Holly Cahill

Region: Midwest

Process, the way work is created, is crucial to my paintings, which operate in the way a puzzle is solved. Through a process-oriented methodology I arrive at a very specific quality. By solving these unpremeditated puzzles, I create form.

I draw inspiration from the spaces we inhabit within our shared environment. Rather than referencing any one place, the visual seams and illuminated marks in my work point to patterns drawn from architecture and building construction. One architectural form I return to often is the portal. I am fascinated by the idea of a portal as defined—in science fiction as well as architecture—as a device that enables the body’s passage from one space to another. The marrying of the concept of a threshold that can bend rules of time and space with its more mundane counterpart in physical reality creates a space where we can consider the possibilities of things beyond our comprehension that relate to what is in front of our eyes.