In The Spotlight With Polly Law

By WAAM on August 1, 2016 • ( 9 )

WAAM is pleased to present our exclusive interview with artist Polly Law, a Hudson Valley multi-media artist working in bricolage and mythologeny.

©PMLaw/MMXV-MMXVI; portrait: ©Tom Eberhardt-Smith/MMXV

WAAM: How would you describe yourself?

Polly: Outwardly, I am a white, middle-aged woman of average height and heft; in the hipster culture of today, this means that I am invisible. Internally, I don’t know how I got to be so old as I would swear I am really only 36. My interior landscape is as I depict in my work- dramatic, dark, and with a prevailing watchfulness and detachment.

©PMLaw/MMXV-MMXVI; portrait: ©Tom Eberhardt-Smith/MMXV

WAAM: Are you a Hudson Valley native? If not, what brought you here and how long ago?

Polly: No, I moved to Saugerties in 1994 and then to exile in Kingston in 2008. I wanted to live in the country again, after a 17 year sojourn in New York City. My physical compass points me to the North, my spiritual/philosophic compass always to the Uttermost West.

WAAM: What & why do you create?

Polly: I make paper dolls with deep personal issues. I create because otherwise I would explode with rage and frustration or implode from sheer, utter boredom.

©PMLaw/MMXV-MMXVI; portrait: ©Tom Eberhardt-Smith/MMXV

WAAM: What is your sustaining inspiration?

Polly: Exploring interior landscapes through the surrogate of nature. Trying to understand attachment in all its permutations. An abiding and futile fear of entropy.

©PMLaw/MMXV-MMXVI; portrait: ©Tom Eberhardt-Smith/MMXV

WAAM: Do you have a job to support your art? How is it relevant?

Polly: I manage a Northeast-North American-native-plant nursery in Kerhonksen, NY during the season. I spend the winter in my workroom. It is relevant because it is real, and it satisfies the scientific side of my intellect. I get to make use of my Latin, pet a lot of dogs, and make prodigious amounts of vitamin D