Thomas Holland
February 20, 1937 -- August 31, 2017
Thomas E. Holland, Jr., though he really didn’t like the Jr. part, or when his parents and relatives called him Tommy all his life, left this remarkable world for parts unknown on August 31, after a month-long battle with pneumonia. The epic month of August, which included the birth of his first granddaughter, Aurora, on August 6, could have become another one of his amazing stories, had he lived to relate the saga of his battle. He could always tell you stories, slow and deliberate and full of the pathos of our lives, including tales of red converse sneakers, A Brief History of Time, the birth of his youngest daughter, summers in the Gila, lightning storms and bar fights, tarantulas migrating and snakes in the flooded waters of a monsoon.
Tom was the father of five daughters, four that he had the privilege to raise to adulthood. Tom married young, and raised two daughters. Twenty years later, that marriage ended, and Tom met and married for the second time, and raised two more daughters. This second marriage was going strong for 36 years, up until his passing. He was always an artist, and graduated from UNM, then Indiana University from one of the first MFA programs in the country. He taught art at the university level for years, ending his career at State University of New York at Plattsburgh, before escaping to Hoboken, NJ, where he worked as a frame-builder and contractor. For the past 25 years, Tom and his wife and their two daughters have lived in New Mexico, first in Las Cruces, then for the past 17 years, in Chimayo. His move to Chimayo was watershed in the evolution of his art. He was proud to claim that he was a native of New Mexico, born when his mom and dad lived in Espanola, and the barrancas behind the 19th century adobe home where he settled his family, formed the foundation for the paintings that have found an avid audience in his later years. He felt he had found his voice after many years experimenting with different avenues, and he was never more content than when he was on sight painting above the Chama, looking down on Cordova, capturing the light on the church in Trampas or working on still lives of garden flowers and portraits of family and friends in his studio.
He loved his horses and outlived them all. He spent many hours loping out toward the Organ Mountains, following the old roads, riding his big Appaloosa/thoroughbred gelding, Mr. T, and later Mr. T and Cacheton were the horses he shared the trails to Truchas with. He bought a tractor recently, and except for a few sacrificial clotheslines and fence gates, he managed to reconfigure his Chimayo property to fend off monsoon flooding.
In his early years, Tom took up sailing, as well as marathon and ultra-running. He is a veteran of many regional marathons in upstate New York. Later, just in the past five years, he took up road cycling, and competed for three years in the State Senior Olympic Games. His tall, gangly frame created an imposing figure on his road bike as he cycled the Nambe Road, and the Pojoaque access road to Santa Fe. Whatever Tom did, he was all in, including his art, his commitment to family and home, and his physical exercise.
Tom is pre-deceased by his daughter Julianne, and survived by his daughters, Sarah Holland, Emily Talley, and Sylvia Holland, his granddaughter, Aurora Rose, his grandson Adriano Agudelo, and his wife of 36 years, Michelle Holland.
February 20, 1937 -- August 31, 2017
Thomas E. Holland, Jr., though he really didn’t like the Jr. part, or when his parents and relatives called him Tommy all his life, left this remarkable world for parts unknown on August 31, after a month-long battle with pneumonia. The epic month of August, which included the birth of his first granddaughter, Aurora, on August 6, could have become another one of his amazing stories, had he lived to relate the saga of his battle. He could always tell you stories, slow and deliberate and full of the pathos of our lives, including tales of red converse sneakers, A Brief History of Time, the birth of his youngest daughter, summers in the Gila, lightning storms and bar fights, tarantulas migrating and snakes in the flooded waters of a monsoon.
Tom was the father of five daughters, four that he had the privilege to raise to adulthood. Tom married young, and raised two daughters. Twenty years later, that marriage ended, and Tom met and married for the second time, and raised two more daughters. This second marriage was going strong for 36 years, up until his passing. He was always an artist, and graduated from UNM, then Indiana University from one of the first MFA programs in the country. He taught art at the university level for years, ending his career at State University of New York at Plattsburgh, before escaping to Hoboken, NJ, where he worked as a frame-builder and contractor. For the past 25 years, Tom and his wife and their two daughters have lived in New Mexico, first in Las Cruces, then for the past 17 years, in Chimayo. His move to Chimayo was watershed in the evolution of his art. He was proud to claim that he was a native of New Mexico, born when his mom and dad lived in Espanola, and the barrancas behind the 19th century adobe home where he settled his family, formed the foundation for the paintings that have found an avid audience in his later years. He felt he had found his voice after many years experimenting with different avenues, and he was never more content than when he was on sight painting above the Chama, looking down on Cordova, capturing the light on the church in Trampas or working on still lives of garden flowers and portraits of family and friends in his studio.
He loved his horses and outlived them all. He spent many hours loping out toward the Organ Mountains, following the old roads, riding his big Appaloosa/thoroughbred gelding, Mr. T, and later Mr. T and Cacheton were the horses he shared the trails to Truchas with. He bought a tractor recently, and except for a few sacrificial clotheslines and fence gates, he managed to reconfigure his Chimayo property to fend off monsoon flooding.
In his early years, Tom took up sailing, as well as marathon and ultra-running. He is a veteran of many regional marathons in upstate New York. Later, just in the past five years, he took up road cycling, and competed for three years in the State Senior Olympic Games. His tall, gangly frame created an imposing figure on his road bike as he cycled the Nambe Road, and the Pojoaque access road to Santa Fe. Whatever Tom did, he was all in, including his art, his commitment to family and home, and his physical exercise.
Tom is pre-deceased by his daughter Julianne, and survived by his daughters, Sarah Holland, Emily Talley, and Sylvia Holland, his granddaughter, Aurora Rose, his grandson Adriano Agudelo, and his wife of 36 years, Michelle Holland.