Article by James Sellman
On September 30, 2024, artist and musician Lonnie Holley spent an afternoon in the Richmond home of fellow artist Sanford Kogan. I brought everyone together for the visit, including the professional photographer Matt Arnett, and Greg Wahl, writer and art critic. The five of us shared two and a half hours of conversation and reflection, with Holley exploring Kogan’s work and the parallels between their approaches to found materials. While their artistic outcomes differ, both share a deep commitment to transformation – finding new life in discarded objects.
Holley speaks with the authority of humility and wisdom, drawing on decades of personal history, philosophy, and art making. Known for his ability to weave metaphor into everyday language, he calls his most closely held ideas “black secrets” – wisdom rooted in the lived history of African American communities in the Deep South. “Don’t tell secrets to anyone until you can trust this person,” he says, explaining why trust has been the foundation of his relationships with Arnett, myself, and others for decades.
One of his more memorable turns of phrase likens mental block to “brain constipation.” The remedy? A laxative of sorts – whether art, music, love, or even humor – to free the mind. For Holley, this prescription has defined his life’s work. Through both visual art and music, he has created a body of work that is at once therapy, communication, and advocacy.
Holley’s guiding theme, “See more to be more,” reflects his belief that seeing – truly seeing – opens the door to understanding ourselves and others. He describes this as a process of discovery, even divine inspiration. His art invites that kind of seeing: reinvention of the cast-off, transformation of what manufacturers never imagined beyond utility.
His philosophy is pragmatic as well as poetic. He warns against the narrow vision of those who “go through life not seeing anything but directly what’s in front of them,” missing out on what matters. In Holley’s view, art is essential to life’s evolution. Without engagement, people become stagnant – what he calls “the devil’s workshop.”
Holley’s personal history is never far from the surface. Abandoned as a child, institutionalized, beaten, and neglected, he struggled with addiction and destructive relationships before a near-fatal car crash more than 50 years ago prompted a complete redirection. Since then, he has turned hardship into art, addressing racism, poverty, segregation, and lack of opportunity.
One of his earliest formative memories comes from evenings spent outside a drive-in theater. With no money for admission, he climbed trees to watch the films from a distance. Though the images reached him without sound, he invented dialogue and imagined music to fill the silence. That exercise in projection and invention – transforming absence into presence – became a rehearsal for the improvisatory imagination that defines his art and music.
In 2011, Holley expanded his creative practice by becoming a musician and singer, combining his songwriting skills with his beliefs in what he calls “Mother Universe.” His performances – often on a simple electric keyboard – are entirely unrehearsed, blending hypnotic vocalizations with accessible lyrics about spiritual growth, personal transformation, and the power of the individual to change both their own life and the world around them. He describes his music as “a thumbs-up for Mother Universe,” and often tells audiences, “My mama wanted me to be a preacher, but my art is my message. My art is my healing, and I want to help others heal through it.”
Holley’s music, like his art, is improvisational and universal. Whether performing solo or with other musicians, he crafts spontaneous compositions that merge poetic storytelling with symbolic imagery, often echoing themes present in his sculptures and paintings. His collaboration with the label Dust-to-Digital brought him a Grammy and expanded his audience, cementing his reputation as both musician and visual artist. Over the past 15 years, he has released eight commercially available recordings and received numerous awards, both regional and international.
Holley is as much philosopher and teacher as he is artist. He sees creativity as a language capable of putting history and culture into context, identifying problems, and envisioning solutions. For him, both art and music are instruments for change – a means of resisting the forces that constrict communities and diminish human potential.
From the discarded metal of Birmingham’s streets to stages and galleries around the world, Lonnie Holley has built a career on transformation. His work speaks across boundaries, urging us all to “see more to be more.”

JIM SELLMAN is a clinical psychiatrist in Richmond, and President of the Folk Art Society
As seen in the Folk Art Messenger: