Holly Laws has shown her art in exhibits all across Arkansas and the nation, but she has never been in an international exhibit … until now.
Laws, 54, of Mayflower, an associate professor of art at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway, has been selected as the Arkansas representative to the international exhibit Heavy Metal:
Women to Watch 2018 at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C.
“This is a first for me,” Laws said, smiling. “I thought it was a national show, but there are women in it from all over the world — Chile, France, Italy, Peru, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom — as well as from several states.
“I was really thrilled … absolutely thrilled … to learn my work had been selected for this show,” she said. “I was not expecting that.”
Virginia Treanor, the museum’s associate curator and curator for the competitive exhibit, selected two of Laws’ mixed-media artworks — Placeholder and Three Eastern Bluebirds. The exhibit will be on view at the national museum June 28 through Sept. 16.
Laws’ participation in the exhibit is sponsored by the Arkansas Committee of the National Museum of Women in the Arts. Guest curator Matthew Smith of Little Rock submitted Laws’ work for consideration.
“I was on sabbatical in the fall of 2016, creating art for a solo show at the Baum Gallery of Art at UCA that opened in January 2017,” Laws said. “Matthew Smith chose three pieces from that show for the state show (the ACNMWA Arkansas Women to Watch 2019: Heavy Metal exhibit that will premiere in 2019 in the Windgate Art and Design Gallery at the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith).
“He then submitted my work to the National Museum for Women in the Arts, and the curator chose the two pieces for the international show that will open in June,” Laws said.
“I originally was interested in Holly’s work because of her more nontraditional approach to the medium,” said Smith, who is a member of the exhibit staff at the Arkansas Arts Center in Little Rock.
“When one hears of metal work, the mental image of a blacksmith working over heat and anvils or a worker in the forge, pouring molten metal for large-scale industrial applications, often comes to mind. Holly was able to create such small, delicate items,” he said.
“Her work shows this comparison of ideas with her seemingly soft, natural items held in by the hard, industrial metals,” Smith said. “I was searching for works that were less traditional and fully unique. Holly accomplished both.
“This was a fun experience, and I hope the show turns out to be a big hit.”
Barbara Satterfield of Conway, national exhibit liaison for the ACNMWA, said the Arkansas Committee “is the only national museum affiliate that sponsors a tour of work by state artists based on the national theme.”
The Arkansas exhibit, Arkansas Women to Watch 2019: Heavy Metal, will feature works by Laws, as well as Michele Fox, Amanda Heibockel and Robyn Horn, all of Little Rock. The show will premiere Jan. 5, 2019, at U of A-Fort Smith and travel to eight venues across the state under the direction of Jaquita Ball of Bentonville, ACNMWA state-tour project manager.
Additional tour dates and places include Feb. 9 through March 9 at Arkansas Tech University in Russellville; March 16 through April 13
at the Arkadelphia Arts Center in Arkadelphia; April 20 through June 22 at the Art and Science Center for Southeast Arkansas in Pine Bluff; June 29 through July 27 at the Arts Center of the Ozarks in Springdale; Aug. 3-31 at Art Ventures in Fayetteville; Sept. 7 through Oct. 5 at the Stephens Fine Art Gallery at University of the Ozarks in Clarksville; and Oct. 12 through Nov. 9 at the William F. Laman Public Library in North Little Rock. The Nov. 16 through Dec. 14 slot venue has not been determined.
Laws said her sculptures chosen for the upcoming exhibit “were created in response to a deep sadness over the divisive state of affairs in our country’s current political and social landscape.
“I wanted to explore the horrible disconnect between the citizens of this nation — the miscommunication and the polarization. The resurgence of overt misogyny and the backlash against feminism were of particular interest to me.”
Laws said there is “no hierarchy” in her choice of materials or techniques.
“I use what works best for the subject or idea,” she said. “I am constantly researching and experimenting with new ways and means of making. I use an ever-changing lineup of materials and methods, some odd or antiquated, others decidedly non-fine-art and borrowed from different domains.”
Laws said Placeholder “utilizes the centuries-old technique of bronze casting, a material and method that alludes to a time when men and metal dominated sculpture.
“The delicate and repetitive work necessary to fabricate 144 embossed copper feathers in Three Eastern Bluebirds is suggestive of the time-intensive processes historically associated with women’s work,” she said.
Born in Savannah, Georgia, Laws grew up in Jacksonville, Florida.
“I am a Southern girl,” she said, laughing. “I was born in Savannah, but we moved to Florida when I was about 3 1/2.
“I lost my Southern accent,” she said. “All my little playmates had lived in the North before they moved to Florida, so I talked like them.”
Laws graduated from Terry Parker High School in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1982. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Virginia Commonwealth University in 1985, where she studied sculpture and graduated magna cum laude. She received a Master of Fine Arts degree in sculpture from the Tyler School of Art at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1987.
Laws’ first job was with the Bread and Puppet Theater in Glover, Vermont.
“I did everything. I made puppets and performed onstage, although whenever I was onstage, I was usually wearing a giant puppet mask, so I was never onstage as myself,” she said.
“We did all original works. We traveled all over the world — the Dublin Theater Festival in Ireland and places like East Germany, Poland and Czechoslovakia, all before the fall of communism,” she said. “It was pretty amazing. We did a lot of social and political works.
“After [about two years], I continued in puppet theater. Knowing how to make puppets and props has come in very handy in terms of building things for my work now.”
Laws worked for several years for Theodora Skipitares in New York City.
“We made original theater that always involved puppets,” she said. “Most of the work was Off-Off-Broadway. I worked for her, on and off, for about 10 years.
“I lived in New York City for a small amount of time,” Laws said. “I loved it, but I just could not make ends meet. I moved to Providence, Rhode Island.”
While in Rhode Island, Laws was an adjunct faculty member in sculpture and drawing at Roger Williams University in Bristol, and in drawing and design in the pre-college program at the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence.
She has also worked in set dressing, custom fabrication and custom prop design for several motion pictures, include Underdog, Walt Disney
Pictures, in 2006; The Crucible, 20th Century Fox, in 1995; and The Last of the Mohicans, 20th Century Fox, in 1992.
“Ever since all of this started, my artwork has had a lot of theatrical components,” she said. “I am very particular about lighting. Sometimes I keep the room very dark with just spotlights. Sometimes I use sound design as a component of my art.
“But the works in the Women to Watch exhibit have no sound,” she said, laughing. “The pieces in the show are really large.”
Laws created Placeholder with cast bronze, a found ironing board and a plywood pedestal; the work’s overall measurements are 39.5 by 54 by 26 inches.
Three Eastern Bluebirds is made of steel, copper, mahogany, a found ironing board and a plywood pedestal, measuring 50.5 by 60 by 28 inches.
Laws lived and worked in Providence for 17 years. She moved to Mayflower in 2008.
“Talk about culture shock,” she said, laughing. “That’s what we call a women’s collective I belong to — Culture Shock, which we used to call The Show and Tell Art Collective. We are all from big-city areas and moved to smaller communities; we all experienced culture shock.
“I came here for this job at UCA,” she said. “I go up for full professorship in two years. I am very happy here. I plan to stay here until I retire.”
She teaches 3-D design, which is a freshman class.
“It’s a basic class that nobody wants to take, but they have to because it’s part of the degree program,” she said. “The best compliment I can get is when a student tells me, ‘When I signed up for the course, I thought I would hate it, but I actually liked it.’
“When I hear that, I feel like I’ve done my job. Students are not really exposed to 3-D in elementary and, sometimes, even high school. They might know how to draw but don’t know anything about 3-D.”
Jeff Long, professor of art and chairman of the UCA Art Department said, “Holly Laws makes thought-provoking work, often using unusual materials.
“The inclusion of her work in Heavy Metal: Women to Watch in 2018 at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C., demonstrates the caliber of artists living and teaching here in central Arkansas. She was the sole Arkansas artist selected for the exhibit out of 20 artists from around the world, including artists from France, Spain, Chile, New York and California. Holly serves as an example to all our art students, and the department is excited that she is exhibiting her work at the museum.”
As Laws waits for the Women to Watch exhibits to open, she is making plans for another exhibit as well. She will be part of a two-person show in May at the Historic Arkansas Museum in Little Rock. She will exhibit with Anais Dasse, a native of Bayonne, France, now living in Little Rock.
More information on the Arkansas Committee of the National Museum of Women in the Arts is available at www.acnmwa.org. More information on the National Museum of Women in the Arts may be found at www.nmwa.org.