Campbellsville University senior Penny Holland’s dream is to become an art educator after graduating. But, she didn’t start out studying art education. Before coming to CU, Holland was enrolled in Elizabethtown Community and Technical College (ECTC) where she started training to be a diesel technician.
“It was just something I thought I really wanted to do for the money, and it wasn’t anything I was doing out of passion for it,” Holland said.
She decided to quit studying at ECTC and pursue her dreams of being an art educator at CU.
Holland said her art is inspired by her art teachers.
“A lot of people motivated me to do art,” Holland said. “My main motivators were probably my art teachers.”
She’s also inspired by artists such as photographer David LaChapelle, artist and art professor Victoria Christgen and psychedelic artist Cameron Davis.
Holland has taken several art classes such as drawing, sculpture, watercolor, oil painting, two-dimensional design, three-dimensional design, ceramics, graphic design one and art history.
“I like to do any other medium except drawing,” Holland said.
She said she enjoys “all the weird things” such as ceramics, quilting, sewing her own clothes, painting and oil painting.
“Nontraditional media, I love,” she said, “I really try to think outside of the box.”
Holland recently showed off her ceramics, oil paintings and even a queen-sized quilt at her senior exhibition, which was held Feb 9-13. One of her favorite pieces in her show was a queen-sized, heart-shaped quilt, which she began working on in October of 2025 and finished on Feb. 4, 2026.
“It is probably the most gorgeous quilt … it’s so soft and it’s so frilly. It reminds me of really girly pop vibes,” she said.
To Holland, this quilt symbolizes her wrapping up her final semester of college. The heart shape symbolizes her love for how much art she has created.
Associate Professor of Art Josh Pickens taught Holland in his two-dimensional design and three-dimensional design classes as well as his art history class. He said she’s “unbelievably creative.”
“She doesn’t settle for obvious solutions and it’s obvious how kind and thoughtful she is with art and with the other people in the classroom,” he said.
He said when he first met Holland, he recognized she had a lot of natural skill and talent and hoped she wouldn’t waste it. She didn’t.
“She had to make some very difficult decisions,” Pickens said. “She had to change a lot, she had to grow a lot and it was completely up to her whether she was going to. No one could make her do it, and it was going to be a lot of work. And she chose the hard path. She chose to change. She chose to grow. I have never been more proud of a student in my entire teaching career. That is how much she has grown and improved.”
Pickens describes her art history sketches as “unbelievably thoughtful.” He said Holland is very good at drawing and he always looked forward to grading Holland’s art history projects because her drawings and sketches always stood out to him.
“I just look at [the sketches] and I can tell that’s a thoughtful person putting time and effort into a project,” said Pickens. “It’s not rushed. It’s not something that she just did as quickly as possible and moved on with her life. She slowed down and she was thoughtful. That’s what you get out of a lot of Penny’s work.”
Associate Professor of Art Victoria Christgen taught Holland in several classes, including drawing, sculpture, watercolor and oil painting. Christgen described Holland as very passionate and social.
“She loves to meet people and she’s really good about engaging with all different kinds of people,” Christgen said. “Whenever I take her with us for the art club, she meets people of all ages from little bitty kids to elderly people when we go out because she’s so friendly.”
Christgen also describes Holland as curious and open minded, which she said are important qualities for an artist.
“She really listens to feedback,” Christgen said. “She gets excited. She doesn’t always follow the rules. Usually, it’s fine because she’s so passionate and that’s how it kind of works with art.”
Christgen said Holland is not the type of artist who will always follow the rules and trends. She’s the type of artist who will go above and beyond to, in Christgen’s words, “find something of her own.”
“I think my first impression of her was probably outgoing and bubbly and now, yes that’s still true, but now I can see that there’s more than that. That is going to make her a really good educator,” Christgen said.
One of Christgen’s favorite art pieces Holland has made is a sculpture of giant fabric lips. She said Holland has worked with fabric in a lot of her sculpture pieces, but this specific sculpture really stood out. Christgen describes Holland’s work as bright, fun and spirited.
“There’s pieces of hers that really stick with me because of that,” said Christgen. “She really broke the rules with her portrait.”
In this portrait, Holland painted herself in a bathtub. Christgen said this was totally a rulebreaker, but she thought the painting was beautiful. She said “sometimes, it’s okay to break the rules” when it comes to creating art.
Assistant Professor of Art and Design Corey Cundiff has had Holland in his ceramics and graphic design classes. He said his first impression of Holland was interesting.
“Normally art students are reclusive and a bit shy,” said Cundiff. “Not Penny. She lets you know what she’s thinking right away in such an expressive manner.”
Cundiff said Holland is very passionate about her work, which is a very sought after trait in art education. One piece of artwork that really stood out to him was a series of aquatic dishes Holland created in his ceramics class.
“I think I am most thrilled when the students find their own niche in the arts,” Cundiff said, “and I believe Penny has found hers in ceramics.”
Penny • Feb 24, 2026 at 12:28 am
Such a well-done article, I really appreciate all of the phenomenal words. Claire is a phenomenal writer and interviewer, and has become a friend to me throughout this whole process of learning about me & my peers.
Thank you, Claire. I hope all who read this have a wonderful day.
Cheers, Penny Holland.