By Brianne Ledda / Newsday
Holly Gordon likes to say that she was born with a camera and canvases in hand.
The Bay Shore artist and former art teacher first picked up a camera when she was 5 years old and she hasn’t put it down since.
The inventor of an art style she calls “photo-liminalism” — a photographic art style focused on states of transition — Gordon is known for her nature photography, and for digitally altering her photos to look like abstractions and Impressionist paintings. Some of that work will be featured in an exhibit at Bayard Cutting Arboretum in Great River starting in late August.
“The viewfinder is my canvas. And when people are so involved in shooting crisply, I am looking out through my viewfinder, I'm seeing art elements, shapes, colors, rhythm, pattern, movement,” said Gordon, 81. “I want my colors to blend together.”
The exhibition of Gordon’s work will be displayed in four sections at the Bayard Manor, a focal point on the historic 691-acre property that once belonged to William Bayard Cutting, an attorney and businessman involved in the railroad industry, land development in New York City and the founding of the U.S. sugar beet industry, according to the arboretum website.
His wife, Olivia Murray Bayard Cutting, and their daughter, Olivia Bayard James, gifted the estate to the state in 1936 as a family-trust endowed memorial to William Bayard Cutting.
“At the arboretum, we always want to have something that is connected to nature,” said Mireille Belajonas, a curator at the estate, because “the arboretum itself, the outside, is considered to be a museum for trees.”
“What we try to do inside, in the annex of the manor house, is bring nature inside,” she said, adding that displaying nature-themed exhibits from local artists has been a tradition for at least 10 years.
In a recent interview, Gordon said the arboretum has been a source of inspiration for years.
“As the Bayard Cutting Arboretum has developed and matured and evolved, so has my creativity,” she said.
As an example of creativity originating from the estate, she described a film photo of a magnolia taken more than 30 years ago that, to her mind, resembles stained glass.
“Every year after I photographed this, I would go back, I would make my pilgrimage to the arboretum to see if I could do it better and it never happened,” she said.
Gordon has made a name for herself on the local art scene, especially through her role as a board member for the Islip Arts Council, a nonprofit that develops artistic programs across disciplines. She has curated multiple exhibits for the organization, including a 2019 show focused on artists over 50.
“Holly is a very vocal and vibrant 80-plus-year-old,” said Lynda Moran, executive director at the Islip Arts Council. “She's this tiny little bundle of fire and has been really a great person on our board.”
Gordon describes her style as painting with her camera. Her photos of subjects from around the world — including Cuba, Antarctica and China — emphasizes movement and colors.
Among her recent works is a contemporary art book, "Parallel Perspectives: The Brush/Lens Collaboration," co-authored with Northport watercolorist Ward Hooper.
“We discovered that we both had an affinity for color and light. And then along the way of our collaboration, I discovered that we were following in the footsteps of Arthur Dove and Helen Torr, the early 20th century abstract artists,” Gordon said of the book.
Gordon’s art style has qualified her to join the Techspressionism movement, a modern art movement that highlights the use of technology to express emotions.
“It’s always been my aim to humanize technology for people to understand that it is a series of tools that we can use to create our vision, not that it tells us what to do and how to do it,” said Gordon, describing her work in the movement.
Gordon’s upcoming exhibit at the manor, however, will focus on her nature photography, including works of the estate itself and other photos of the Long Island environment.
Her exhibit, showcasing art from throughout her photography career, will also display altered photos of breaking waves and the garden of Impressionist painter Claude Monet in France.
Gordon’s exhibit was curated by Denise Bibro, who said she wanted to "connect Holly with the arboretum because she has quite a bit of history" photographing the area.
"We wanted to curate images that reflected the influence that arboretum has on her natural work," Bibro said. "We wanted to also convey that she's not just a nature photographer, but her work goes beyond that."
Her work will be displayed at the Bayard Cutting Arboretum from Aug. 22 through Sept. 15, open for visitors Thursday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
