Rather than develop a series that strives to achieve uniformity of palette and theme in its end result, this new collection of oil paintings by Olivia Hill is unified by the root of the process- a 12”x12” square surface, but the end result is coordinated chaos, like vines that stretch and cling their way up a brick wall. This collection is inspired by the rewards and challenges of designing sets and costumes for film or theatre with limited time on a limited budget. When costly materials and time consuming outsourcing is not an option, the challenge is to exhaust every nearby resource and to let the style of the design be inspired by readily available materials.

Each one of the 12”x12” shadowboxes is a small stage. The photos of the people inside are the actors and their costumes are crafted from fabric, paper, beads, rice, seeds- only things found in the artist’s home and studio. Likewise, the sets could be anything imaginable but they had to be composed by found objects and if the objects could not be found, they had to me fabricated. This concept of letting local resources inspire a trajectory is not unique to artists today; it is a practice that should be increasingly commonly for all humans as we become enlightened to the fact that tools, materials and foods out of which we compose our lifestyles will not always be at our fingertips. This does not have to be disheartening; instead it can be seen as an exciting challenge to let locally and naturally available resources design our lives, therefore leading us in unanticipated directions.

The consequent oil paintings in this collection are each based on its corresponding shadowbox collage. These paintings begin with a unifying surface but do not strive for a unified theme or style, instead the textures and colors are dictated only by the shadowbox upon which it is based. At times, the materials in the collages inspire a smooth, lustrous painting technique such as in the human skin. In some instances the raw feeling of the materials like the linen used in the background calls for rough, unfinished moments in the painting, and sometimes elements of the collage are translated by a contrast in texture that was not planned at the conception of the piece. This series allows the audience to follow the process from the root of the idea through to its present state, experiencing the artist’s adventure.