Throughout her young
adult life, Holly Crocker Garcia explored many different art forms
including music, ballet, drawing, photography, book illustration and
sculpture. However, after a course in sculpting technique at Silvermine
Guild School of the Arts in New Canaan, Connecticut, she realized that
sculpting was her primary love and subsequently attended Rhode Island
School of Design in Providence, Rhode Island.
Searching for a mentor and further education in sculpture, Garcia then
moved from the East Coast to San Diego, California where she met the
late figurative sculptor, Frank James Morgan. Working in Morgan’s studio
as an apprentice for five years, she developed the skills of clay
modeling, mold-making and casting and began selling her pieces in local
galleries. Relocation to San Francisco brought further gallery sales,
shows and commissions. Now living in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania,
Garcia has established a permanent studio and has her pieces cast in
bronze at a local art foundry.
Although sculpting is her profession, Garcia has always had a deep love
and appreciation for the ballet. As a young girl she studied at the
Joffrey Ballet School in New York and at two Connecticut ballet
academies. While in California she created a series of bronzes featuring
members of the Oakland Ballet and recently completed “Paloma As Kitri",
a dramatic portrait of Paloma Herrera, principal dancer with American
Ballet Theatre in New York City.
“To me, ballet in performance is an art form which is incredibly rich in
beauty and emotion, all expressed through the exquisite line of the
human body. It is also a very fleeting, ethereal experience which one
can take away only in the mind’s eye. Through sculpting dancers, I try
to capture permanently the moving, visual experience of the ballet. The
element of music is also very important in my ballet sculpture and each
of these pieces has been inspired by a particular piece of music as well
as by the dancer’s character,” Garcia explained.
Garcia expressed the diversity of her sculpture by adding, “In contrast
to the energy and grace transmitted through dance pieces, I also sculpt
classic figures in more quiet, introspective attitudes. After working
intensely on a dance piece, I am ready for a restful figure study - and
then again for the fluidity of the ballet. It seems to be a very natural
ebb and flow for me.”
