Hollis Hildebrand-Mills

STATEMENT

Throughout my professional career, since I have been making fine art, collage has attracted me because of its ability to give the process of creating the art and the process of viewing the art a similar experience. I guess I am like the abstract expressionists in that way. Ripping a piece of torn paper and placing it over a line drawn, creates a lift in the picture plane. As I place the paper there when I make the collage, others can view it the same way. It’s physical.
 
Even when I paint, I chop off sides of heads and butt them up against something else cut on the same angle. Painting requires more planning, but I still enjoy the cut and paste quality that painting-as-collage brings. The surprise, the shock, the placement cannot look planned.
 
I feel very lucky, in that I don’t get stuck very often. Or at a loss of what to do next. I was in advertising for a while before I began my career in fine art. A lot of my imagery is taken from the direct symbols in advertising. And the format of the wide-screened TV has woven its way into my work, too, several times. I think this has a subliminal effect on people. People are always staring at their screens. Looking at my art becomes friendly to them even if I have painted an explosion. 
 
By using the trademark Divine Imagery Is Everywhere ™, I subscribe to a belief that ideas flow through me. I don’t claim them as something personal to me after they are executed as “mine”. My startling imagery channeled through me must mean that ideas are accessible and are not that far away.
 
 Hollis Hildebrand-Mills
hhildebrandmills@aol.com
www.hollishildebrand-mills.com