Holly Crocker Garcia

Throughout her young adult life, Holly Crocker Garcia explored many different art forms including music, ballet, drawing, photography, book illustration, and sculpture. However, after a course in sculpting technique at Silvermine Guild School of the Arts in New Canaan, Connecticut, she realized that sculpting was her primary love and subsequently attended Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, Rhode Island.

Searching for a mentor and further education in sculpture, Holly then moved from the East Coast to San Diego, California where she met the late figurative sculptor, Frank Morgan. Working in Morgan’s studio as an apprentice for five years, she developed the skills of clay modeling, mold-making and casting and began selling her pieces in local galleries. Relocation to San Francisco brought further gallery sales, shows and commissions. Now living in Maryland, Holly works out of her home studio.

Although sculpting is her profession, Holly has always had a deep love and appreciation for the ballet. As a young girl she studied at the Joffrey Ballet School in New York and at two Connecticut ballet academies. While in California she created a series of bronzes featuring members of the Oakland Ballet. On the East Coast Holly created ballet sculptures of Paloma Herrera, Principal Dancer with American Ballet Theatre in New York City, and Petra Conti, Principal Dancer with Boston Ballet.

"To me, ballet in performance is an art form which is incredibly rich in beauty and emotion, all expressed through the exquisite line of the human body. It is also a very fleeting, ethereal experience which one can take away only in the mind's eye. Through sculpting dancers, I try to capture permanently the moving, visual experience of the ballet. The element of music is also very important in my ballet sculpture and each of these pieces has been inspired by a particular piece of music as well as by the dancer's character.

Speaking to the diversity of her sculpture she adds, “In contrast to the energy and grace transmitted through dance pieces, I also sculpt classic figures in more quiet, introspective attitudes. After working intensely on a dance piece, I am ready for a restful figure study – and then again for the fluidity of the ballet. It seems to be a very natural ebb and flow for me”.

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