ARTIST SPOTLIGHT: Sneak Peek at Cheryl Holz's "The Naturalist's Cabinet" Exhibiting Now at Addison Center for the Arts -- Check it out!
Scroll down to view artwork from her show...
Mixed media artist, Cheryl Holz, gave an artist talk on Saturday, October 17, 2026 surrounded by her naturalistic work in the gallery at Addison Center for the Arts, attached to Addison High School. The show features 23 pieces ranging in a variety of sizes. Everything is for sale from $200 to $2,000.
Growing up in an unincorporated, far south Chicago suburb, across the street from a forest preserve started her on her lifelong naturalistic adventure loving all things about nature. As a youth, she described herself as a "feral child" loving to explore woods and prairies while continually making discoveries. She brings that same sense of childhood wonder to her work today that she describes as 2D reliefs. Many pieces have something special tucked inside such as a 3D bird, egg, twigs or leaves.
"The beauty and resiliency (of nature), the textures and earthy palette and the small miracles that happen daily are all fodder for my work," she states. "The mushroom that appeared overnight, the fallen tree blanketed with three types of lush moss, the bird's nest that was engineered to simultaneously contain and camouflage offspring -- these are both motivation and material for my work."
She emulates natural aging processes in her studio with paint and materials, building up and wearing away like water on rock. She has always conscientiously collected specimens and learned how best to preserve and integrate them, but lately she has been using some more indirect techniques that also capture aspects of plants, trees, or a landscape. She uses Ecoprints, digital prints, silkscreen specimens, transfers, digitally cut silhouettes, and archivally printed photographs in her work.
"My goal is to inspire, in others, the same love of nature that I experience, to bring nature into their space, to motivate them to immerse themselves in it and experience the same peace and awe that I do," she says.
Cheryl poses with a few of the pieces she created for her show.
