ABOUT THE ARTIST
I am Tammy Holland...
I was born in Fairbanks, Alaska and grew up alternating between Fairbanks and fish camp on the Yukon River near Rampart City. My family led a subsistence lifestyle hunting, fishing, and gathering in the summers while creating a legacy of breeding, training, and professionally competing in both sprint and distance dog mushing in winters. I managed to avoid the dog fever growing up by escaping into my imagination and spending endless hours drawing, sketching, and painting.
When I was sixteen I went to live with my father in Palm Springs, California, where I had the privilege of studying under two exceptional instructors who encouraged me to enter in local art competitions. I graduated high school with several scholarships, an acceptance letter to the Colorado Art Institute, and every intention of immersing myself in the art world when I got sidetracked with the grandest adventure of raising my family of two boys for the better part of twenty years.
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When my family required less of my time and attention I found my way back to my passion for art as I began to spend all of my free time painting acrylic landscapes, flowers, and Alaskan animals. As I got reacquainted with my brushes I began to acquire an excessive amount of canvases until my mother recommended taking them to local galleries; where a local gallery owner recommended taking a drawing class at UAF. Never being one to go small measures, I graduated in 2014 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree.
I am passionate about my work in sculpture and painting, both of which have become an avenue to revisit, appreciate, and celebrate my roots in an Athebaskan/Yupik family that honors the traditions of native culture and a simple subsistence lifestyle. My art is a reflection of my childhood, celebrating nature and the strong matriarchal bonds that shaped my character.
I play with a bold color pallet and perspectives, often blowing up the subject to larger than life. Bright happy imagery makes the body of my work.
