Studio Visit with Tammy Lou Holler

Originally recorded June 3, 2022.

George Irwin of Western Gallery visits with Tammy Lou Holler for a wide-ranging conversation about the artist’s work, process, and studio practice.

Transcript note: Speaker labels were assigned from the source audio where available and dialogue context otherwise. Paragraph breaks were added for readability, and verbal filler was lightly edited. Joint labels mark rapid or overlapping exchanges. This was prepared from an automated transcription, so minor transcription errors may remain.

Instagram Live studio visit—June 3, 2022

Watch the original video on Instagram (23:20)

Participants: George Irwin and Tammy Lou Holler

George Irwin: Hello out there. George Irwin here with Western Gallery and it's time for another studio visit. Today is going to be our first studio visit with one of the participants of New Western Talent, and we talked to her for a minute the other day at the opening. Tammy Lou Holler is going be chatting with us and showing us around today, and she She is a really remarkable graphite and charcoal artist, and her work is on the hyper-realistic side of things. And so I'm excited to talk to her and see a little bit about how she works and where she works, and everything else. Let's see if I can find her here. She may need to still be getting on here. Let's see. She may still be logging on with me. See if I can find her. Anyway, um, her... If you have not seen her work she's got, uh, I guess three pieces as do all the other participants in this show.

George Irwin: They're three pieces a small body of work at the New Western Talent Show and it's It's not a talent show, but I guess it kind of is talent exhibition. We could have the New Western Talent Show another time and that can be really interesting. Anyway, they are... Well thank you Elizabeth. Yeah this is my new hat I got a few weeks ago in Taos complete with a Mesa Sunrise Stars and a UFO. So very, very New Mexico there. Thank you, Howler Brothers. Anyway, let's see if I can find Tammy. Is she back? Here she is. Cool. Unable to join. Let's try it again. It'll work. She got on here the other night. I don't remember what I was saying. That's okay though. Oh yeah, so she has a large like Angus drawing and a horse, a single kind of horse profile drawing and then three horse profiles all together in one piece. Hey! How's it going?

Tammy Lou Holler: Good to see you.

George Irwin: Good how are you? Good. Are you in your studio space, I presume?

Tammy Lou Holler: I am. I'm in my studio right now and I just have to say we did have a New Western Talent show.

George Irwin / Tammy Lou Holler: I'm not sure what I would do for that one.

George Irwin: I know. I'm like, hmm.

Tammy Lou Holler: Hmmm.

George Irwin: Like, I have to get like a tambourine and I don't know. So we could have a magician maybe. I wonder if they're, this is definitely an out their tangent. But like who was it? I was, oh Vanessa the other night we were talking about how artists have, you know, there's like main practice that they do and almost all artists have like some other sort of like creative outlet whether it's dancing or judo or whatever. Yeah, you know. Yes, so I guess that would be the talent show would be what your other whatever your other thing is Anyway, yeah You are in upstate New York

Tammy Lou Holler: yes, so i'm about two a little over two hours north of new york city and Just about an hour south of albany. So we're in the cat's tail mountains

George Irwin: Wonderful, I love it up there. I have not been up there in a long time but I have some family out there so I hope to get back up there someday.

Tammy Lou Holler: Really?

George Irwin: Let's see. Okay, so yeah show us your space this is the studio visit so let's start off

Tammy Lou Holler: there. Okay, So we live in a little tiny farmhouse that we bought just after we got married so So I confiscated this little teeny tiny bedroom as my art space.

George Irwin / Tammy Lou Holler: So that's one of the pieces on the show.

George Irwin: Very cool, it's great to see it like at scale.

Tammy Lou Holler: Yes, yes, there's my hand.

George Irwin: That's a big drawing.

Tammy Lou Holler: That is one that's in progress. Yeah so...

George Irwin: Lots of supplies on the shelves.

Tammy Lou Holler: of supplies for when I completely doubt the medium I'm working in and pull out all the other ones that I have. So yeah, shipping.

George Irwin: Oh yeah good. I was gonna say so as charcoal and graphite are you mostly working like pencils and can we see some of your materials down there? Sure, sure. Are you rubbing around? Yeah this is my- Do you use brushes at all? How do you work with them?

Tammy Lou Holler: I do. Yeah, so this is my general everyday setup and so I have brushes, erasers, charcoal pencils and then all the different hardness of graphite pencils. And then I do use powder. I mostly use charcoal. I haven't really mastered the graphite powder yet, so I stay away from that for now. And then over here are some additional items. Faber-Castell just came out with these great great, um, matte graphite pencils. Cause if you know about graphite, it has that sheen sometimes of this eliminates them and they're pretty cool.

George Irwin: Can we see the, Oh, so what are you doing? I want to see what you were going to make.

Tammy Lou Holler: This is her name's Jersey girl. And I'm pretty stoked that I have a name because that's usually one of my biggest struggles is naming a piece. Um, but this is a Jersey cow obviously. So that's her name.

George Irwin: That's awesome.

Tammy Lou Holler: So she's coming together. I did have to take a break from her because, you know, you start working on large swaths and it feels like you're just lost in there. As opposed to working on the details so. She's a pretty girl and she's the same size as Angus which is in your show

George Irwin: which would be 16 by 20.

Tammy Lou Holler: So.

George Irwin: Awesome yeah that's great. Great, great size for these. Um, well you've been busy. I actually have a couple things I want to ask you about. And maybe this is the most like sort of like off the wall and it goes with my hat with the UFO. But you have some work going to or is it already on the moon? Or is it going to the moon.

Tammy Lou Holler: It's going to be going to moon. Yes and should be going this summer which is insane! I know!

George Irwin: So wild.

Tammy Lou Holler: Oh man. Yeah, so...

George Irwin: Can you tell us a little bit about that? The Lunar Codex?

Tammy Lou Holler: It is yes. So that project first of all the piece came about as part of the Poets Artist Group which I know Christy Stallop is a part of too. So Dee Menendez curates everything for that and she had put out a call for art that was based upon what artists looked to during the pandemic for comfort. And so I had done a drawing, I don't think I have a copy here but it's of a Polaroid, it's a drawing of a polaroid of a snapshot of rocks if that makes sense and basically that was because during the pandemic when we were shut down my husband daughter and I were forced to just find something to do around the property and that turned out the gardening. And so we spent every day out there just landscaping all that, and when we would take a break my daughter and I would sit down and just sift through the rocks. And i'm a rockhound, I love them. And

Tammy Lou Holler: so um that became a source of comfort for me. So I drew that it got put into the show and the curator of that particular show is Dr Samuel Peralta and he is actually the one spearheading the lunar codex. And he's a very accomplished man and it has nothing to do with art, I believe he's physicist and oh my gosh he has so many irons in the fire! And so it turns out that he was able to buy space on these um these shuttles that we're going up and he decided to put our art on that. Wow, to the moon! Yeah, yeah.

George Irwin: And they're just it's gonna land and be there on the moon in case uh you know after humans almost die out and then we grow back to being a society again and you know 2000 years we can figure out

Tammy Lou Holler: out what we used to do. So it's apparently NASA is intending on sending people back to the moon for the next few years and in preparation for that they are sending up these commercial payloads, they call it. And so with all of this stuff that's going but there's extra space that people could buy. And So all of our art is put on this tiny little piece of microfiche. And there's three launches that will be taking place over the next year and they all have specific locations where they'll land.

George Irwin: Wild, that's just so wild. I mean it's being something that's so far away and reduced like onto a microfic or whatever. It's very abstract to think about but at the same time it's still pretty cool to think about and like it's very cool. You need to have that, I don't know maybe you have that on your resume or CV or something but that's a fun move.

Tammy Lou Holler: I do! It is fun and that piece is actually still on display up in Colorado so people can see

George Irwin / Tammy Lou Holler: it you know in real life so yeah. Cool and then so was that part of a solo

Tammy Lou Holler: that you did at A-Bend? That was not um that one oh I'm sorry yeah that piece involved in my solo show now up at A-BANG Gallery, but it was part of the other show which was virtual before that.

George Irwin: Okay, gotcha. Very cool. Cool! I want to back up a bit and I know that you mentioned when we were talking the other night about how you kind of got started down this road of subject matter and format and of artwork by answering a request on Etsy. So I'm curious about like, how did we doing on Etsy before that? And then how did you kind turn it into something that was not just a one off but something and it continued. And you kept working in this same vein?

Tammy Lou Holler: So I was on Etsy because in 2012, 11 or 12, I opened up a shop called the Story Tree. And that was actually my return to art. I had walked away from art for a while. And I re-entered it because I decided to make a family tree drawing for my mother-in-law at the time. And then I'm your second one and a third one, and then a bunch of people convinced me that this could be a little something. So that's how I ended up on was I was making family tree drawings. Okay. And yeah, and then that's when that woman found me presented the project maybe at that point, I was starting to delve into pet portraits is maybe that sounds like that makes more sense that she would contact me if there were animals in my portfolio. So she presented the idea and I was of course scared and overwhelmed. And but I said yes, and I realized that I love drawing large scale. I mean, it's

Tammy Lou Holler: fun. And yeah, and so that's what made me realize I like the scale. Of course, I knew I loved drawing animals, but I hadn't tried others you know besides cats and dogs at that point. So that really sparked the idea of drawing wildlife. And so once that project was over, I just kind of went off on my own and started trying to improve my skills. And, and that got me to

George Irwin: where I am today in terms of the subject matter. You know, I do

Tammy Lou Holler: I struggle sometimes with the simplicity of my work, because there isn't a background, you know, and, and sometimes I doubt myself like should I add more does it need more stuff in it? And then I have to remind myself that I love this style, I would buy this style. You know, that's what I'm drawn to. So I do have your mind myself like, This is what you love stick

George Irwin: with it doesn't necessarily need more. Right? Yeah, I mean, that always a challenge right is figuring out like, yeah, do I need to stop? Yeah, you know, but yeah, I am curious like what? What like it might, what might happen if you decided to put some kind of background on there. But yes, I don't want to suggest something that do riddles you. So.

Tammy Lou Holler: Well, I will tell you that I have over here some panels that I just attached paper to and I have some ideas. I'm going to experiment with that and we'll see.

George Irwin: See how that turns out? Always good to be experimenting a little bit here and there. Well cool. Well, let's see Tammy. What... So do you work then in your studio like daily or what's your practice like?

Tammy Lou Holler: I do, I do. I actually got back into art and for about four years I had owned a real estate company, worked a part-time job and did this all at the same time. And my husband, I got together and talked and decided, you know what, let go for it. And so I got rid of everything else and just focus on this. So I'm here all day, usually take a break for family and then come back to it at night.

George Irwin: So how do you balance kind of like all the kind of isolated time?

Tammy Lou Holler: That's well, I'm a permanent anyway. Definitely an introvert. So things like this are out of my realm but so I do enjoy it And then you just make sure to devote your time to family when they come home. You know, and that's a constant, I don't wanna say a struggle but balancing just like everything else.

George Irwin: Yeah definitely. Always things are always shifting and changing and adapting. Yes yeah. Well cool well so these are these large drawings you're doing. How do you start? Do you start with like line, do you start by like smearing some shape? What's the process like from beginning through the to end I guess?

Tammy Lou Holler: So once i find a subject so let me turn this around.

George Irwin: And that's often overlooked hang on a second so this final subject is yes I didn't mean to stop you but finding no your friend is something that people don't think about a lot when they talk about process and that can be 80%

George Irwin / Tammy Lou Holler: of it. Absolutely, yes. So if you want to start from there that'd be even better. Sure so sometimes

Tammy Lou Holler: I will be stuck on that like I don't know what I want to draw next and then other times I'm just being inundated with this so right now I'm very much inspired by the western genre right And so you'll see a lot of the different cows and horses. Oh, I'm still on me. The cows and obviously the horses. And then over here I have a rooster. He's a print. The other one is much larger. He was fun too. But so once I decide on a subject matter, then I try to figure out what size paper I want. And so with these guys, the cows I knew that I wanted it to be square And then obviously, I mean this calls for a rectangular layout. But sure, I knew where I wanted to crop it and such. So from there, I will do a line drawing very, very light. And then I always start with the eyes because I feel like if the eyes are off, then that could ruin the whole thing.

Tammy Lou Holler: And then it's just a matter of that's where the charcoal powder comes in in the brushes because that's where you can really get the shadows and just the overall form of it. And then I go back into the pencils, I use the erasers, these cool guys will lift off lines as such. And then I just keep working. The fun part for me is just diving into those details.

George Irwin / Tammy Lou Holler: Sure yeah. I listen to a lot. You listen to

Tammy Lou Holler: A lot of audiobooks to get through. Yeah, yeah.

George Irwin: Yeah, it's cool to think about like that powder, the powder and brushes and whatnot being It's kind of like an underpainting. And yes for sure. And that's just not something that I really thought of very much as far as To be used in drawing in the same way That you're doing it. That's really cool. And so then you just get in there and you start adding details like each little piece of fur or whatever.

Tammy Lou Holler: Yes, exactly. So you can see this is the area I'm working on now and I've gone over it a few times but it's very much about getting those shadows in the appropriate spots, indentations of the skin and such, especially over here on the horses. You can't get that wrong you know because it throws off the shape of the horse so the veins and all of that but yeah so I just go back through and start adding in pencil and

George Irwin / Tammy Lou Holler: lifting out with the erasers. So are you working? I mean,

George Irwin: you're working from photos I assume.

Tammy Lou Holler: I am yes yep.

George Irwin: And you said sometimes you take them from like across the street at the farm and other times maybe they come from elsewhere but how do you do a lot of like pre-processing kind of or pre post processing of the photo to kind of get it in that sweet spot in the values where you work? I don't very rarely

Tammy Lou Holler: yeah okay. Very rarely, um I mean sometimes you might have to brighten it some more so that I can see the details. But usually not so much. These guys over here, these three are from... I mean you can't really tell much other than their bodies but those are three young calves from the farm across the street and the tough part about that is trying to get that clarity. You know if you're standing at the fence line trying to get a good close-up photo.

George Irwin: Oh yeah, it's not like you can be like cow.

Tammy Lou Holler: Yes exactly!

George Irwin: Wow so then, really what's happening though my question I think goes but one of the things that's really remarkable about your work is your interpretation of the values, I guess. And like having a full scale but like such a great, I don't know tonal range in between and everything relates really well to each other. I think that is really something that's special about your drawings that it's really wild to think that this is just your visual brain making that happen. That's cool.

George Irwin / Tammy Lou Holler: Thank you very much.

George Irwin: Wow, cool so what do you have a name for the three cows yet?

Tammy Lou Holler: I think I'm going to call them youngins.

George Irwin: Youngins?

Tammy Lou Holler: Because they just stood there that day staring at this lady.

George Irwin: You know?

George Irwin / Tammy Lou Holler: It was just getting cute yeah.

George Irwin: That's awesome. Well do you anything else coming up? I mean, it seems like your career is pretty busy. Do you work mostly commissions or are you?

Tammy Lou Holler: I do yes. So right now I would say my bread and butter so to speak is in pet portraits. I mean that's really something that's just taken off on its own by word of mouth. So I always have a constant with that. And then of course my hope is to get into galleries more galleries more in cell gallery work. So that's yeah, that's what I'm doing now. I have a piece that's in the International Guild of realism show that's at McBride Gallery in Annapolis. I had my first solo show last year up at a band gallery in Colorado. And yeah and then some other shows Hudson Valley Art Association in Connecticut. Of course your show and I was so excited to get into. That was a one, so yes. Great. Yeah, yeah. Just trying to get out there, you know.

George Irwin: And then uh and then a drawing going to the moon? Yes, drawing going to the... Which one are you saying out loud? It's insane! It is insane, but it's cool. So the pet portraits, are those mostly dogs and cats or are they other like a wider variety of

Tammy Lou Holler: animals. They're mostly dogs and cats, a couple of horses which is fun. Yeah, but yeah mostly dogs in cats and that's just it's I don't want to say amazing because we're our family we love our dogs and cat too but it's amazing that people like they just they want to give that it's the perfect gift that they just they wanna share that with others so yeah. Yeah. It was cool. Yeah well

George Irwin: Excellent. Well, I'm glad that you found your way to working in large-scale wildlife and livestock everything and keep it up. Your work is wonderful and I'm sure you're going to be showing more of it and plenty places to come. I mean on the moon and beyond maybe, right?

Tammy Lou Holler: Yes! Thank you so much George.

George Irwin: Yeah thank you Tammy it's been great to chat and we will talk to you soon. Thank you everybody else who tuned in to watch and learn a little bit more about Tammy's work as well and holler at either of us if you have any questions or where we can help you out. All right. Talk to you later, Kimmy.

Tammy Lou Holler: Bye! Thank you.