Courtesy April Holder
Artist and activist April Holder (Sac & Fox Nation of Oklahoma; @aeon_fluxus on Instagram and Tik-Tok) has been tearing it up with a residency at the Institute of American Indian Art, dabbling in woodblock and linoleum prints, self-portraiture and pretty much anything else she can think up. This Thursday, Oct. 28 from 3-5 pm, Holder hosts open studio hours at IAIA (83 Avan Nu Po Road, (505) 424-2300) to show off what she’s been working on, talk about her residency and otherwise just be the badass her fans know her to be. We called Holder up to learn a little more.
What are you getting up to down there?
I’ve been doing some hand-carved linoleum printmaking and some painting. I’m working on a few other things. I dunno, I like to make all kinds of things, and it’s never limited to just one medium. It’s always everything and anything. I’ve also met with a few classes and I’ve expressed to the faculty they’re always welcome to bring students by. I’ve connected with students personally and said my studio space is always open. I told one, ‘Come on by! I’ve got snacks—I’m a mom.’
I’m alumni from IAIA, so it’s really wonderful to see how much this place has expanded and grown since I was here. Those healthy environments facilitate healthy growth creatively, emotionally, intellectually. Being back here is nostalgic, but it’s new enough that I...was telling a friend, who is another alumnus, all those things we dreamed of and wanted, they can now give them to students on the regular.
That’s what we want for our youth. That’s something we want for ourselves, but we want it for everyone. Like I said, I’m a mom, so I always think about that. I really enjoy that my daughter gets to be comfortable and enjoy things. As a former student, that makes me really excited and thankful. I had a wonderful experience as a student learning a little bit of everything, and it was necessary for my growth and what I’ve been willing to do as an artist. The friends I made here? We’re friends for life.
Some of the woodblock and linoleum works you’ve done recently are stunning. Will painting remain the core of your work, or are you always looking to experiment?
I think I always come back to painting, but I do mixed media and installation work, large-scale ink drawings on sheets to create a visceral experience in how they move; anything I can get my hands on, I’m ready to work with. That’s a fun and really cool thing about knowing other multi-disciplinary artists—we learn from each other. I have this brilliant friend I met last year at a residency named Sarah Parker, and she does painting and collage, and she showed me how to do so many awesome things. I’d done woodblock and linoleum before, but I hadn’t done it in years, and she was the one who got me back into doing it.
I get such a kick out of doing things I’m not good at. That’s the most thrilling, fun awesomeness in this universe. For one, I don’t anticipate being good at everything...but I enjoy that I’m allowed that freedom. That, and when you meet people who are just amazing at things you know there’s no space for you to get good at, I love it. It’s like being friends with a superhero.
Plus, I have a daughter, and I want her to see things in the world that move her to forms of expression. I’m not going to be her only source for that. That’s not something I can anticipate doing, nor should I be the sole person responsible for that. She’s got this wealth of all of these different artists who inspire and move her.
What would you ideally like to happen next in your practice?
I would like to be able to make my work accessible in the most human ways possible. Right now I’m drawing out this linoleum print I’m going to be carving up; the holidays are coming up and I was thinking I want to make cards that people can use as holiday check-in cards. Each one is a hand-burnished linoleum print, its own little unique piece of art, and they’re for anyone who has any family or loved ones in nursing homes, incarcerated or in rehabilitation facilities or any of those places where I feel like sometimes we forget people are human beings who deserve to be thought of, cared for and loved. When you’re in those places, things that are comforting and loving and also very beautiful, like art, are sometimes denied to you, and I don’t like that. I’d rather it be in the hands of people who’ll know they’re appreciated. That’s what I thought about today, and I have this rule where if I think about it, then say it out loud, I have to do it.
Art’s supposed to be for everyone, it’s not a treat for a select few. You’re supposed to just have it in your life, in whatever form it takes. If someone could give me a good reason why some people shouldn’t have access to art, I’d love to hear it. Things that reinforce elitism in it—I don’t get that. I don’t understand.
