Tony Hollums Artist

I am a professional artist working and living in New Orleans. My path to art was not direct, but I’m proud to say it is my 13th year creating art full-time without needing another job to sustain me. In 2023, I opened a gallery located at 1000 Royal Street, New Orleans, Louisiana. My artwork is also featured at the Louisiana Art and Science Museum Shop located in Baton Rouge.

As a kid in West Haven, CT I drew comic book characters, played lots of video games and created my own board games. As a teenager, I often spent weekends and summers installing HVAC duct work with my dad while I taught myself to play bass and I studied architecture. I attended college in Rhode Island, as a architect major, only to change direction upon discovering I was terrible at math. I became an art major and my love of music became an obsession. I part of a college radio show, played bass in several bands, and hosted open mic nights. My senior year, while researching my thesis on Chinese landscape painting, I began experimenting with how to combine music in art. My first fusion of art and music was using my bass amp to move things around a canvas, which made for a great mess and a fun live show.

With a BA in visual studies, minor in art and architectural history and another in music, I moved to Boston to join a band. I travelled the Northeast for the next five years and during this time I got another degree in audio production and recording and and continued to explore my interest in fusing art and music. In 2010, I started to incorporate color in my work and was fascinated by how watercolor as a medium presents the texture of the paper. I learned to capture the detail of my linework through the integration of color.

In 2011, I left my band and moved to New Orleans where I focused on my art instead of music; I've never regretted it. My current body of work began with my Musician Series and Notes Series - a product of my constant desire to fuse two of my great passions. I also gather inspiration from other sources. For example, the Periodic Table is inspired by my love of science. It took me two years to create the entire table and each element is atomically accurate. The entire piece is roughly 12’ x 4’. Hall of the Bard and Bard Rehearsal are inspired by my love of maps and Dungeons and Dragons.

I am also a father, partner and friend who has struggles and joys. My Thoughts Series explores aspects of the internal self. I was especially inspired around the time when my wife was pregnant with our child - I will let you guess which pieces were inspired by my approaching fatherhood :)