So, are you BLU?

Hollace
By Kimberly Toms
All Photos Copyright Hollace Metzger    
Fall 2007

Name: Hollace Metzger

Age: 31

City: Williamsburg (Brooklyn), NY

Work: Architect, Painter, Poetess, Photographer

A remarkably creative soul was born east of Cleveland 31 years ago.

Yes, Cleveland.

Her resiliency was first tested at 13 months of age, as pneumonia almost killed her. Perhaps it was this experience that freed the spirit of an angel from its mortal shell, to explore the earth with a perspective one would expect to find only in Heaven, at a table reserved for da Vinci, Picasso, Pavarotti, Frank Lloyd Wright, Marie Taglioni, Vivaldi, Emily Dickenson, Thoreau and, occasionally, the Great Moderator of the Table Debates, Einstein, himself.

For now, she remains bound to the terrestrial as Hollace Metzger.

Grandfather an architect and contractor, father a contractor, Hollace was exposed to urban artistry from a very young age. These two men are named as some of her greatest influences, as she wanted to study architecture to appease her hunger for both deconstruction and reconstruction.

Art, though, must sometimes evolve, both in the mind of the artist and in its produced form. Her evolution began through dance and television commercial acting, both in high school and later in New York City . In college, painting became a passion.

Through college, she very convincingly committed to continued, fulfilling self-discovery and education. She graduated from the University of Kentucky in 1999 with a degree in Architecture (having been Student Body President), which included a stint at John Carroll University in Cleveland to study Advanced Physics. Finally, her Masters Degree in Architecture was completed in 2005, at the Architectural Association of London.

Poetry, now published in her recent release, “Observing the Labyrinth from Heaven,” is a written presentation of her artistry, as in her words “it defines a sense of space, just like architecture.”

Whether it is photography, painting, writing, work as an architect, or dance, Hollace prefers large canvasses. In a recent conversation with her, she divulged about her urban existence, “I work in a 17^th floor office over Manhattan . I find that I spend too much time on my computer, which is wasting a lot of my own life and preventing interaction with other people,” to the degree that her easily mused spirit finds suitable. She continued, “I need many different types of people to remind me of what life is. So, it is my time to blossom.”

But, how does such a worldly, inspired soul further blossom? World travel. So in July of this year, not for the first time, Ms. Metzger packed her bags for Europe . It is not long ago that she contemplated her thirtieth birthday in the same method. She was 29 when she realized that there was a sudden, heavy worry about turning 30 and needed to “find my own way and who I am. So, I spent time in Glasgow and Venice . I feel embraced in Europe , safe – despite being pick-pocketed and having to sleep in a train station by myself. Regardless of that, there I am understood.”

Of being single, Hollace says, “I forge friendships through open-minded and spirited interaction. I need many different types of people to remind me of what life is. Being single for five years has given me time to figure out who I am. I concentrated upon myself.” Judging from her evolution within her arts, those five years of self-discovery have not been misspent. But, that pride and happiness are interlaced with a familiar yet subtle longing for an intimate sharing of her heart.

For now, “my ultimate dream is to design a modern art gallery and to be able to show a piece of my own, even if it is just in a back room! But, if I could take away the politics involved, I would be an architect forever.”

As she travels about Europe , we receive periodic correspondences from Ms. Metzger. They are always full of cheer and warmth:

I have been traveling for almost three months now, reading my poetry book at different venues, beginning in Dublin and Scotland, then onto Venice where I fell back in love with my favorite city of cities…then hooked up with the band Method of Defiance and was a temporary tour manager in Athens and private photographer in both Athens and in Paris...still single (although very difficult in Europe!), and just received a painting commission for a professor at Columbia University which I hope to begin in my new home (for this month) in Montmartre, Paris! Quite inspirational walking the same streets as Picasso and all the rest who once blessed/cursed these streets! This is all very crazy and beautiful and a dream, really.

Each and every email take us back to one thing she said during our first conversation. That statement of eight little words reminds us of the true nature of most artists, those engaged in their humble, never-ending exploration for the meaning of life, nature of humanity and self-discovery. As she spoke, I could sense a lock of her hair being twisted insecurely around her tiny fingers. “Maybe I am pretty good at some things,” she softly conveyed. It is that childlike sentence that epitomizes the awakening of a true artist, as she quietly and independently travels the path of Masters before her.

One day, Ms. Hollace Metzger will sit at that table in her Heaven…and, as she interjects with boldness and self-assuredness of twice her once physical size, Einstein will proudly moderate.