Spring 2026 Featured Artist Cheryl Holz

Finding myself in suburbia after growing up in a rural area, my local forest preserves and prairies provide a sanctuary from the normal chaos of life. I’m usually motivated by a need for some privacy and to escape, but then time slows and quickly turns into curiosity, awe, and inspiration. The beauty and resiliency, the textures and earthy palette and the small miracles that happen daily are all fodder for my work. The mushroom that appeared overnight, the fallen tree blanketed with 3 types of lush moss, the bird’s nest that was engineered to simultaneous contain and camouflage offspring – these are both motivation and material for my work.

The ways I incorporate these influences have evolved over the years. I emulate natural aging processes in the studio with paint and materials, building up and wearing away like water on rock. I have always conscientiously collected specimens and learned how best to preserve and integrate them, but lately I have been using some more indirect techniques that also capture aspects of plants, trees, or a landscape. Being a process junkie, I’m now using Ecoprints, digital prints, silkscreened specimens, transfers, digitally cut silhouettes, and most recently archivally printed photographs in my work. I liken my process to jazz: after much preparation and research, I jump in and improvise with processes, not music notes, striving for equilibrium between spontaneity and deliberation.

My goal is to convey a different kind of landscape or nature study experience. I seek to provide a micro and macro view that zooms out to the treetops but also zooms in on the tiny bracket fungus flanking a tree. I want to provide both a visual and tactile experience, whose shape breaks out of the traditional canvas. I incorporate conservation literature and field guides that stimulate the left brain nature nerd inside all of us! My goal is to inspire, in others, the same love of nature that I experience, to bring nature into their space, to motivate them to immerse themselves in it and experience the same peace and awe I do.

-Cheryl Holz