Student printmaker sees beauty in broken form

Holly Jackson cried when she laid eyes on ‘Crouching Aphrodite’ - the broken statue of the ancient Greek goddess of love in Paris’ Louvre Museum two years ago.

The beauty of that headless form inspired her, and a photo she took is the basis for a copper etching that will be part of an exhibition of Taranaki printmakers launching this week.

Holly is one of 11 WITT art students whose work will be exhibited in Inked, featuring original handprinted artworks by local and Whanganui artists at the Percy Thomson Gallery in Stratford, from 19 April to 18 May. Exhibiting artists are members of the Printmaking Council of Aotearoa New Zealand (PCANZ).

Making relief prints – using lino carving and copper plate etching – is a new process for Holly, now in her second year at WITT enrolled in the New Zealand Diploma in Arts and Design (Level 6). Printmaking is technical and complex, she says, and she loves it.

She’s been doing art for as long as she can recall. “Every lunchtime, every break, I was in the art room doing my thing.”

At her high school in Tuakau – a small town south of the Bombay Hills - art students mainly stuck to painting. However, Holly says her first love is drawing with pen and ink.

Aside from trips to small galleries and the Auckland City Art Gallery as a teen, there wasn’t much of a local art scene to tap into. “I had to find beauty in the day-to-day, which I’ve always done. I sit and stare at things. I lived on a farm so there was pretty stuff all around me.”

She and her mum have bonded over a love of art, and their trip to Europe in 2023 to visit some of the famous galleries in Italy, France and the UK, was a revelation to Holly.

Her Greek nude statue print in the exhibition reflects her interest in the female body in art, and the emotion of seeing the statue. “I stood there and cried in front of it. The way the light was coming through the windows – it was stunning. Really striking. One of those moments.”

The resulting print - an image spanning histories and hemispheres - has been chosen for the poster to promote the upcoming event.

Trial and error of printmaking techniques

At WITT’s art and design school she’s welcomed the opportunity to explore new art forms. “I’m loving the freedom to experiment and not be tied down to certain media and ideas. And being around like-minded people is something that really nurtures me.”

“I love it [doing art at WITT] so much. It’s like I was meant to be here. It’s definitely helped me grow as a person.”

Mark Raymer, a tutor in printmaking at WITT, says; “Printmaking can be a highly technical process that is a bit of a mystery when a student first encounters it. There are moments when one must blindly trust the process and then reach a point where they can examine it with a critical eye and respond.”

He says students are called to not only be creative but to problem solve, experiment, fail, and adapt to find success. “Holly has embraced all these attributes when learning this process, yielding a beautiful etching. In fact, all the students who are showing in this exhibition embody these attributes as well.

“We’re very thankful to PCANZ for inviting our students to partner with them in this exhibition and to Percy Thompson Gallery for providing the students with a beautiful space to showcase their mahi.”

For more details on the exhibition: https://www.percythomsongallery.org.nz/

Caption: Holly Jackson in her studio space at WITT, and (below) Holly's print - Crouching Aphrodite - which will be in the print exhibition at the Percy Thompson Gallery this month and next.