Bryant Holsenbeck

Environmental Artist

“I make art inspired by the natural world using the cast-offs of our society that I find everywhere I look.”

Sculpture

I make the animals I see around me. They inspire me and give me hope. They are beautiful. They are survivors of our own human neglect and greed. I feel such gratitude for them.

I feel fortunate that somehow despite it all a world of wild animals lives around me.  As we remove their natural habitats somehow these animals continue to live.   So far, with wild life, trees and forests, rivers and lakes, we human animals, together make up the precarious web that is our life.

Gallery Representation

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public art

Public Art

As an environmental artist, I collect detritus–everyday objects which were used and thrown away, and make them into art. These works are about our environment and our culture. My installations and residencies are both meditations and questions. Where does all this “stuff” come from? Where does it go? What do we do with it? Why is it here?

Wherever I am invited to make public art, the input of the local community is paramount. From collecting materials, to installing each work, the participation of others is a large part of the process. The strength of this work comes from the working together in community.

 

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Working With Kids

I love working with kids.  They have such energy and determination and great ideas. First a school or organization contacts me. Together, after learning the age range we come up with ideas for the student to implements.  My favorite big projects have been the Weaving Like a Bird projects. I have worked with students to make dragon flies, butterflies, birds, flowers and fish and even a pumpkin vine. What happens is always a collaboration between the school or organization, the students and me.
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Where is “away”? I had long wondered where trash goes when we throw it “away.” Realizing that what we discard never really goes away, I became concerned about all the disposable plastic that piles up in landfills and clogs our streams. I began saying NO to single-use plastic and spent a year discovering ways to live without it. This book documents my journey and the creative alternatives I found.

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On the Horizon

Spring Mix: Ravel and Unravel

Spring Mix: Ravel and Unravel

April 16-18, 2021
I will be a guest artist for this amazing weekend led by Claudia Fulshaw. I will demonstrate some weaving techniques and Claudia will lead us through an amazing weekend of creativity mixed with rest and poetry. I hear her retreats are deep and full. I look forward to being in the retreat as much as leading my session.

Art Wanders Retreats
Well of Mercy Retreat Center, Hamptonville, NC

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