Holly Dean WHAT Calligraphic Artist WHERE - Merrickville, 269-3714, www.hollydean.ca, greyweather@igs.net - Keffer Gallery, 128 Queen St., Almonte, 256-2676 - Bittersweet Gallery, Burnstown, 433-9990 - Brewed Awakenings Café, 205 St. Lawrence St., Merrickville, 269-4646 - Cocoon, 2946 Donnelly Drive, Kemptville, 258-6947 SHOWS - Philip K. Wood Gallery, May 31-June 18, 8 Mill St., Almonte, 256-6133 - Fantasy in the Forest, July 19-20, Perth Road Village - Women's Art Festival, Aug., Kingston - Merrickville Artists' Guild Studio Tour & Sale, Sept. 27-28, Oct. 4-5 WHY "I love it - even if I didn't have to earn a living this is what I would want to do."

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Dean's Honour
by Sally Hansen

Holly Dean's determination to live her dream of doing what she loves netted her top honours at a recent art exhibition/silent auction conceived and hosted by Art Nuvo at 126 Mill St. in Almonte.

Three area judges chose her artistic interpretation of the month of February to receive the "Award of Excellence" from among a field of 15 pieces contributed by local artists. Norman Takeuchi of Ashton walked off with a well-deserved Award of Merit, and as of press time, we don't yet have the results of the voting for the People's Choice Award. The event was a great opportunity for show-goers and artists alike to rub elbows and experience first-hand the wealth of talent residing in the area. And the generous hosts and their invited artists are donating part of the proceeds from the Silent Auction to the Breast Cancer Society of Canada.

Artistic Archaeology

Holly Dean's prize-winning piece, entitled "Feabhra" - the Celtic word for February, is an excellent example of the many elements this Merrickville calligraphic artist fuses into "marriages of art and word". Challenged by the theme of the show to create an artistic representation of the month of February, she embarked on a "metaphorical dig". Pursuing her fascination with the past, she discovered related themes across Celtic and Roman calendars of February celebrations of awakening, renewal, purification and love. "Feabhra" presents the artefacts unearthed during her quest.

Appropriately, Holly created the piece using a technique known as encaustic painting, or painting with pigments dispersed in molten wax, that was particularly popular in ancient Greece. The molten paint is applied while hot with a brush, and fixed by passing a heat source over the surface to fuse and permanently bond the wax. She built the "Feabhra" collage in successive layers and then scraped through the layers to reveal her calligraphic allusions to ancient festivals.

As the Award attests, the resulting piece is excellent - a rich, complex, and beautiful artistic interpretation of the hidden promise of February, especially welcome in our harsh climate. It is also extremely tactile and durable, and Holly likes people to be able to touch her work.

Inspired by February's life-affirming themes, she is now creating a series of paintings based on the months of various ancient calendars. In recognition of her success at Art Nuvo, these new works will form the basis of her show May 31 to June 18 at the Philip K. Wood Gallery in Almonte.

The Past Informs the Present

"I don't do paintings of things", Holly explained by way of introduction to her home studio in Merrickville. Her passion is for mood, colour, texture - and for living your dream. Brought up in a creative environment, she describes her childhood as "magical" - doing craft projects on weekends with her mother, and indulging her love for horses in the countryside north of Oshawa.

At sixteen she embarked on a 21-year career in the printing industry that eventually led to her move to Merrickville in 1988 to manage the pre-press department at Performance Printing in Smiths Falls.

Always fascinated with the shapes of letters, Holly began to pursue her interests in calligraphy and graphic design more seriously, designing business cards and letterheads at the request of friends and colleagues. Over the years she began combining calligraphy with fine art to create her "paintings with words". Eventually her desire to live by her own rules, reinforced by the stress of always working against tight deadlines, culminated in her decision to live her dream. Joining the Merrickville Artists' Guild was another catalyst for doing what she loves most on a fulltime basis.

The past is a major influence in Holly's work, with British poet Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809-1892) and artist and designer William Morris as primary influences. Like Morris, she too is passionate about the Middle Ages and draws from the imagery of the words of the Romantic poets. Her art envelops evocative words in a rich tapestry of colour, texture and layers of mystery to make connections between the past and present.

The Present Informs the Past

In the kind of creative twist you might expect from an artist who likes to make connections, Holly created a new artistic form from the historical remnants of current visual and performing arts. The resourceful artist first invented "Faerie Rounds" to offer her customers inexpensive but charming glass ornaments filled with scraps of calligraphy and colourful papers left over from her paintings and graphic designs. Legend has it that they also attract magical faeries to your home (follow the link at http://www.hollydean.ca/ to ephemera to learn more).

Even Holly did not anticipate the next connection that turned a team of 16 Merrickville women into the creators of 10,000 Relic Costume Balls for Cirque de Soleil last year. When a fellow artisan joined the Cirque's merchandising group, she contacted Holly to suggest a new version of the Faerie Rounds. Using remnants of the Cirque's trade mark costumes, character photographs from discarded programmes and calligraphic quotes, a new souvenir was born!

The Students Inform the Instructor

Last year Holly enjoyed being the first "Artist in Residence" for the Faculty of Education at Queen's University in Kingston. She created a four-week programme of workshops for teachers in training. "It was a wonderful experience", she laughed. "They had no preconceptions so they would try anything and I learned a lot!" She currently offers a one-day creative workshop titled "Dream Vessels" at Cocoon (www.cocoonroom.com) near Kemptville.

There are many opportunities to inform yourself about Holly's art. I'd suggest taking a look at her works on display at the different venues listed above; be sure to catch her show at the Philip K. Wood Gallery at the end of May; and explore her website at www.hollydean.ca. She would love to hear from you at 269-3714 to discuss how she could transform some words that have special meaning for you into a treasured calligraphic painting.