school, that can be kind of weird. You don't know everyone in your class maybe, but I feel like it's pretty easy to just be a nice person and ask questions if you don't really know how to critique. And then eventually maybe something will come up and you can feel comfortable enough to push back a little bit or comment on a particular aspect that you maybe want more clarification on. Trust is a big thing for sure.

Lisa Belisle: So as you're talking about people who are feeling critique in a way that is personal to them, and maybe it's upsetting to them, are there things that you can do as a colleague of theirs or a friend of theirs to help them get to that place where they understand that the critique is really, you're looking for a certain outcome, you're not getting the outcome that you're looking for, so that's where we're going, as opposed to what you're doing is bad and you're a bad person and that's making you feel bad?

Holden Willard: Yeah, I think it goes back to just the whole asking questions aspect. I think people really enjoy being asked about their thought process, about how they're approaching their artwork, and I want to gain that context. I'll ask questions about what artists they're looking at. That helps me get a better idea of where their head's at, asking what artist are you referencing. Because all art isn't necessarily original. There is always a point of reference and a point of context. So getting that context is paramount when you're approaching a critique, especially with someone that you don't really know. I co-direct a gallery too, so I'm also a curator. So I am thinking about these questions a lot when I'm trying to select artists or artwork. I am looking for that context. So those are the questions that I ask a lot.

Lisa Belisle: You were selected to be part of the show at the CMCA earlier this year, and that's a museum up the coast here in Maine. That's very well known, actually, nationally, probably internationally, and it's a big deal. So having put yourself out there and made your work available for this show and for this selection, do you feel like this has had an impact over the past so many months since this happened, as to how seriously you're taking your own art, or were you already taking your art pretty seriously and this was just a nice step along the way?

Holden Willard: Yeah, I feel like it's kind of a running joke between artists that you work really hard and you apply to a bunch of different things and you don't get most of them. But somehow I got into the Biennial. I've been working really hard since college. I haven't really stopped painting longer than a month since I graduated in 2021. And in college I was working all the time too. So I just applied, and they happened to think my work would fit into the body of work that they were selecting for the Biennial, and it was truly a dream. I think I was born in Rockport, and then to show work a town over in a museum where I was born and where my family was originally from is really amazing. It was definitely a dream being there, and I loved working with the staff there and with Timothy Peterson, the director.

I had a great time. It's a lovely museum, and I love their approach to showing work. It's not for sale, it's just all about the art and it's all about the scene. They pick a lot of artists from Maine, and I think that's really truly awesome. They're a good institution for sure, and being in there definitely made me have a little bit of imposter syndrome, but in a good way. I just have never been in a museum. I've never had work in a museum before. So it was interesting seeing my work in that context. And sometimes I work very large, and I had a very big painting in that show, and seeing that in an actual museum was crazy. It looked small, and I was like, I can go bigger. So it definitely put a little bit of a fire under me, and I'm ready.

Lisa Belisle: That's good. I think what you're speaking to, this idea of curation, is really interesting, because you're showing up with your art as one single artist, but other people are taking it and they're putting it in context with other artists, and that's whether you're in a gallery and you're curating the gallery pieces, or that's if you're curating a museum show. So it feels like the idea that you could be put with another person's art that you might not have even thought about before, that feels really interesting to me. So tell me about that when you're doing it, when you're curating the pieces for the gallery you work for. What process do you go through to say, oh, this seems like it goes well here, or this works with this?

Holden Willard: Yeah, I think it's about finding connections within the work. When I'm curating paintings, I'm trying to look for color relationships, relationships of symbols and themes. When it comes to sculpture and painting, it is all essentially just about relations. How does this thing interact with this other thing? In my own personal art collection, which I have been building over the past five years, I'm always collecting work from peers and from people that I follow on Instagram. My taste in my own art is definitely a lot of figurative, but I'm looking for relationships in color and in form, and all of these kind of just happen naturally within your own collection. I think some people have specific ideas of like, oh, I only want to collect Maine art, or, oh, I only want to collect landscapes, and that's great. That's a great thing about art, that your taste, you can kind of be your own curator when you're looking at your own inventory of artwork. As a curator for shows, I'm always trying to think, with my team, of themes, jumping off points, buzzwords to help us think about what kind of art we want from our open calls and stuff.

For instance, because I'm always on Instagram, I'm always looking at other contemporaries and other peers, so I'm always saving things into little bookmarks and selections, and I'll keep it around. I'll be curating a show next year that is about the figure. And I've been writing a list over the past year, year and a half, of artists that I want to tap for that show, because a lot of them are out of state. So I want to be able to reach out and put the bug in their ear and be like, okay, I want your work. And some of them are here in America, some of them are over in Europe or in Asia. So I think it's all about the themes and the buzzwords to help you narrow your selections down, for sure.

Lisa Belisle: Well, I've learned a lot from you today, so I appreciate your coming in and being willing to educate an admitted non-artist on the work that you do. And I'm excited about the fact that you were in the Biennial at the CMCA, but also that you've continued to work hard and that you're gaining some success. So thank you for spending time with me today.

Holden Willard: Of course. Thank you so much for having me.

Lisa Belisle: I'm Dr. Lisa Belisle. You have been listening to or watching Radio Maine today with artist Holden Willard. I hope that you take the opportunity to look into his work more at the Portland Art Gallery, and I suspect that he's somebody that we're going to be hearing from quite a bit in the future. Thank you for joining us.

Holden Willard: Thanks.