Mezzo Cammin: An Online Journal of Formalist Poetry by Women

Holly Trostle Brigham

y work contributes to the dialogue among feminist writers, historians, critics, and artists to define a space for creative work and agency for women. Through my figurative paintings, I challenge notions about the female body, redefine myths, and recover the lives of historical women. I draw upon my knowledge of art history, symbolism, and iconography to create rich stories about the women I paint. By projecting my own likeness into many of the portraits I create or by using models, I identify with the women I paint and explore my own sense of being an artist and woman in relation to accomplished women across centuries and cultures.

Here we see the pages from my newest artist book, I Wake Again, based on the life of Pre-Raphaelite artist and poet, Elizabeth Siddal. The poems are written by Kim Bridgford, who was a dear friend for 30 plus years. The pages are printed in lithography and the initial letter of each poem is done in silkscreen. The font of the poems is Morris Font. The ink color is graphite. I have reimagined key moments in Elizabeth’s life, such as her birth, her writing poetry, reading, painting, and her death. Each book contains red hair and has been bound by Maureen Cummins.

All pages are lithographs with silkscreened initial letter.

Closed book is 8 1/2” x 9”. Spread page is 8 1/2” x 17”

Cover

Inside Cover

Tennyson, on a Butter Wrap

Red-Haired Elizabeth Becomes Ophelia

Digging Up Elizabeth Siddal's Body to Get Rossetti's Poems

Patron

Autumn

I Wake Again, artist book with box and accompanying apothecary bottle with dried pigment

ARTIST BIO

Holly Trostle Brigham is a painter who creates life-sized figures in watercolor that depict historical and mythological women.

Brigham has a solo show at the Delaware Art Museum called ‘I Wake Again’: Holly Trostle Brigham on Elizabeth Siddal, which open on February 26 and goes until May 29, 2022. In 2023, Brigham will have a solo show at the Reading Museum in Reading, PA. Within the last few years, Brigham has had solo exhibitions at the Somerville Manning Gallery in 2019, at the Michener Museum in Doylestown, PA and at the Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art.

Brigham has collaborated with award-winning poet Marilyn Nelson on a series of nuns who were artists and writers, Sacred Sisters. Holly and Marilyn produced an artist’s book to document the collaboration and launched the book at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in November 2016. The edition of twelve has found homes at Smith College, Lafayette College, Penn State and the Smithsonian Institution, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, among others. Her second artist book, Mother Monument was launched at the Arthur Ross Gallery at the University of Pennsylvania in September 2018 and has been placed at the Beinecke Library, the Smithsonian Institution, the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Rutgers University and other institutions. Her third artist book, I Wake Again was completed in December 2021 and has been placed at the Beinecke Library, Rutgers University, the University of Delaware Library and the Fisher Fine arts Library at the University of Pennsylvania. It is a collaboration with the poet Kim Bridgford.

Brigham was born in Carlisle, PA, attended Smith College where she studied Art History and studied abroad in Florence, Italy. She went on to study Art History at the graduate level at the University of Pittsburgh, fine art at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and then earned her MFA in Painting at the George Washington University. She has taught at Pasadena City College, Worcester State College, the Worcester Art Museum, and the Baum School of Art. Brigham lives in Philadelphia with her husband, David, and two children, Noble and Flora and their Airedale, Minnie.

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