LIGHT IN NURTURE
For this collection of abstract images, Gray photographed the daily waste material from medically fragile children. “The context of this imagery was developed while considering the role of emotional labor for women,” she says.
LIGHT IN NURTURE
For this collection of abstract images, Gray photographed the daily waste material from medically fragile children. “The context of this imagery was developed while considering the role of emotional labor for women,” she says.
LIGHT IN NURTURE
For this collection of abstract images, Gray photographed the daily waste material from medically fragile children. “The context of this imagery was developed while considering the role of emotional labor for women,” she says.
52 WEEKS
A sculptural installation, 52 Weeks was created as a memorial to a year of Gray’s personal experience as a female caregiver. The 52 organic forms are each made from one week’s worth of detritus that come from the care of the artist’s disabled daughter.
52 WEEKS
A sculptural installation, 52 Weeks was created as a memorial to a year of Gray’s personal experience as a female caregiver. The 52 organic forms are each made from one week’s worth of detritus that come from the care of the artist’s disabled daughter.
PreviousNextFor any artist, the act of creation is intensely personal—it’s the process of making personal experiences and perspectives tangible. For Holly D. Gray (’06 BFA, Photography; ’19 MFA, Intermedia Studies), that act took on a new meaning when she became the mother of a medically fragile child.
“The repetitive acts of labor and fragile time spent as a female caregiver have become a large part of my thought process,” she says. “My role as a woman and the gendered assumptions that culminate with this identity are a constant influence on my artistic work.”
After being away from formal education for over a decade, Gray found at UTA supportive faculty and a community of artists and creators that helped her kick-start a consistent artistic practice devoted to research and dedicated studio production. She had her first solo exhibition in 2018 and has been pleased with the direction and importance of her work since.
“I am very encouraged to inform and educate viewers on the objects, processes, and themes within my art practice,” Gray says. “I am proud of these interactions because they ultimately lead to important conversations about women’s issues, disabilities, health care access, and basic human rights.”
