https://hollyveselka.com holly veselka Mon, 10 Nov 2025 15:09:37 +0000 https://hollyveselka.com en https://hollyveselka.com/about Tue, 30 Mar 2021 21:04:13 +0000 holly veselka https://hollyveselka.com/about Holly Veselka a portfolio site&nbsp; ︎&nbsp;︎ CV <img width="903" height="1080" width_o="903" height_o="1080" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/da4cd8ab330ce3490bf21a11a22ec1f63fb534f21d9ddb25642ca284dc5708a1/Holly-Veselka-Head-Shot.jpg" data-mid="239497261" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/903/i/da4cd8ab330ce3490bf21a11a22ec1f63fb534f21d9ddb25642ca284dc5708a1/Holly-Veselka-Head-Shot.jpg" /> Holly Veselka is a new media artist, and her work has been presented at numerous venues such as Torrance Art Museum, Fotofest, Currents New Media, Artpace, Wave Hill, NARS Foundation, AURORA, and Lage Egal. Recent projects include Lost Thicket, a site-specific installation at the San Antonio Botanical Garden, and commissions for Aurora in Dallas and Frisco. Her films have screened at film festivals such as the Video Art and Experimental Film Festival in New York, and she has received numerous residencies and fellowships, including the British Council-supported X-Change program in Shetland, ACRE, Lawndale Art Center, and the Polish Academy of Sciences in Białowieża. Her work has been supported by the Puffin Foundation and the Ruth and Harold Chenven Foundation and has been featured in publications including Hyperallergic, Gulf Coast Journal, and Glasstire. This portfolio features a selection of works created since 2021. https://hollyveselka.com/fried-eggs-and-rockets Wed, 27 Aug 2025 18:05:53 +0000 holly veselka https://hollyveselka.com/fried-eggs-and-rockets Fried Eggs and Rockets, 2025 Fried Eggs and Rockets, 2025, 6:45 minutes, HD video, courtesy the artist Working from a home office, a woman is programmed to either talk to an AI about eggs and rockets, or look out the window where she sees a deer dying in childbirth in a hot landscape. So, she talks to the AI. She says… Fried Eggs and Rockets reflects on the futures we are programming into being and the fragile lives caught in that trajectory. Inspired by a SpaceX rocket launch, the dialogue is drawn from an extended conversation I recorded with ChatGPT. Using 3D modeling, CGI, and generative AI tools, I explore fragile ecologies, technological mythologies, and the uneasy relationship between care and destruction. https://hollyveselka.com/lost-thicket Wed, 27 Aug 2025 17:40:56 +0000 holly veselka https://hollyveselka.com/lost-thicket Lost Thicket, 2025 Lost Thicket, 2025, 15:30 minutes, multichannel HD video installation, 3D-printed bioplastic sculptural relief on birch panels, 162 × 192 in. and 111 × 168 in., found rocks; Commissioned by San Antonio Botanical Garden for the exhibition Reflections in Nature https://hollyveselka.com/Lost-Thicket-2 Fri, 07 Nov 2025 23:15:34 +0000 holly veselka https://hollyveselka.com/Lost-Thicket-2 <img width="892" height="1080" width_o="892" height_o="1080" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/0199aad278783ed697326766318d7cefd3757db5301b1c7cf55c33dab112d5e9/Cabin-Int-1.jpg" data-mid="240385683" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/892/i/0199aad278783ed697326766318d7cefd3757db5301b1c7cf55c33dab112d5e9/Cabin-Int-1.jpg" /> Lost Thicket (detail), 2025, birch panel with 3D-printed bioplastic relief, 162 × 192 in. Installed inside a preserved nineteenth-century log cabin, Lost Thicket reflects on the incompleteness of ecological archives. In the southern pine forests, industrial logging erased millennia of biodiversity in mere decades. In this installation, I reference sacred architecture, meditative practices, ecological loss, and digital artifice to create a subtly unsettling environment that asks how digital technologies echo extractive industries and reshape ecological memory. Inside the cabin, I use projectors to cast video onto suspended panel walls with 3D-printed relief. A meditative surround-sound composition, built from field recordings and solfeggio frequencies, enhances the immersive environment. The relief imagery and animation originate from a photographic archive I created at the Big Thicket National Preserve and developed through an experimental workflow involving AI and 3D modeling. <img width="1920" height="1080" width_o="1920" height_o="1080" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/b8d6ea719f1e1915de2be63c51aaf7bf9435d747d52b862dddcdaf3af62d771b/Cabin-Ext-1.jpg" data-mid="240385685" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/b8d6ea719f1e1915de2be63c51aaf7bf9435d747d52b862dddcdaf3af62d771b/Cabin-Ext-1.jpg" /> Lost Thicket (detail), 2025, installation at the San Antonio Botanical Garden’s East Texas log cabin https://hollyveselka.com/u-digital_smarthome Wed, 27 Aug 2025 17:47:53 +0000 holly veselka https://hollyveselka.com/u-digital_smarthome u/digital_smarthome, 2025&nbsp; u/digital_smarthome, 2025, 5:38 minutes, 4K video (web 1080p), courtesy the artist u/digital_smarthome, 2025 traces the extractive reshaping of America's southern pine forests, considering how extractive systems continue into digital technoscapes. Working with AI-altered archival images, Smart Home reveals continuities between ecological erasure and contemporary digital realities. By animating and distorting historical photographs, the archive becomes destabilized, allowing the video work to move between documentation and speculative fiction. <img width="1500" height="2250" width_o="1500" height_o="2250" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/91f271cb7158b3ff54a1748fc162a102cfc95f20ddbd9a3f0a19bda3aff3e71b/Gulf_Coast_2b_Logging_Train.jpg" data-mid="240385495" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/91f271cb7158b3ff54a1748fc162a102cfc95f20ddbd9a3f0a19bda3aff3e71b/Gulf_Coast_2b_Logging_Train.jpg" /><img width="1500" height="2250" width_o="1500" height_o="2250" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/9d7401b6b301c23a2143b60753698e5ba6bcb470053e6db30f2219bb78297334/Gulf_Coast_4b_Dousing_Rod.jpg" data-mid="240385499" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/9d7401b6b301c23a2143b60753698e5ba6bcb470053e6db30f2219bb78297334/Gulf_Coast_4b_Dousing_Rod.jpg" /> <img width="1500" height="2250" width_o="1500" height_o="2250" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/baec4d0fbd6c9b0cf12a0f5a297124b09cc5681e14277e2202e93f67345cf18d/Gulf_Coast_2a_Logging.jpg" data-mid="240385494" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/baec4d0fbd6c9b0cf12a0f5a297124b09cc5681e14277e2202e93f67345cf18d/Gulf_Coast_2a_Logging.jpg" /><img width="1500" height="2250" width_o="1500" height_o="2250" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/6f3793c60d853498ac0f6ab10b35e7019c8ee5092a76cb19d845859ea3630599/Gulf_Coast_4a_Dousing_Rod.jpg" data-mid="240385498" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/6f3793c60d853498ac0f6ab10b35e7019c8ee5092a76cb19d845859ea3630599/Gulf_Coast_4a_Dousing_Rod.jpg" /> <img width="1500" height="2250" width_o="1500" height_o="2250" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/75e87c2c1bfea843ecf6443c4d8252e6ffa80f0146781ec4ac6729eb08879a6f/Gulf_Coast_3b_Prairie_Edited.jpg" data-mid="240385497" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/75e87c2c1bfea843ecf6443c4d8252e6ffa80f0146781ec4ac6729eb08879a6f/Gulf_Coast_3b_Prairie_Edited.jpg" /><img width="1500" height="2250" width_o="1500" height_o="2250" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/529b4f53269e0848ef9844df35e168814a3d8bf31eb0e90b0c27c53f68a0aee9/Gulf_Coast_3a_Tracks.jpg" data-mid="240385496" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/529b4f53269e0848ef9844df35e168814a3d8bf31eb0e90b0c27c53f68a0aee9/Gulf_Coast_3a_Tracks.jpg" /> Earlier iterations of this project appeared as edited stills on the cover and in a multi-page spread in Gulf Coast: A Journal of Literature &amp; Fine Arts, Vol. 37.2 (Summer/Fall 2025). Portfolio for Gulf Coast: 1. Logging Train 1888, 2024 2. Logging 1907, 2024 3. Tracks 1939, 2024 4. Divining Rod #1 1939, 2024 5. Divining Rod #2 1939, 2024 6. Prairie 1900, 2024 <img width="1177" height="1500" width_o="1177" height_o="1500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/1b5918212c8c5c72e7655165dacbbbc1eb17fbf0ac307a4a9f74a7f2d0ed71ae/20250625-105505-654-37.2__Cover_for_print-2.png.jpg" data-mid="240385492" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/1b5918212c8c5c72e7655165dacbbbc1eb17fbf0ac307a4a9f74a7f2d0ed71ae/20250625-105505-654-37.2__Cover_for_print-2.png.jpg" /> https://hollyveselka.com/Selkie Tue, 06 Feb 2024 15:05:51 +0000 holly veselka https://hollyveselka.com/Selkie Selkie, 2024 Selkie, 2024, 4:00 minutes, UHD video (web version 1080p), courtesy the artist Selkie, a short video created with AI generated text to video and AI generated speech, considers themes of identity, interspecies friendships, objecthood, and creative acts.&nbsp;Selkie was included in the exhibition Apeirophobia, an exhibition of the artist collective Omnigenesis at Fotofest in Houston, TX. Omnigenesis is a self-identified network of artists, educators, writers, and practitioners invested in research and practice surrounding artificial intelligence in the arts. <img width="1920" height="1280" width_o="1920" height_o="1280" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e5703c5c94325a4725be171d1dbb058b222af10326af38302efd936484cf7864/FotoFest_Artist-Run-Artist-Organized_066_web.jpg" data-mid="222123253" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/e5703c5c94325a4725be171d1dbb058b222af10326af38302efd936484cf7864/FotoFest_Artist-Run-Artist-Organized_066_web.jpg" /> <img width="1920" height="1280" width_o="1920" height_o="1280" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/b967957d4aed3eee26915353870ade58c64fddd619af004438a2ef223a3079e1/FotoFest_Artist-Run-Artist-Organized_069_web.jpg" data-mid="222123288" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/b967957d4aed3eee26915353870ade58c64fddd619af004438a2ef223a3079e1/FotoFest_Artist-Run-Artist-Organized_069_web.jpg" /> Installation shots, Apeirophobia, 2024, images courtesy of FotoFest. https://hollyveselka.com/The-Rig Thu, 04 May 2023 14:32:01 +0000 holly veselka https://hollyveselka.com/The-Rig The Rig, 2023 The Rig, 2023, 5:37 minutes, 4K CGI video (web version 1080p), courtesy the artist I created The Rig during a residency with Shetland Arts as part of a British Council exchange focused on extraction economies. The work reconstructs an oil rig decommissioning site, where a massive steel jacket lay exposed alongside hundreds of thousands of pounds of dead marine life. Through an unconventional use of photogrammetry, I resurrected the decommissioned artifact. The Rig becomes a speculative sanctuary that shelters the life once destroyed. Drawing on hauntology and ruin ecology, the work examines how infrastructures of extraction persist as spectral presences. The work was presented in a solo exhibition at Shetland Arts in Lerwick, Scotland. To hear more about the residency and research behind the project, listen to an interview on the Coastal Knowledge Podcast hosted by Chris Bonfiglioli of the Young Academy of Scotland. More information can be found at X-CHANGE: Artist Residency &amp; Exchange through Shetland Arts. https://hollyveselka.com/Buffalo-Bayou Mon, 29 Mar 2021 18:41:25 +0000 holly veselka https://hollyveselka.com/Buffalo-Bayou <img width="2217" height="3342" width_o="2217" height_o="3342" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d500bdd6e88dd4732e3dfbe0a25e948f34627bd8a57b5d840b9947f7004db943/Bouquet.jpg" data-mid="240445720" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/d500bdd6e88dd4732e3dfbe0a25e948f34627bd8a57b5d840b9947f7004db943/Bouquet.jpg" />Untitled (Bouquet), 2021, 3D printed object in PLA bioplastic, finished with pigmented dry-matte powder coat, and containing found bayou sediment, 11 x 11 x 9 1/4 in.,&nbsp; During a residency at Lawndale in Houston, I developed a site-specific project using 3D scans collected from three archives of ecological and cultural history: Buffalo Bayou—the city’s only remaining semi-natural waterway; the Heritage Society’s artifact collection; and the Houston Museum of Natural Science study skin archive. Collecting scans became a way to peer into containers of time and trace anthropogenic change. I produced sculptural 3D prints in PLA (a corn-based bioplastic) and incorporated sediment gathered from the bayou. I finish each object with a pigmented coating that references the color and texture of the scan data. <img width="2217" height="3342" width_o="2217" height_o="3342" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/28d6aa20f3b4f98af77d5ba31259d45b25060f7b18baa727a699ecaadaf50bfe/Victorian-Bust.jpg" data-mid="240445723" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/28d6aa20f3b4f98af77d5ba31259d45b25060f7b18baa727a699ecaadaf50bfe/Victorian-Bust.jpg" />Untitled (Bust), 2021, 3D printed object in PLA bioplastic, finished with pigmented dry-matte powder coat, and containing found bayou sediment, 19x 15 x 9 in., https://hollyveselka.com/Buffalo-Bayou-2 Mon, 10 Nov 2025 14:41:14 +0000 holly veselka https://hollyveselka.com/Buffalo-Bayou-2 <img width="1586" height="1188" width_o="1586" height_o="1188" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/fb5442c8eb478403e1ddc6c4d76e18d1c21212164f72f106d63a7fbd1a055852/Bayou-Detritus.jpg" data-mid="240448559" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/fb5442c8eb478403e1ddc6c4d76e18d1c21212164f72f106d63a7fbd1a055852/Bayou-Detritus.jpg" /> Installation shot and detail, Mine the Gap, 2021, Lawndale, Houston, TX. 3D printed objects in PLA bioplastic, finished with pigmented dry-matte powder coat, and containing found bayou sediment; and found objects; dimensions variable https://hollyveselka.com/Buffalo-Bayou-3 Mon, 10 Nov 2025 15:09:37 +0000 holly veselka https://hollyveselka.com/Buffalo-Bayou-3 <img width="1871" height="2103" width_o="1871" height_o="2103" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/4a056a1c576e0793ef09f506b61458fbff603d8d4e511c697eb4c16f91cde947/Hummingbirds.jpg" data-mid="240448733" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/4a056a1c576e0793ef09f506b61458fbff603d8d4e511c697eb4c16f91cde947/Hummingbirds.jpg" /> Untitled (Box of Ruby Throated Humming Birds), 2021, 3D printed object in PLA bioplastic, finished with pigmented dry-matte powder coat, and containing found bayou sediment, 6 x 5 x 1 in. Untitled (White Ibises, Pair), 2021, 3D printed object in PLA bioplastic, finished with pigmented dry-matte powder coat, and containing found bayou sediment, 16 x 12 x 6 in. <img width="1860" height="2829" width_o="1860" height_o="2829" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e9f19a963b3fffd81016243ba5561076722d1807ecec886daa76781c295f5143/Ibises.jpg" data-mid="240448732" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/e9f19a963b3fffd81016243ba5561076722d1807ecec886daa76781c295f5143/Ibises.jpg" />