Carissa Holly

2011-07-17T16:57:00.000-07:00

2011-07-15T20:52:00.000-07:00

2011-07-10T22:16:00.000-07:00

Lately.

2011-06-28T21:36:00.000-07:00

Ashley

2011-06-01T08:03:00.000-07:00

Photographs

2011-05-31T20:46:00.000-07:00

2011-05-04T11:15:00.000-07:00

2011-03-28T19:28:00.000-07:00

I am alive and well. By day I am still working as a photographer and by night I am still painting away. Once I get a new set of studio lights I can take photos of the new asylum paintings and drawings. At which point I will update this and my website.

Lately I have been reading Gracefully Insane: Life and Death Inside America's Premier Mental Hospital. It's a very, very interesting and informative book on McLean Hospital in Massachusetts. One of my former coworkers had a brief stay at the hospital. I honestly should have gone into documentary journalism and photography. It's all so exciting!!

So, I will update this once I get the new studio lights. Until then, here is a photo from an abandoned factory in Pennsylvania. :)

2010-08-15T18:22:00.001-07:00

I've been working on some new panorama paintings and have taken up drawing the photographs of chairs next to windows from one of the asylums I visited. So far, I am pretty satisfied with how it is turning out.

(Work in progress)

Abandoned Eastland, Texas

2010-08-15T15:41:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was my first expedition to an abandoned or "ghost" town. Even though it was not completely abandoned there were a lot of buildings (including a brick prison) that would make you believe no one lived there.

For more: http://www.flickr.com/photos/carissa_holly

Portraits.

2010-07-14T20:39:00.000-07:00

Maryland.

2010-07-13T22:29:00.000-07:00

Baltimore, Maryland.

Glenn Dale, Maryland.

Westminster, Maryland.

Odenton, Maryland.

Some Florida Photos

2010-07-12T09:23:00.000-07:00

Abandoned.

2010-06-05T00:49:00.000-07:00

Ever since I can remember I have had a love and fascination for abandoned buildings. At my Uncle Arlie's farm in a small German town in Missouri he had multiple run down buildings; a huge barn, cattle shed, smoke house, pump house, and even a fallen over outhouse. I think that is where my fascination started. I still love run down and abandoned barns, Maryland is full of them, but my love has grown from barns to state hospitals. And what started off as a small project with Maryland state hospitals and asylums has grown into something bigger. I can't pinpoint what it is that draws me to them. After doing research and reading up on the history of these buildings, the lawsuits and often times patient abuse I am sad when I visit them. They are eery, creepy, dangerous and the majority of them have a fairly big problem with asbestos. I am also very sad to see these buildings being destroyed by vandals. The graffiti on most of them is more than I care to think about and I spend a lot of time photoshopping some of it out. Unfortunately it is part of the "character" of the buildings now and I hate altering them at all but some of the graffiti is too offensive.

All images and concept copyrighted 2010 Carissa Holly Langer

Graduated!

2010-05-17T22:05:00.000-07:00

Neil and I after graduation. YAY!

Portraits.

2010-02-11T10:13:00.000-08:00

Sargeant copy.

Fall.

2009-12-16T16:15:00.001-08:00

Fall.
Watercolor on paper.
11.09

Dear Agony.

2009-12-05T12:32:00.000-08:00

Dear Agony.
Watercolor on paper.
November - December 2009.

How Art and the Big Apple Heals.

2009-11-30T20:13:00.000-08:00

It's been a week since my coworker, Francis, and I went on our trip to New York City for exhibitions and friends. And I am just now getting the time to write about it. I drove us up early in the morning, managed to drive Manhattan and survived! The mat that the dancers, musicians, Broadway stars dance on in the Thanksgiving Day Parade.. Yeah, I drove over that. Francis and I were a little nervous but we made it with a little help from Franz Ferdinand and Nine Inch Nails.
We met my close friend Danielle for lunch at her studio. I've missed being at SVA and it was nice to see the studios of my old classmates. After lunch we made our way down to the MoMA for the Tim Burton exhibition. I honestly didn't expect the exhibition to be as packed as it was. I've never been squeezed into such a small space before, and trying to view art on top of it! No pictures were allowed in the exhibition so I only have a few from the pieces they had outside the exhibition by Burton. Inside the exhibition they had drawings, sketches and little paintings dating from childhood to now. They had movie props including the wax figure of Johnny Depp as Edward Scissorhands in the original Scissorhands outfit. Three or four of the masks they used in Batman and the cape from Sleepy Hollow. The figures they used for all of his animation movies including ALL of the different heads used for Jack's expressions. I was honestly terrified of the huge dolls used in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.. The ones that sang a song and then burst into flames. Very disturbing. There was too much to see and too many people in the room. So, sometime before the show closes I would like to venture back up to New York City to see the exhibition when there are not as many people trying to enjoy it too. We were kind of asking for it since it was the second day of the show but... It was fabulous. Here is one of the pieces we could take a picture of:

We also saw Monet's waterlilies. Those were also very impressive, and we could take pictures. It is amazing how he managed to make something fabulous out of nothing.
Francis and I both were "Friends of Franz" when the Franz West show was up at the Baltimore Museum of Art. We were excited to see that the MoMA had three Franz West sculptures in their sculpture garden.

We had to pose with them. The MoMA took up almost our whole day in New York. Well, the MoMA gift shop also added to that. Besides art supply stores, museum gift shops are like candy stores to us - extremely dangerous.
Francis learned from our coworker Helene that the one enormous sculpture we had in the Franz West show had been relocated to Central Park. So, we spent our evening walking Central Park trying to find the Ego and the Id. We asked a security guard and he said he's never seen it. How you wouldn't ever see a big, colorful... BIG sculpture amazes me. Eventually we found it and I have some nice pictures of Central Park and the sculpture.

The Ego and the Id looked extremely small to us out in the open of the park. We were used to seeing it assembled in a confined gallery space. It really wasn't as powerful out in the open. But we were happy to see it was still in good shape.
Francis and I split up and went different ways with our friends. I went down to St. Mark's Street and Union Square with my close friend, Jon. And once Danielle was out of class, went back to Queens with her. It was a very nice break from Baltimore that I needed. I feel motivated again and feel like myself again. It amazes me how a day out of my everyday setting can make me feel so much better.
Francis decided to stay with a friend and take a bus home the next day and I stayed at a hotel near Danielle's apartment in Queens. I drove home the next day with MapQuest's directions... Through Queens, Brooklyn and Staten Island...
Lesson's learned: MapQuest is evil. The yellow cab's were nicer to me than the Virginia drivers in Brooklyn. Always take enough coins for the Lincoln Tunnel and take more trips to New York City with your friends and coworkers. :)

North Carolina Mountains

2009-11-16T15:10:00.001-08:00

Charcoal on paper.
11.09

Recent works.

2009-05-05T10:55:00.000-07:00

Some of my recent works I've been working on.

Beginning of Coney Island painting

Arkansas charcoal drawing.

2009-03-20T22:22:00.000-07:00

Photo from my old studio.

Detail Pictures!!

2008-08-19T18:50:00.000-07:00

Here are the detail pictures, sorry it took me so long.

Baltimore Bridge

2008-05-13T18:49:00.000-07:00

Once again, I don't have my camera cord. I packed up my entire apartment and the cord is still missing. So, I am convinced that someone who was in my apartment either took it or Neil just didn't give it back. I have been relying on my phone for the pictures and updates on my work. And the recent painting of an abandoned rail way and Baltimore bridge has been called "bad ass" in person, and these pictures I've taken just don't do it justice. So, this will have to do until (again) I get a new camera cord which will be very, very soon. My apologies.

-Carissa Holly

Wash drawing.

2008-05-07T18:28:00.001-07:00

As promised, the finished wash drawing from the painting I don't know the artist or name of.

And I still haven't found my camera cord, I guess I'll need to buy a new one.

End of the Spring 2008

2008-05-01T11:32:00.000-07:00

The semester is coming to an end. Only a week and a class to go, not even that. I am satisfied with how this semester has turned out compared to the Fall 2007 semester. I have been taking progress pictures of the painting I am working on but have misplaced my camera cord after lending it to my friend, Neil. And the connection is smaller than the usual camera connection so I have to go buy a new one I guess.

A debate Neil, Lara and I have been facing with our teacher Mark; a wash drawing. Is it a painting or is it a drawing? We are using watercolor, paintbrushes... So is it a drawing or is it a painting? We say painting. You decide. Here is a small corner of my "wash drawing" from an unknown artist's painting. When I get my camera up and running again, I'll have the full "wash drawing" photo.

Old Portraiture.

2008-04-15T19:33:00.000-07:00

Some portraiture that I did in high school. I've moved on from portraiture, but just wanted to share some old paintings.

Reid

oil on canvas

My friend Reid Ewing, was shown at the Palm Beach Institute Center for the Arts in Lake Worth, FL. And sold at the show.

Self Portrait

oil paint on acoustic guitar

I started this one when Hurricane Wilma came through. I worked on it next to candles since we didn't have any electricity. Probably not the best decision since I was working with turpentine and oils. But it worked, and nothing burned down. It's painted on a guitar I found in my great grandfather's house in Missouri.

Robert

oil on canvas

A portrait of my friend, Robert.

-Carissa Holly

Some drawings and a painting.

2008-04-12T14:02:00.000-07:00

A portrait of my mom while driving from South Florida to Alaska. A long trip, had really nothing else to do but draw. A drawing done in my sketchbook in pencil.

I had an assignment in my Life Drawing class to draw a figure with their hands showing. I couldn't take a picture that I liked, so I found this image online and drew it. 18 inches x 24 inches, charcoal on paper.

And a section of a painting I'm working on, a melon and garlic. It's about 10 inches by 12 inches, oil paint on masonite.

-Carissa Holly

Bottles and Birds.

2008-04-10T14:05:00.000-07:00

I received an email saying that the two paintings I submitted got into this show that had flyers posted all over campus. Funny thing was, it was signed "Mister Curator and Misses Curator". It's odd, there were no names. My friend Lara got the same email accepted her work she submitted and also found that strange. She wrote an email back saying they needed to give her names and contact information before she handed over original artwork. I'll wait and see what she gets before I hand over my art too.

oil on masonite

The second piece is the blue bird in my first entry. And I really don't want to lose these pieces.

-Carissa Holly

Copies.

2008-04-10T09:17:00.000-07:00

Here are some drawings from my Drawing from the Master's class.

I had a sudden fascination with Chuck Close's portraits, so did two off of his portraits.

Both charcoal on paper

This one is from Flying and Adoring Angels by Domenico Fetti. It's only one of the women in the painting.

Charcoal on paper.

And one of my favorite, a copy of a Jenny Saville on 24 inches x 36 inches paper, done in charcoal.

-Carissa Holly

A Slight Introduction.

2008-03-05T10:57:00.000-08:00

Blue Boy