Artwork copyright Catherine Holahan. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Endings and Beginnings, 1999

Catherine Holahan
(American, born 1939, died 2005)

Location: Harbor Ridge Middle School, Gig Harbor

ABOUT THE ARTWORK

Endings and Beginnings is a photograph by artist Catherine Holahan. She captured the image on Wallace Island, a very small island among the Gulf Islands in southern British Columbia, Canada. Describing this remote location, she notes, "At one time it was home to a children's camp and later a small summer resort. Now it is a Marine Provincial Park. During its recent habitation, it had an orchard and there was some farming. I visited Wallace to photograph the old, rusty farm equipment." Holahan's photography explores the beauty in the textures, patterns, and colours of objects enhanced by age.

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

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Photographer and painter Catherine Holahan (1939-2005) created compositions that explored the passage of time and the beauty found in transformation. In her own words, "What interests me about the the objects I collect, photograph, and paint, is the effect of the passage of time; the ravages of man, nature, and the elements; the worn and worn out, and the beauty found in this transformation from the useful to the neglected."

Holahan lived in Boston, Massachusetts, and Galiano Island, British Columbia, Canada. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English LIterature from Columbia University in New York City. Twenty-five years later, she studied photography at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts and the New England School of Photography. She focused on photography since 1988 as a photojournalist and art photographer.