Holly Berry
Linocuts and woodcuts
About
Holly Berry grew up in Kennebunk, Maine, and received a BFA in Illustration from the Rhode Island School of Design where she also studied printmaking and photography. Before moving back to Maine, she did graduate work toward an MFA in Studio Teaching at Boston University. She now lives in Waldoboro.
Holly is known both for her award winning illustrations and her passion for relief printing. She focuses primarily on wildlife and natural settings, creating dynamic, bold prints that engage the viewer immediately with their rich colors and imaginative play of patterns. As she puts it:
“Making prints appeals to my love of creating things with my hands and my appreciation for craftsmanship. I immediately fell in love with the printmaking process as a way to create an image and continue to explore and experiment with technique and imagery.
“My favorite part of the process is cutting my designs from the block. Starting with outlines of the basic shapes, the journey of choices begins. To cut or not to cut! Having to simultaneously consider, analyze and address the negative and positive aspects of a design requires a deliberate and direct focus that I find meditative. Narrative and decorative stylized images appeal to me. I am attracted to the variety of lines, shapes, patterns and textures found in my immediate environment as well as those in primitive and folk art, created by others also inspired by the natural world. Birds, animals, fish, insects, plants and the planets all offer points of departure to interpret and integrate into my compositions. I find linoleum block printing the perfect medium to express and celebrate the graphic elements of the beautiful world in which we live.”
