On Oct. 11, I visited BFA student Nadia Holcomb ’25 at her studio space in Tjaden Hall for an interview. We discussed artistic mediums, post-grad plans, how her unique experiences have informed her art and what art as a whole means to her. Holcomb, who is in her final three semesters of her BFA, has just recently returned from spending two years living in monasteries — an experience that profoundly shaped her artistry.
The walls of Holcomb’s studio area are covered in pinned-up artwork, including finished pieces and works in progress. Her work comes in many different mediums, and her foremost priority is mark-making. Holcomb’s process, though ever-changing, lately starts with choosing a material she thinks will make interesting marks, for example, a large sheet of butcher paper. Next, Holcomb says: “I kind of surrender. I try to just let go of myself and just do something intuitively and not think about it too much.” Her art is a call and response, where every mark on the page leads to the next. “I’ll make a mark, then I’ll respond to that. I’ll look at it and just do the next thing and think as little as possible. I don’t want to get caught up in shaping it into something or defining it,” Holcomb shared. She views her art as an intuitive, instinctive exercise. She rotates through multiple pieces at a time as part of her process, seeking to be as uninhibited and automatic with her work as possible. Much of this way of thinking, Holcomb expressed, relates to the time she spent living in monasteries.
Although she has spent time in Hindu, Buddhist and Catholic monasteries, Holcomb identified her three-month stay at an Eastern Orthodox skete to be the most impactful. “It was a very intense experience. It felt like I was there for a lifetime, not only three months,” she said, “I was just living for something else, in a way that felt really meaningful and fulfilling, but also really intense at times.” One of her responsibilities while there was to do manual labor around the monastery. To Holcomb, “It’s not about the sweeping, it’s more about yourself and letting your life be used for this greater thing.” She feels a similar catharsis in intaglio printing, another of her preferred mediums. Intaglio printing, or copper plate printing, involves etching a design into copper and immersing it in a bath of acid. Holcomb finds it rewarding because “it’s very intense and there’s a lot of process, and you’re really manually laboring.”
Holcomb came into Cornell as an entomology major, a far cry from the BFA she’s pursuing today. But to her, the choice to switch wasn’t a difficult one at all. Upon coming to college, Holcomb felt profoundly unfulfilled, asking herself: “What is the point of living if I can’t create?” Holcomb has been an artist for her entire life; she views art and life as inextricably linked ideas. “In a large sense, we are all artists,” Holcomb said, recalling how the toddlers she used to work with would always be creating art. Staying an artist into adulthood, however, she sees as a struggle that all artists face.
When asked about the way she views art as a whole, Holcomb again finds its meaning mirrored in the monastic idea of something greater. “To me, the best way for me to describe it is as a matter of faith. I mean that in a non-religious way … Art is trying to capture this thing that is beyond itself. When I’m working, it’s so easy for me to get caught up in what I’m doing and overthink it. I want to control the piece and make something good, but I have to constantly remind myself that it’s not about me … if I make it about me, it’s going to be so limited because I’m so limited.” It comes as no surprise, then, with such poignant ideas about art, that Holcomb’s work betrays expression rather than representation. Viewing her art is an emotional experience, one that makes you wonder about something bigger than the art itself. Her work connects to a larger, universal feeling, one that she tries to channel into it as selflessly as possible.
As for post-grad plans, Holcomb is approaching life the same way she approaches art: one step at a time. Joining a monastery or working the land are both viable options, but making art will always be part of her. “I will continue to make art. I don’t see it as a professional practice. I’m not trying to be a professor or work in a gallery. This is just something that I need to explore right now, and for the rest of my life.”
Holcomb will be graduating next fall, so if you feel that poignant connection to her art, get in touch at [email protected].
Melissa Moon is a freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences. She can be reached at [email protected].