Holly Parker Bull

Holly Parker Bull is an artist who strives to make the invisible, visible. She works in 2D and 3D and enjoys experimenting with different techniques to produce illustrations in a variety of styles. Her body of work includes expressive paintings in acrylic and oil, precise Fineliner drawings and stop motion animations made with plasticine. Her Fineliner compositions feature small, symbolic imagery, designed to encourage the viewer to take a closer look at the work to reveal more. She recently collaborated with musician Piper Madison to produce a stop motion animation set to music. They jointly directed and choreographed the timeline, with Holly completing the design and editing. 

Holly’s work discusses her experiences living with a chronic illness. No aspect of her work is explained, or ‘ties in’ with the composition. This is to suggest to the viewer that illnesses first need to be understood to enable people to recognise the symptoms.

‘’The symptoms and experiences from an invisible illness are hard to articulate verbally because words are so subjective. I worked on a month-long series, tracking daily how my pain varied from the morning, afternoon and evening. 

Yellow - 1-4/10, Blue - 5-7/10, Red 8-10/10, Size = how intense. 

From a chronic illness point of view, I think pain scales are too subjective to use. My main symptom is pain; it’s constant. Pain scales are great for determining the intensity of short term pain quickly. But I couldn’t narrow down a score. With fibromyalgia, different parts of your body hurt at different times, and the sensations vary. My hip could be an 8/10, whereas my arms could be a 4.” 

Frida Kahlo and Vincent van Gogh inspire her because they communicate their pains and struggles through their work, particularly how Kahlo wasn’t afraid to shock her audience with gory or outlandish imagery. Holly says, “The work she made surrounding her life with poliomyelitis is truly inspiring to me. I see some comfort in those paintings, amongst the chaos, I can imagine the pain she’s communicating, and it makes me feel less lonely about my illness.”

Holly completed her art and design foundation course in 2016, and later received her illustration degree from the University of Brighton. She currently resides in Plymouth, UK. 

Contact

Instagram: @yllo_hart