Hollace was fortunate to win 17 awards this year at the Lancaster County Young Artist Competition, as well as the Scholastic Art Competition.  The majority of her awards were won in the division of ceramics, an artistic field in which she has found great enjoyment.  In addition to multiple gold and silver medals, Hollace won two special awards, both given by Lancaster Craft Guild, for best of show and best body of work.  She is looking forward to competition in 2012!

Hollace spent 5 weeks this summer engaging in the “portfolio plus” program at Washington University in St. Louis.  While working to enhance her portfolio, she took college classes in Fundamentals of Drawing & Design, as well as Fashion Design.  During these courses, Hollace enjoyed new exposure to sculpture and figure drawing.  While an intense program, with 6+ hours of class time each day, there was also time for fun, and Hollace made life-long friends that enriched her experience greatly.

In the past year, Hollace has become aware of a new predator threatening the Caribbean eco-system: the lionfish. This fish, which has no natural predators in the Caribbean sea, has invaded these warm waters, and is depleting smaller reef fish at an alarming rate. The diminishment of reef fish has a domino effect on the marine eco-system which is difficult to curtail. Investigations into this problem are on-going, with many dive locations on Caribbean islands sending out exhibitions to catch the lionfish in an effort to curb destruction. To aid investigation into this issue, Hollace has designed a print for sale in Caribbean locations, and is donating all profits from the sale of this art print to fund the research being carried out.