UNsung Winter Edition 2014 | Page 7

Holly Lamkay is a painter that deals mainly with women’s issues through an autobiographical approach. Holly finds that working through issues in her own life through art helps her to identify with her emotions. She hopes her art serves the same purpose for others. Because Holly is insecure about her body, a large portion of her work involves the nude female body. She aims to create a sense of depth, conceptually and visually. The human body inspires her; she is able to express the hidden desire for self-destructive behavior and how an individual can consciously change that path. Living with bipolar disorder can be very difficult. Holly finds herself struggling and changing daily, but using art as an outlet plays a major role in her healing process. She finds herself on an “emotional rollercoaster” at times; at the same time she knows that without this disorder, her canvas would be blank and her ideas would be lost in translation. When life gets hard some of Holly’s best work is produced.