Maura Holden – Psychedelic Visionary Artist

In a dense phosphorescent fog I have been searching for things which can never be found: the journals of Adam and Eve; a photographic record of the cities of the interior; a map charting the soul's disasters and renewals; the keys to locked dimensions; the point at the center of everything....

My paintings are the residue of this effort. But they are only shells, fossil imprints around the things I truly meant to give existence to -- those lost moments when my identity fell to the ground like a torn dress, and I moved through non-human spheres with x-ray vision and a compound mind, seeing and being all of those impossible things. 

 -Maura

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Goodie Goodie tossed some questions into the ethers.  Maura kindly retrieved and blew back.  Enjoy.

Giovanni:   Having a special reverence for architecture myself, I can't help but gaze around town only to see the Old Guard of Philadelphia architecture e.g. the Drake Hotel being dwarfed by monolithic condo-eclipses.  The Drake is a sultry damsel in distress.  Her proportions will fall on deaf eyes if cloaked!  Can you suggest any other structures in Philadelphia we should be paying attention to?

Maura:  I haven't been to Philly in seven years, and I know a lot has changed... But I agree with you about The Drake -- elegant proportions and aesthetic delicacy... The same goes for the Market Street National Bank... I worry more about old buildings being torn down than I do about their being dwarfed by ugly monoliths... There are beautiful Frank Furness and Louis Sullivan buildings all over Philly that should be washed with fresh milk every morning... Laurel Hill Cemetery (in need of attention the last time I looked) has always enchanted me with its terraces and winding mausoleum lanes overlooking the river... Really I hope that we have the sense to save and celebrate as many old buildings and landscapes as possible. City Hall is the most decadent, nutty old building in town, I think, and it seems like she has always needed a fixing, and defense against puritanical critics. Even I have looked up at her crowded walls and begun laughing at the awkward craziness of all that bric-a-brac (High Victorian Picturesque Eclecticism about says it) -- but how wonderful! Who will ever make a building like this again? Both the elegant and the ungainly of our architectural wonders should be treasured and preserved.  

Giovanni   Speaking of looking up, the perspective rendered in My Birth in a City of Strange Monuments as well as Dark Mother seems to be one of trespass.  An intrusion, somehow, on a hyper-world that is completely formed, with its own set of ancient rules.  Do you feel blessed to have been treated as kindly as you were there?

Maura:  I always feel blessed by my luck in these strange regions... They are places in the mind, of course. Knowing this, I think I approach them without fear, and therefore find the beauty and humor in them.    

Giovanni:  The Perishing Shore and The Dominators seem to have Native American / Imperialist themes.  I sense a spirit of cultural continuity in them.  A snap shot of a myth likened to that of the Maori Whale Rider.  Do you feel that your own spiritual and artistic development has in some way mirrored the form of most mythology?  Were you devoured only to be reborn? 

Maura:  Myths sometimes provide me with emotional support, especially when I need to do something difficult, like ride a whale, or survive as an artist... Myths are full of deaths and rebirths, of heroes conquering fear and capturing magic... I have been devoured and reborn a few times, yes, and it's more encouraging to do this in the company of all the heroes who have done it before. I had never thought of your interpretation for these pictures, but I see what you mean. I welcome new perspectives... Cultural continuity, yes... The various stylistic and historical compartments we use to separate cultures and times tend to break down when I get creative. As in The Dominators, you may see incongruities that nevertheless fit together: the old Papal Triple Crown perched on the head of A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, accompanied by an assortment of Anglo-industrial thought polluters wielding an irresistible succubi magnet...      

Giovanni:  The Battle of Fallopia- Is this a reference to a private mythology of sorts?a personal fear you have excavated ? 

Maura:  Yes, it's funny, but my worst fear was once pregnancy. I thought that if I ever conceived a child, I would die... I was probably right. I love children, but putting aside my own creative and mental needs, even for a week, is nearly fatal. I also love women (a lot) but I never wanted to be one. In my twenties I waged war against my femininity: I would shave my head and wear a prom dress, or overdo my make-up to the point of absurdity... all very fabulous, but exhausting...    

Giovanni:  In Cosmic Mountain , an article published on Laurence Caruana's  Visionary Revue, you shared an experience:

"Many layers of audio-luminous fabric rippled together. They created new colors, novel musical chords, and interference patterns that were hybrids of light and sound. As the waves tightened to an inaudibly high note and a blinding light, the nighttime world shattered apart." Do you think Terence Mckenna's self transforming machine elves were similar threshold guardians?

Maura:  - McKenna's machine elves seemed to be guarding the philosopher's stone, I thought, or at any rate playing with a polyhedron that resembled accounts of it... Both Terence and Dennis McKenna seemed to want to gain scientific knowledge through their use of entheogens, and the elves appeared to promise access to alien technologies and undiscovered physical laws... My own aspirations have never been scientific. The threshold I described in The Cosmic Mountain was more of a doorway into aesthetic and ontological harmony.

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Giovanni:   The surreal/psychedelic nature of art such as your own seems to rest on the achievement of high frequency color in conjunction with a certain "visual matrix".  So how does pencil on paper continue not to play second fiddle?

 Maura:  Pencil on paper -- form without color, that is -- is really primary, for me. All the color I use is also important, but its role is dictated by the form it covers and articulates. A useful (though less than perfect) analogy is that form is the content of a story, and color is an aspect of the language used to tell it. It is much easier to begin with content, then choose words that fit the narrative.