For the series Homebodies, we will explore the more personal spaces of community members, the artworks and interesting objects they’ve collected through the years, and how those pieces live with them every day. During quarantine, we’ll have the Holland staff kick things off! Here’s one where Alisha Funkhouser gives us a tour of the sweet objects in her daughter Max’s room.
1. We absolutely love this sweet little animal portrait of Max as a ram drawn by our friend Michelle Lassaline during the annual Wild Women art exhibition last fall. The ram’s bold stance and devious little side-eyed smirk is Max to a T. Michelle totally nailed it with this one and it was so fun to visit and finally sit down for a quick portrait with her that day!
2. Snagged this cute piece from the first HP Zine Fest back in 2018. It is a print of a hand-cut paper piece titled “Stargazer” by Oakland based artist, Lea Zalinski who also had an exhibition, Growing Under, up at Holland. I had just come back from maternity leave after having Max around this time and felt very much like this little alligator coming to the surface and re-emerging into the world.
3. This wonderful screen print of cowboys in a love showdown by Hannah Huntley was snagged at the second HP Zine Fest this last summer. Max also has a big plush cactus from Hannah that she calls Ms. Pickle. We just love Hannah’s work and can’t wait for her show coming up at Holland this summer!!
4. I made this hand-embroidered pinky promise pennant for an alphabet themed pop-up show the Wild Women had a couple years back.
5. Picked up this Wes Anderson inspired watercolor illustration by Ana McKay from the Micro Gallery (r.i.p.) back in 2016. It was part of a show called New Beginnings, which was curated by Hanna Kaplan and Bridget Conway who were both HP gallery interns at the time.
6. This illustration of a bear holding a pencil in a busy crowd of legs was given to me as a child by my grandmother. I always remember it being up in my bedroom throughout childhood and have thought up many stories in my head for that little bear. Not sure who the original artist is or anything else about it but I treasure it and am happy to pass it on to Max.
7. This mini soft sculpture by Charis Lillene Fleshner came from the Oddities exhibition at HP last summer. Max has a big furry blue one too, which you can see in the bottom left corner in the big pic above. We love these fun tactile pieces!
8. Bought this gorgeous print from Jaxon Northon. Can’t afford an original painting from Jaxon quite yet but we were stoked to snag a print from his recent series of local legends/heroes. There are so many fond and tragic memories surrounding Bertha and I love how glorious, powerful and free she seems in this piece.
9. Here’ a little cluster of more childhood treasures/remnants. The old, slightly grimey (borderline creepy) clown cross stitch is another piece I always had hanging in my room as a young child. I believe it was made by a cousin or aunt or something, I should find out! My mom made the drawing in the middle when she was a little girl. She even burnt the paper edges with a lighter and mounted in on wood. We came across it in an old box when my mom moved a couple years ago and I snagged it for Max’s room. We also came across the robot when we were helping my mom move. I made it back in high school ceramics when I was probably 15 or 16. Max seems to like it so it lives in her room now ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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