Sol Hill grew up in New Mexico, in a family of artists. He was surrounded by the works not only of his parents, but also of the artists that they exhibited in their contemporary art gallery in Santa Fe. From an early age, Sol was fascinated by the shapes that he could see, but could not yet understand nor appreciate. His varied travel experiences all over the country and throughout Europe during his formative years further influenced his creative mind. He has referred to his works as Energy Paintings because it is a hybrid process, simultaneously photography and painting, and yet is neither. His works are also considered Metagraphs because they are records of energies inclusive of and beyond those of visible light. Studying political science in college helped expand his interests, which Sol would eventually incorporate into his current Trump-centric series.
His new work, The Best Art! is an activist political art project aimed at resisting what Sol describes as “the orange agenda.” The text is fake gold lettering in a field of ground up Cheetos cheese puffs mixed with acrylic glazing. The text included in the smaller works are direct Trump quotes. Sol tells JustLuxe more about his artistic process and his latest works which poke fun at current politics.
Both your parents are artists. They founded the first contemporary art gallery in Santa Fe, which was your home base as a child. How do you feel that influenced you growing up?
I would have to say that I had no idea that being surrounded by contemporary and postmodern art was not usual. As a child, the objects that surrounded me intrigued me and although I did not understand them, the feeling I had was that they were part of a secret alchemical language that I wanted to understand. I suppose the desire to learn this secret language is part of what kept me interested in making art. I also love both the flash of inspiration and the process of figuring out how to transform the inspiration into an art object. The more I practice, the more I am coming to learn that the secret is not out there, but rather it is inside myself. It is like a meditation practice, that thing that I so want to attain, that special state of being is not going to be handed to me by the yogi on the mountain, but rather by my own practice. Making art is as much a personal growth process where I continually bump up against my own limitations and issues and then have to reconcile them and forge a new path. In this way, I am always engaging with my work as a form of mindfulness and personal growth practice. Sometimes I wish it were easier, but the process of being an artist, like many creative endeavors, forces a kind of introspection. We often find ourselves wondering if our work is good enough, deep enough, authentic enough, or if we are worthy enough or skilled enough to navigate the practical side of the arts.
