Saturday Art Share: Holly Scoggins

Holly Scoggins is a professor of art at Polk State College in Florida. She currently has a solo exhibition at the Polk Museum that has been directly influenced by Greg Boyd and anabaptist teachings. The show is a challenge to both believer and unbeliever alike—sort of an aesthetic apologetic. Amidst an art community that so often obsesses over the profane, Scoggins work seems to maintain a sense of right and wrong without coming off as preachy. Her work contrasts innocence with destruction, darkness with proactivity, and hope with dread in a way that captures the circumstance of those who seek God and goodness in a world such as ours.

Series: Fearful Symmetry
Polk Museum of Art

1.
Rescue
Oil on Canvas
24” x 48”
A man is seen waiting on the shoreline welcoming refugees. This image of rescue is overlaid with a picturesque cityscape during a sunset. The image begs the questions “Who is your neighbor?”

2.
Healing
Oil on Canvas
36” x 36”
This early 20th century photograph of sick children receiving ultraviolet light therapy is overlaid with a glowing field of wind turbines. The landscape has caught fire and attempts to consume the figures.

3.
Spring
Oil on Canvas
30” x 40”
2600
A vintage photograph of women walking arm in arm is overlaid with a vicious wildfire in the rugged landscape of the western United States. The 2017 California wildfire season was the most destructive one on record, A total of 9,054 fires burned 1,381,405 acres and the effects killed approximately 60 people as of January 2018.

4.
Little Boys
Oil on Canvas
48” x 60”
3800
In the glowing cityscape we see an image of one of the first bombs dropped during the War on Terror in 2001. The underlying image is a vintage photograph of young boys learning how to start a fire. The United States has dropped approximately 65000 bombs on the middle east since January 2016.

5.
Follow
Oil on Canvas
16” x 20”
A vintage photograph of young girls being led by an instructor is overlaid with a patchwork family quilt. This painting is in response to cultural body image issues, family roles, and it asks the question, “Who’s image am I made in?”

6.
The Dance
Oil on Canvas
48” x 60”
The maypole ceremony is shown overlaid with the dangerous Great Plains of the summer. Natures warning signs flash as they overlay the ritualistic dance with origins in worship, fertility and entertainment.

7.
Protest
Oil on Canvas
24” x 36”
The Iconic Pieta sculpture of Marseille France is depicted layered with local street scenes of riots and protests.

8.
The View
Oil on Canvas
48” x 24”
A woman is seen performing for Jerusalem at night. She is looking down onto the rooftops of the city. The Book of Hosea chapter 4 and the story of King David in the book of 2nd Samuel chapter 11 were of inspiration creating this painting.

9.
The Performance
Oil on Canvas
36” x 36”
1800
In response to the sex trafficking press surrounding major sporting events, this woman is seen performing a strenuous act of entertainment for her viewer. At least 20.9 million adults and children are bought and sold worldwide into commercial sexual servitude, forced labor and bonded labor. Women and girls make up 96% of victims of these victims.

10.
Blind
Oil on Canvas
16” x 20”
400
This painting references a vintage image of blindfolded students from the 1940s. These portraits of blindfolded individuals are integrated into a sublime landscape. The image references the book of 1 John 2:9.

Holly Scoggins
www.hollyannscoggins.com