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October 28, 2002
Book and exhibition celebrate UCSC art history
professor Mary Holmes
By Ann Gibb
The ideas and artwork of Mary Holmes, a founding member of the UCSC
faculty who died earlier this year, are being celebrated in a new book
and an exhibition of her art.
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| The book includes extensive interviews with Mary
Holmes and essays about her artwork. |
Mary Holmes: Paintings and Ideas (Very Press, 2002) by Addi
Somekh and Charlie Eckert, includes extensive interviews with Holmes,
essays about her artwork, and color photographs of her paintings, assemblages,
and home in Santa Cruz County. An exhibition of paintings and artifacts
by Holmes will be on view at the Porter College Faculty Gallery from
November 13 through December 14.
"Mary had an amazing gift for making people aware of the relationship
between our physical and our spiritual lives--the joys, pains, and paradoxes
of how they come together. Whether through her paintings of faith, hope,
and self-discipline, or when she spoke of the way art affects people
in their need to lead meaningful lives, she always came back to that
point. Anyone who saw her speak walked away with clarity and energy,"
said Somekh, a 1994 graduate of UCSC who conducted 80 hours of interviews
with Holmes for the book.
The wide array of Holmes's artwork, as well as parts of her 100-year-old
ranch in rural Santa Cruz County, were photographed by coauthor Eckert.
One chapter is devoted to images of the Chapel of the Holy Spirit, which
Holmes had built as both a spiritual space and a place for her artwork,
"a place that my pictures are at home in" is how she described
the chapel to Somekh in an interview.
All the paintings and artifacts in the exhibition of her work, which
is also called Mary Holmes: Paintings and Ideas, are on loan
from Holmes's private collection.
There is an opening reception on November 13 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.,
with gallery talks by Holmes's son Michael O'Malley and UCSC professor
of theater arts James Bierman at 6 p.m. For more information on the
exhibition, see arts.ucsc.edu/sesnon
or call 831/459-3606.
More information on the book is available at maryholmesbook.com.
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