Her time in the spotlight: Amherst artist turns 90 and has first-ever public exhibit

In one sculpture made from fired terracotta, with a natural patina, life holds and cradles life. In another sculpture, life holds and grasps death.

Life, and the outpouring of love, as artist Peg Holcomb describes it, also takes other forms in her “The Love Series” sculptures, with works titled “Beginnings” and “The Blessing.”

It was more than 40 years ago that she fashioned the pieces, while living in Weston, Connecticut, and following her participation in a silent retreat several years earlier in the 1970s.

“There I had a heart opening, and these sculptures issued out of that place,” Holcomb says.

That retreat marked her her first time away from the family she had raised.

“The retreat was about meditation, and the meditation of morning was having a safe harbor,” Holcomb said. “My heart came up, and I realized my heart was my safe harbor.”

“The Love Series” pieces are expected to be prominent in Holcomb’s first-ever public exhibit, “Peg Holcomb 90 Years — A Retrospective: One Woman’s Life Through Her Artwork,” being staged inside the hall at Amherst’s Munson Memorial Library, 1046 South East St., Saturday from 1 to 4 p.m.

Holcomb said her art appeared much like as if she was writing.

“All of my work has been a part of my life process, but I’ve never showed it,” Holcomb said.

“My work has been about awakening from this reality to a bigger reality,” she adds.

A 40-year resident of Amherst who turned 90 this week, Holcomb came to Amherst in 1985.

In her artist statement, she explains, “Loving quickens the heart to blossom, opening the windows of the soul and welcoming humanity.”

“The heart can expand to infinity and still be housed in the body,” she said.

Holcomb said “A Course in Miracles” is her spiritual guide, since buying the book at an esoteric bookshop in Westport, Connecticut in the 1970s. The book focuses on Helen Schucman, a psychologist at Columbia University in the 1950s, whose inner voice channeled Jesus.

A range of other art by Holcomb includes religious icon portraits using egg tempera, a tradition of Greek Orthodox representation of great saints, and working with Sandy Lillydahl at Grace Episcopal Church on those. She created Saints George, Gabriel, Michael and Raphael, as well as Emmanuel, the young Jesus.

There are also mandalas made from pen and ink drawings and pastels that are highly symbolic showing the journey of life, the birth of the spiritual and the birth of the divine, along with woodcuts, monoprints, and juvenilia, such as paintings she completed as a child and a teenager.

Interspersed will be photographs of Holcomb from throughout her life, to give the exhibit context.

The retrospective was encouraged by her son, Tim Holcomb, with support from his three other siblings, who wanted the show to be a reflection of where their mother has been over the course of her life. “We’re marking a day in the life of a woman, an artist, a mother, a community, a family,” he said.

Tim Holcomb said this will invigorate the community and help to heal the separation from God. “I think her work will prompt a lot of conversation among people about spiritual things,” Holcomb said.

“I so appreciate being celebrated in this way by my kids,” Peg Holcomb said. “I never thought it would happen, but the the process of going through years of my work is awesome.”

Tim Holcomb is using his skills at building sets for plays and other productions to create pedestals on which the sculptures will go, niches for the icons, and walls to hang paintings. He anticipates there will be room for 30 to 40 pieces from those scattered in many areas of her home.

Peg Holcomb has also been an impressive journaler, according to her son, and he’s encouraged her to save manuscripts so people will better understand her and the time in which she has lived.

She observes she has used the ayahuasca vine and followed the guidance of Stanislav Grof and his naturally induced altered states holotropic breathwork. “I’ve always said my mother is 30 years ahead her time,” Tim Holcomb said.

Having worked professionally as a massage therapist, Peg Holcomb said she is largely retired from doing art now. “If I’m moved to (I will), but I’ve not been moved to for the most part,” she said, adding that she still makes handmade cards to send to her grandchildren.

While the point of her art was more about the creative process, with no intent for the works to be in a gallery, Holcomb said she is ready for her time in the spotlight.

“It’s amazing, it’s incredible,” Holcomb said. “I feel so seen and I feel so appreciated.”

Scott Merzbach can be reached at [email protected].