Holly Roberts - Witness

Holly Roberts made a striking appearance in the photography world in the 1970's with hauntingly painted black and white photos. She found that the slick surface allowed her to more fluidly manipulate the paint, and scratch delineations into the wet surface. The images are layered symbolic ghosts, mostly stick-figure people in the beginning, then adding zoomorphic elements to the dreamlike hybrid forms. Around 2003, her work shifted to a collage approach on painted backgrounds, similar to the evolution of Analytical to Synthetic Cubism. These assembled creatures with cut-outs of Giotto heads, torsos made of nests and legs made of snakes are, as Robert Hirsch describes as a "blending of subjective and objective reality." "Functioning as a visual psychoanalyst, Roberts creates images that _evoke_ an interior state of consciousness and grapple with a subject beyond its external structure." Many of her portraits have the odd reconfigured faces reminiscent of a Hannah Höch collage. In recent years, the animal kingdom has played a more dominant role in Roberts' work. Like Mexican and Indigenous cultures of the American Southwest, animals act as vehicles to convey narrative and mythology. The newer works also address questions about humankind's effect on the land. She explores the place of animals in our imagination, connecting with the reality that "we are not just interconnected with animals, we are animals."