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EMILY DICKINSON'S GHOSTS
Laura Holland Nancy Meagher June 1 - July 1, 2023 Opening Reception Thursday, June 1, 5-8:00 pm Art Forum on Zoom: Thursday, June 15 at 7:30 pm (Click for video) |
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Image Gallery Video of Art Forum Laura Holland's Art Page Nancy Meagher's website |
EMILY DICKINSON'S GHOSTS
LAURA HOLLAND AND NANCY MEAGHER
Working separately on a shared theme, Laura Holland and Nancy Meagher turn to Emily Dickinson for inspiration, imagining the poet’s animated presence in their visual art. Accordion books and photographs by Laura join oil paintings and sculpture by Nancy to conjure oblique, ghostly glimpses of Emily Dickinson at her Amherst home and hearth.
The project began some five years ago, when Nancy witnessed the ghost of a small, distressed woman exit the steep granite steps in front of Austin Dickinson’s house and then bustle towards the Dickinson Homestead next door. Since then, Nancy has painted multiple versions of the two Dickinson Family houses in Amherst. Various angles, times of day, types of light, seasons, and weather conditions—through all these changes, the essential underlying structures remain consistent, as does Nancy’s approach to painting. Working with oil paints and palette knives, she builds up thick layers, then carves through them, only to build up another layer and another. Images emerge and disappear, and under the heavily textured surface of each finished canvas lies a painterly palimpsest.
To create a sculpture inspired by Emily Dickinson’s famous white dress, however, Nancy moved from the two-dimensional canvas to a three-dimensional form using paint, plus paper pulp, glue gels, and wire. “The idea of incorporating Emily’s wallpaper into the dress seemed like a perfect fit for the poet who spent hours in her wallpapered bedroom writing,” she explains. “It felt like the ‘flowers’ were her trusted companions.”
EMILY DICKINSON'S GHOSTS
LAURA HOLLAND AND NANCY MEAGHER
Working separately on a shared theme, Laura Holland and Nancy Meagher turn to Emily Dickinson for inspiration, imagining the poet’s animated presence in their visual art. Accordion books and photographs by Laura join oil paintings and sculpture by Nancy to conjure oblique, ghostly glimpses of Emily Dickinson at her Amherst home and hearth.
The project began some five years ago, when Nancy witnessed the ghost of a small, distressed woman exit the steep granite steps in front of Austin Dickinson’s house and then bustle towards the Dickinson Homestead next door. Since then, Nancy has painted multiple versions of the two Dickinson Family houses in Amherst. Various angles, times of day, types of light, seasons, and weather conditions—through all these changes, the essential underlying structures remain consistent, as does Nancy’s approach to painting. Working with oil paints and palette knives, she builds up thick layers, then carves through them, only to build up another layer and another. Images emerge and disappear, and under the heavily textured surface of each finished canvas lies a painterly palimpsest.
To create a sculpture inspired by Emily Dickinson’s famous white dress, however, Nancy moved from the two-dimensional canvas to a three-dimensional form using paint, plus paper pulp, glue gels, and wire. “The idea of incorporating Emily’s wallpaper into the dress seemed like a perfect fit for the poet who spent hours in her wallpapered bedroom writing,” she explains. “It felt like the ‘flowers’ were her trusted companions.”
Initially skeptical, Laura met her own “Dickinson ghosts” at the poet’s Birthday Open House, at the Emily Dickinson Museum in December 2022. “It felt like past and present were partying together, with the house interior restored to look the way it did when the Dickinson family lived there,” she said. She was intrigued by the colorful Brussels carpet in the parlor—and by stories about it. “Rumor claims that ladies of Amherst arrived early to events at Mrs. Dickinson’s parlor, just to glimpse the carpet,” Laura explained. “I could see them, in my mind’s eye, sweeping aside their long, dark skirts to peek at the color under their feet.” In other rooms in The Homestead, other spirits also made their presence felt. Laura decided to write very short stories—100 words each—about these spectral moments and then combine the text with photographs to create a suite of hand-bound accordion books.
“Our ghosts don’t jump out of the woodwork to say ‘Boo’,” Laura noted. “We are trying, with visual art, to show how our personal impressions of Emily’s presence reach out from her times into ours.”
Art Forum Online
In an Art Forum Online on Thursday, June 15 at 7:30 pm, Laura and Nancy will discuss their work, and welcome questions, comments, and ghost stories from the audience. See the gallery website www.gallerya3.com to register for this online event, which is free and open to the public. This Art in Community outreach program is supported in part by grants from the Amherst Cultural Council, Pelham Cultural Council, and Springfield Cultural Council, all local agencies, which are supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency.
“Our ghosts don’t jump out of the woodwork to say ‘Boo’,” Laura noted. “We are trying, with visual art, to show how our personal impressions of Emily’s presence reach out from her times into ours.”
Art Forum Online
In an Art Forum Online on Thursday, June 15 at 7:30 pm, Laura and Nancy will discuss their work, and welcome questions, comments, and ghost stories from the audience. See the gallery website www.gallerya3.com to register for this online event, which is free and open to the public. This Art in Community outreach program is supported in part by grants from the Amherst Cultural Council, Pelham Cultural Council, and Springfield Cultural Council, all local agencies, which are supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency.
