‘Enchanted Forest’ gives ideas life
Enchanted wood. Tacoma artist Holly Senn sits among her work “Enchanted Forest of the Mind.” Senn’s work will be on display at The Gallery at Tacoma Community College through Dec. 31. (Photo by Sean Dean)
“Everything comes full circle,” said Tacoma artist Holly Senn. “My art investigates the life cycle of ideas.”
Senn, a librarian at Pacific Lutheran University, became an artist more than a decade ago. An exhibit of Senn’s work, titled “Enchanted Forest of the Mind,” is currently on display in The Gallery at Tacoma Community College (TCC).
The exhibit features what Senn describes as “installation art,” an arranged environment that invites viewers to enter and investigate the work.
Jennifer Oldon-Rudenko, TCC’s gallery coordinator, said Senn’s unique approach provides a welcome opportunity to those who experience it.
“When Holly approached us with the idea of an installation piece, we were excited,” Oldon-Rudenko noted. “We have never had an installation piece, and we thought it would be a good educational experience for not only TCC’s college students, but the community as well.”
The pieces are all made from discarded materials. The books were gathered by Senn via library sales and dumpster-diving. Trees and branches incorporated into the works are gardening cast-offs.
“My art is not about trees or books,” said Senn. “It is all iconography to consider the life-cycle of ideas.”
The books represent the start of ideas while the trees represent the growth from those ideas, explained Senn. The trees in works often have orbs the artist calls “text-fruit.”
“I have been a librarian for about 14 years and an artist almost as many,” said Senn. “I always thought about combining my career life and my artistic life. I am pleased to finally have achieved that.”
Along with three large trees that make up “Enchanted Forest of the Mind,” numerous smaller pieces convey a similar notion.
“The small pieces look at combining the natural and intellectual world,” Senn said.
A small piece, which stands apart from the rest of the work, is titled “Fall: Text Suspended.” A mobile made of small branches, “Fall” features leaves cut from books.
“It is interesting because in books, pages are called leaves,” said Senn. “That is something I am playing with here a bit.”
Another piece is titled “Math: Root of All Evil.” Senn called it a “mixed media sculpture” that combines elements from the natural world with man-made items.
“Math” is an interplay of ideas and text, combining elements of nature with “text-fruit” made from the pages of a math book.
All of Senn’s works represent the constant change of ideas.
“Not all libraries can keep books forever,” Senn explained. “You have to replace the old with new. There is a constant change of ideas; that’s why when I pick out books, I look for lots of difference in colors and titles. I like to represent a lot of different things.”
Anyone interested in seeing an example of installation art should do so soon. This particular exhibit of Senn’s work will come down forever at the end of the month.
“Once I take down the pieces, it will never show again,” said Senn.
Holly Senn’s “Enchanted Forest of the Mind” runs through Dec. 31 at The Gallery, on the main campus of TCC at 6501 S. 19th St.
For access to The Gallery, use the entrance just off South 12th Street between Pearl and Mildred streets. For more information, call (253) 460-4306. To learn more about Senn and her work, visit www.ryksenn.com.