Funny & Interesting People: Remy Holwick
(Painting by Remy)
Remy Holwick (www.remyholwick.com) is an artist, designer, muse and mother living and working in Los Angeles. Last time we met up she was entangled in literally dozens of projects as both muse —see buff monster photo or go to www.vanarno.com where she is in “saint baklavia’s halo of bees”— and artist— painting, drawing, designing, creating. Her background is, not surprisingly, just as diverse. Remy grew up in Hawaii where she learned how to
dance the hula as part of the required public school curriculum. She has supported herself with jobs as unusual as porn store attendant to, after attending Reed College, supermodel. Now, still in her early twenties, Remy is managing a successful art and design career and a bubbly baby boy, John Henry Holwick. So without further ado, meet Remy!
(Photo of Remy by http://www.buffmonster.com/)
Cameron: What are you up to?
Remy: Launching my new clothing line, Beg Borrow Steal, this June at Urban Outfitters. Actually I’m answering these questions from the Joshua Tree Inn, where we’re shooting photographs for the campaign. I’m also working on launching a second line of clothing featuring the work of my amazingly talented artist friends… once those launch, I think I’ll be heading into the studio for a while. I’d like to finally do a solo show somewhere in Los Angeles. I was, for a long time, afraid of the idea because my dad did it, and it was so important to maintain my own identity that I shunned the part of myself that wanted what he had. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve learned that it is possible to be a part of my family, and honor and acknowledge the work my parents did, and still be my own person.
Cameron: Your dad (Wayne Holwick) was an artist, how did his work influence yours?
Remy: Being born into a house of artists meant that art was something we lived: it was never a choice, or something to just try as a hobby, or even something that was just a career. I have very clear memories of being young and building towers out of these big moldy volumes of the works of Picasso and Rembrandt, and “the book of the world’s most beautiful paintings”.
(Wayne Holwick next to Hart St. Girl)
When I was six I knew that my favorite painting was Matisse’s goldfish, and I was aware of the problem with defining “art” at a ridiculously young age. Having this particular perspective as a young child definitely affects the way I look at art as an adult.
(Matisse’s Goldfish)
As I’ve gotten older, I have developed a tremendous respect for the trajectory my dad’s work took; he started as a street artist in the late 1960s, and then became a very good photo-realist in the early 70’s— that work provided a good demonstration of his ability as a draftsman and technical painter. Later, he moved away from photo-realism and his work became radically different. He began painting huge canvases, eight and ten feet each, with surreal scenes rendered with charcoal and oil in this remarkable, sketchy, dreamlike way, sometimes with very controversial subject matter. It is a very brave thing, to me, to move away from a style that so clearly demonstrates your talent and workmanship, and ask your audience to trust you as you interpret the world for them in a style that is less obviously, technically impressive and much more introspective and personal. The fact that he succeeded in a critically successful way impresses and inspires me even more. The LA times critic at the time, Henry Seldis, had very high praise for his late work. I can’t imagine asking someone like that to take a leap of faith with me. I am not that brave yet. I hope that one day I will be.
Cameron: You’ve done so many very different jobs, how has each one left it’s mark? Are there any you ever wish you still did?
Remy: I come from a very bohemian background. My mother moved us to Hawaii when I was six, and times were often pretty tight. I worked since I was 13, first as a tour guide for Japanese teenagers, then in an independent record store called “requests”. It’s still there, and I still occasionally pull shifts when I’m on island. I was so profoundly shaped by working there; my boss, Vince, collected silkscreen rock posters, everything from family dog and mouse and kelly in the 60s to coop in the 90s. I wanted to learn to do work like that. I think it still shows in my work. And I met coop two years ago. I tried to play cool but I was secretly jumping up and down on the inside— one of the only artists I’ve ever met that I had an honest to god “fanboy” reaction to.
(Painting: Wayne Holwick, “On the beach”)
In college I worked in the mail-room, and learned that I couldn’t work sorting paper all day and then go home and work with paper, because it made my fingers hurt. I moved to the
costume shop, and learned clothing construction. At that time, I also worked in a porn store and learned what I NEVER wanted to do with my life. I left the porn store and took off on a circus-juggling tour of the nation (I used to be a pretty good contact juggler), and kept that up for a couple years. I really loved that life. It taught me how to be more independent, and that I could do something creative that made people happy. That was a major revelation. I only quit when I was offered a modelling contract in New York, and I miss that life, too. I learned SO much traveling as a model. I learned a lot about fashion, but more than that, I learned about being honest with myself about my priorities— when you’re always on the go and living out of a bag, and far away from the people you care about, you spend a lot of time with yourself thinking. Also during that time, I learned all the poise I have today from my agent, Neal Hamil. He taught me how to act like an adult. It’s maybe the single most important lesson I learned while modelling, and it is one that I will NEVER EVER forget.
(Above: Remy contact juggling and in CK jeans ad)
I came to LA 5 years ago, when I needed a break from that work. I thought it would be a two week break… but things rarely go as planned. I started working here as a fashion designer, and finally got a chance to really do the artwork that I had been wanting to do while I was modelling. I started writing and drawing comics. I started a personal blog Everything snowballed like that, and now my whole life is a big amalgamation of all of those elements. I am a project-oriented artist. I am not someone that will ever be “the girl who paints those doe-eyed cartoon graffiti women” or “that realist painter”. I take on artistic projects and roles and explore them, see how they relate to me and my life. I’ve also been an occasional art model on the lowbrow and fine art scene in LA— I’ve sat nude for some pretty risque work— and I feel like seeing how I appear to those artists also contributes to this general mission of taking on projects and exploring my sense of self through them.
(Remy and Rocky)
Cameron: After going through so many incarnations to get where you are today what advice would you give to young artists about how to achieve their goals and do their work? Do you need to be floating out in the world for a bit before finding success? What advice will you give your son about finding a career?
(Cartoon, Painting, and Drawing by Remy)
Remy: My mother tells me occasionally when I show her my work that her best friend, Rocky, used to call us all “the real deal” because we lived the things that mattered to us, and it showed through in our day-to-day actions. She tells me that this applies to my work, and I couldn’t say it better. Art has to be “about” something, and I think that the more you can work around the things you understand in life, the more clearly your work will reflect and communicate that understanding, so I think it is crucial that artists live the life they want to communicate as fully as they can—I think my work is best when it is honest to the life that I’ve lived, and I think/hope/pray that if it resonates with people, it’s because they can feel that it is the “real deal”.
As far as advice for my son, I tell him daily that I hope he grows up to be exactly what he wants to, because I think that that is one of the most difficult and rewarding things to be. So often we end up making compromises because they are easy or safe. I am a big believer in making the decisions that are responsible to the highest form of the person you aspire to be. Sometimes that involves compromise, but that compromise doesn’t always have to come in the form of giving up your dream of being a rock star so that you might raise a baby and work in an office.
Cameron: What is your dream project?
Remy: I have several. Because I work so often in fashion, I’d love to be part of the high fashion world’s recent concern with art. In my dream world, it would be with either Prada’s art foundation, or the Chanel brand, because they do so much with the arts as well, or something in collaboration with the YSL brand. Monseiur St Laurent was an art collector and is an icon. So many of his collections referenced art, and they were all genius. I have a picture of him taped to my fridge. At one point I got his blond floppy haircut to go with my huge black glasses, just to make myself smile when I got up in the morning and looked in the mirror. It definitely made me laugh.
I’d also like to write a longer form graphic novel at some point, but that’s far off in the future…
Cameron: Whose work inspires you? (Authors/Artists etc.)
Remy: That’s a long list. In high school, I was inspired by works of art. I loved paul pope’s comics, Matisse’s paintings, schile’s drawings.
(Cartoon by Paul Pope)
Now I am surrounded by artists and I am inspired by the processes and work ethics of my amazing friends— Gary Baseman, who I work with as much as I can because of his amazing drive and positive energy, korin faught and natalia fabia, who sit up painting for days at a time, Van Arno, kukula, who believes so resolutely in what she is doing and has taken so many risks to get where she is. Also R. Kikuo Johnson, because we grew up together and I think his work has inspired me on more levels and for longer than maybe anyone but my father.
(Ed Ruscha, Standard Station)
I still also have my heroes. Like I said, St Laurent always, Ed Ruscha, whose work I admire endlessly, Vermeer, because I have had it hard wired into me to love him, and my amazing parents, because of the incredible drive each of them had to do what mattered most and never be content to settle to live ordinary lives.
Thanks Remy!
