Artwork copyright Robin Holder. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Into the Tombs, 1989

Robin Holder
(American, born 1952)

Location: Garfield Elementary School, Olympia

ABOUT THE ARTWORK

Into the Tombs is a print by artist Robin Holder that explores multicultural symbols as expressions of "wisdom, strength, tolerance, balance, and spiritual growth." Combining layered colors, abstracted forms, and silhouettes of ritualistic icons, this piece creates a visual statement about collective memory and self-identity.

This artwork was acquired for the State Art Collection in partnership with Olympia School District.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

New Jersey-based artist Robin Holder creates prints, paintings, and site-specific artworks. Her art expresses her experiences as a woman and her multicultural heritage. In her own words, "My work is motivated by my multi-cultural background in which layers upon layers of various racial, economic, cultural and spiritual worlds exist within one family... I am developing a visual language of archetypal symbols from Africa, Native North and South America, and Pharaonic Egypt. I use the spears, shields, vessels, masks, magical wands, birds, pyramids, and temples as symbols of rituals and tools used in the battle for wisdom, strength, tolerance, balance and spiritual growth."

About Holder's process: "I use combinations of photo­silkscreen, color viscosity collagraph, plexiglass, and linoleum. The images are created by cutting out stencils which form the shapes of the Warrior Women, animals, leaves, etc. The stencils are surface-rolled with inks and placed on sheets of inked or painted plexiglass. The plates are then printed on paper using a press... The approach I use is like a collage and my ideas continue to reveal themselves from print to print, like a story, because my stencil shapes are a language that I'm constantly expanding."