The HeArtBox Gallery

Dreaming in Cyan with Holly Troy
Collection of Abstract Oil Paintings and the Reflection of Blue.

Events
Exhibiting | October 1 – 30th, 2021
Pre-Sale | Online 10% off only, September 30th, 3pm PST
Virtual Opening | Friday, October 1st, 5:30pm PST, Facebook Live
Opening Reception | Friday, October 1st, 6:00-9:00pm PST
Artist talk on Instagram Live @the_heartbox, October 14th, 3pm PST

Exhibition Statement

“I know you are able to paint figuratively, why are your paintings abstract?”

Where I don’t have words or music – I have colors, shapes, movement, and layers. Painting is one of the ways in which I synthesize, integrate, and share the stories of my life – especially stories that are not yet verbal, or that have no need to be verbal. They are the tails of dream fragments, the distinct visceral feeling of a hazy memory, the heat and tingle of a whisper. 

The predominant color in all of my paintings is Phthalocyanine Blue. I remember in college, discovering this blue – it’s strength, warmth, and vibrancy. How easily it spread, the tiniest amount going a long way. Blue as expansive, permeating, and powerful sent hot shivers down my spine. 

Before my breakthrough, I thought of blue as soft, cool, passive, and delicate – a color that could easily fade and be lost. No more! That day transformed my understanding and my relationship with the power of blue.

Cyan is potent; it’s like rich butter. It’s a delicious color to melt into, to play with. 

Cyan changed the way I look at other blues: cerulean, cobalt, indigo, azure, turquoise, cornflower, sapphire, aquamarine, lapis, and periwinkle. I see life, a shimmer, a glow. 

Cyan reminds me of childhood early summer, the semi-annual painting of my grandfather’s swimming pool. Rolling the paint out on concrete, smelling the enamel, flooding my eyes with dazzling brightness. Summers swimming, floating, surrounded by blue. Days dreaming until shadows grew long, disappearing in the half-light.

Blue is everywhere – the sky, the ocean, gemstones, the center of a candle flame. 

The vibration of blue gently trickles into my work and psyche, healing the experience of collective and personal grief and trauma. Sometimes blue is there to smooth the sharp edge of homesickness for the life I left in New York City – my friends, the pace, the hum and buzz of so much collective creativity. Sometimes it feels like blue comes in and holds sorrow, lets it be what it needs to be.

Blue resonates joy and possibility and innocence.

This is the color I vibrate with. Blue permeates me. If I were to radiate a color, it would be cyan blue. It is the color of dreams, of hope, of joyful song, of new beginnings.

Blue is a new day, a new chance, a place to start over. 

Blue is nothingness and everything, the endless unspeakable moment of pure potential.

I may have additional smaller pieces for the show – more details to come.

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The HeArtbox Gallery is located in the heart of historic downtown Flagstaff, Arizona
in the Switzer building, directly behind The Artists’ Gallery through Aspen Alley.
17 North San Francisco Street, Suite 1B, Flagstaff, AZ

Gallery Hours: Wednesday – Saturday 11am – 6pm

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The music on the video is from my 90s band, The Halfbreeds.

Oh Love!
Sensation
Miracle
Written by Francis DiDonato

Guitar and backing vocals – Francis DiDonato
Guitar and backing vocals – Sanford Santacroce (S. Frog)
Drums – Jamey Evans
Bass – Jennifer Haskins Carter
Vocals – Holly Troy