Hollis Sigler facts for kids

Hollis Sigler (born March 2, 1948 – died March 29, 2001) was an American artist. She won many important awards for her art and for her teaching. One big award was the Distinguished Artist Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2001.

Early Life and Art Studies

Sigler was born Suzanne Hollis Sigler in Gary, Indiana. Her family moved to Cranbury, New Jersey when she was eleven. She finished high school there in 1966.

Hollis loved art from a young age. She started painting in elementary school. She studied art at Moore College of Art in Philadelphia. She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in 1970. Later, she went to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. There, she received her Master of Fine Arts degree in 1973.

At first, Sigler had success with paintings of underwater swimmers. These were very realistic. But by 1976, she changed her style completely. She wanted to move away from realistic art. She started painting in a "faux-naïve" style. This means it looked simple, like art made by someone untrained. Her new art focused on a woman's view of the world. Her paintings often showed parts of her own life.

Artistic Career and Style

Sigler's unique art style looked simple and childlike. She painted scenes with furniture, clothing, and doll-house like rooms. She also painted suburban landscapes. These objects often stood for female figures. For example, You Can't Always Get What You Want (1978) shows one of her doll-house interiors. This painting is now in the Honolulu Museum of Art.

Hollis Sigler always gave her artworks strong, meaningful titles. Some examples include She Always Thought She Was Wrong (1982) and Good Times Just Passing Through (1983).

Art About Women's Lives

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Sigler's early art focused on the struggles of women. In 1985, her art began to change. This was after she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She started to show her feelings and facts about her illness in her paintings. She would often add quotes or phrases to her art.

Her simple, bright style stayed the same. The colorful pictures, framed by her writing, looked cheerful. But if you looked closely, you would see houses on fire or angels going to heaven. These images showed her experiences living with cancer.

Sigler received many awards for her art throughout her life.

Exploring Female Identity

Sigler's paintings from the 1970s were influenced by other artists in Chicago. These artists used styles like Expressionism and Surrealism. Like many other artists who focused on women's issues, Sigler created art that explored what it meant to be a woman.

One example is Let Me Love You in Fleshy Colors (1977). This painting shows a bathroom scene with two unclear figures in a shower. It uses bright colors. This painting helped create new ways for female artists to make art. Sigler often called the unclear figures in her art "She" and "The Lady."

The Breast Cancer Journal

In 1999, Sigler published a book called Breast Cancer Journal. It was a picture journal with sixty paintings. These paintings showed her journey and struggles with breast cancer. The bright rooms and vivid nature scenes in her art rarely had people in them. The paintings showed illness by using images of empty rooms, houses, and landscapes.

Things like fire and floods were common in her paintings. They were metaphors for her pain. For instance, in Maybe It Was in Something I Ate?, a chair sits in an empty room. The wall behind it is burned by flames. Sigler included facts she learned about breast cancer in her art. She also showed the many feelings women have when they get diagnosed, treated, or recover.

Many paintings from this series were shown in art exhibits. Some copies were even hung in hospitals. This was part of a program by the Society for the Arts in Healthcare.

Impact of Illness on Art

In August 1985, Sigler was diagnosed with breast cancer. She was 37 years old. The cancer returned in 1991. She had surgery and chemotherapy. But by 1993, the cancer had spread to her bones. Breast cancer ran in Sigler's family. Her great-grandmother died from it, and her own mother also died from breast cancer in 1995.

After her cancer diagnosis, Sigler made five special prints in 1985. These were her first artworks about her illness. The prints had titles like When Choice isn't Possible and There is Healing to be Done. They showed a darker side to her art about women. Sigler said in 1994 that she thought her art would change as she changed. But while the meaning of her work changed, her visual style stayed the same.

Teaching Career

You Can't Always Get What You Want by Hollis Sigler, Honolulu Museum of Art

In 1978, Sigler became a teacher at Columbia College Chicago. She taught in the Art and Design department. As a teacher, she knew a lot about modern art. She was also very good at sharing this knowledge with her students. She liked taking her students on field trips. They would visit places like the Art Institute of Chicago and the Field Museum. This helped them learn about art and culture firsthand.

Sigler received many teaching awards. This included the College Art Association's Artist Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2001.

Hollis Sigler's art is held in many public collections. These include the Art Institute of Chicago, the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Honolulu Museum of Art, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. Her work is also at the National Museum of Women in the Arts.

Personal Life and Death

Sigler's partner for 21 years was Patricia Locke, a jewelry designer.

Hollis Sigler died from breast cancer on March 29, 2001. She was 53 years old.