Artist Feature | Amie Hollmann

Who are the artists that have had the most influence on your development as an artist and designer?

Creativity, curiosity, experimentation, exuberance, generosity, and joy are aspects of the life and work of Corita Kent that I want to embody. She was an artist, designer, educator, advocate, and Catholic nun. Her thought-provoking “Rules for Students and Teachers” is something I come back to again and again as I explore what it means to live a creative life of purpose. She described her own work, “You can be led either by the end or the process. You have a kind of trust in the process so that almost anything you do will have possibilities.” I try to look for potential in unlikely places. The accidental or discarded. Corita celebrates the strength and beauty in the imperfect and mundane which is a hopeful starting point for a life of grace.

I also grew up in a family of makers that had a strong influence. My mother would take an impossibly insignificant speck of a seed and turn it into a colorful universe of vibrant vegetables, fruits and flowers. She made clothes and costumes and cooked pies from scratch with cherries picked from a tree in our yard. As an educator, and librarian she introduced children to new worlds. She is gifted at turning an invisible idea into a visible gift. My father studied architecture and mechanical engineering and I grew up watching him work at a drafting table. Blank sheets of paper became intricate geometric worlds. He raised horses and turned gangly colts into riding companions. As a woodworker and educator, he fashions trees into treasured furniture and helps others do the same. He is gifted at turning an invisible idea into a visible gift. Even though I share virtually none of their specific talents, I got to see behind the scenes, the work and wonder of creativity. The step by step. The figuring it out along the way. I learned to trust and love the process. So, I always appreciate when a bit of the “how” shines through and you get to peek behind the curtain of an artist’s imagination.

I’ve noticed as you post pieces, you’ll often pair them with a quote from another artist. It reminds me, in some sense, of songwriting where you have lyrics and music. In your case, which comes first, the lyrics or the music? Does the quote inspire what you create or is the quote illuminated by your art?

I’ve always loved words and they are integral to my work. I had a hard time deciding between art and writing as a major in college. I landed on Communications because I thought it would be a good blend. From that perspective, I see the river of language under the surface of all expression. In a typography class in college, the professor made a pronouncement that after going through the class, he never wanted us to be able to see words the same way again, and I never have. He always wanted us to notice the details and how they translate to meaning. Much of my practice is about paying attention. And language is the best gift for exploring meaning and form. One of my loves is taking a text and finding its form in images. Distilling and rearranging the words. But often an image will bring a context to mind and the words will follow. I like the multiple meanings that pairing a photograph or image with words can bring. Shifting a statement toward a question creates an openness that goes beyond the original intent. How can a conversation bring something new to light? How can the words we are surrounded with help us to look at the world in new ways?

I also like thinking of my work and the work of others as part of a larger dialogue, a conversation that never really ends. How many voices can speak at the same time? How many interpretations and new ways of thinking or seeing can a work inspire?

Tell us about where you draw your inspiration from.

Travel, in all forms, has been one of my biggest sources of inspiration. Whether it’s a trip around the block or a trip around the world, it offers a perspective shift. The color pallet of a circus in South India. Unexpected latte art. Packaging in languages I don’t speak. Graffiti. I look at inspiration as anything that moves me toward a thought, feeling, or action that I can incorporate in my practice or work. Taking photographs also forces a different interaction with my surroundings that can have a profound impact. I see more when I have the intention of seeking, of finding. My memory creates collages of experience connected by the senses. Sounds and textures. The smell of sawdust at a horse auction. The fragmented mirrors at an amusement park ride. Days begin blank as paper. Every one ends with at least a scribble of something that I can come back to.

Tell us about some of your favorite mediums to create in.

Ever since spending hours in the enveloping red light of a dark room, I’ve loved photography. I love how what you see before you can be captured and transformed in endless ways. Collage, both digital and physical expands that potential. As a book lover, it may seem sacrilegious, but I keep a stash of old books and magazines to cut up and paint on. I love to craft found poetry from packaging translations and furniture assembly instructions. I play with my food. I’ve been known to leave messages on bananas. Everything is material to be explored.

Describe your creative process for us.

My process is one of collection and creation. Every day is a scavenger hunt. I look for words, emotions, images, fragments, something surprising, something overlooked. Bits and bobs. Flotsam and jetsam. I don’t always go about it in the same order, but I try to make sure each day has a mix of input and output. Hunting and gathering through reading or watching or visiting a new space or listening to a conversation or a walk in nature, which in the city can be hard to find. Output can take many forms and I try not to get too prescriptive of the shape. I also find ways to include time and room for reconfiguring ideas. My favorite is in motion, whether it’s on the subway or in the car or out for a walk. A time when ideas can float free and recombine. I used to limit myself with the idea of a perfect formula of what was needed to create that I could never seem to summon. The prerequisite list kept growing. I struggled with “If only” scenarios and scanned the social media horizons seeing friends and strangers living their “best life” versions of creativity with seeming ease. But after exploring the lives of 161 famous creatives in a data visualization project of the book Daily Rituals: How Artist’s Work by Mason Currey, I realized we all have the same 24 hours a day to create but there is no one way that works for everyone. So instead of waiting for the Instagramable or uninterrupted moment, I take the pieces already here and try to find the grace and the gift in them. I now recognize that working within constraints is good for creativity. But without gratitude, constraints just become complaints. Part of my creative process is reorienting toward thankfulness and empathy.

What are you currently working on?

I’ve been teaching classes on design and creativity to college students and as part of an exercise, I ask each student to describe themselves in 5 words. I’m working on creating a data visualization from their responses that explores identity. Their creativity inspires me and reminds me of why I do the work I do. I love expressing my own creativity, but more than anything, I want to help find ways for others to do the creative work they love. Encouraging and empowering more people to create is ultimately what brings me joy.

You can find out more about Amie and follow her work on Instagram, twitter, and on her website.