Holly Holy studied painting in Detroit, then she moved to Philadelphia to study at the country’s first and oldest art school.
When she relocated outside of her province, it showed her what she had never considered as a core element of her concepts: a type of perspective mostly used in Detroit.
Holly used clear contact paper to test compositional ideas.
Holly partnered with a printer and they began working with clear contact paper as a planning, painting, and printing tool. Using the tool, the partners found methods for printing short runs of prints, with minimal plate processing. Some of the printing ideas lent themselves to painting, and vice versa - there was significant reciprocity between the partners as the tool’s versatility was proven.
The Print Shop Day Manager called her work “Microwave.”
Tony, the Department Head and Print Shop Day Manager, told Holly “What is this, microwave printmaking? You should be embarrassed about what you are doing, don’t do this while I am here ever again!”
He was so repulsed by how well and how cleanly the process accelerated short runs of prints, he ordered them out, to pack up and leave - and so they did.
The Print Shop Night Manager was Holly’s Partner
and so they went back to work later that evening and continued to work for the rest of the year in the evenings and night, developing more methods and ideas with the tool.
One Night, another person was working in the Print Shop
and Holly and her partner noticed him using an earlier version of their method for short runs! He was using their exact method, tool and idea! Holly asked “Who showed you that, how do you know that process?” and the person said “Tony showed us last week in class.”
Tony had stolen their idea by ordering them away during the Day.
As long as the partners never came into the shop during the day, nothing they did would be visible to the department, program or institution. Also, Tony could teach the idea as his own.
They also saw that what they had developed at Night since that time was so much better - even easier, cleaner, and more dynamic - they decided to avoid confrontations and to keep their developments secret until absolutely necessary.
Besides, working at Night was as simple as turning on a second set of lights.
“Shine a light in the dead of Night, for the Sun to shine like the Day.”