{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"Artist Hollis Callas, Part 2 (S8E9)","description":"In Part 2, we pick up where we left off in Part 1. The \u201cbootcamp\u201d post-college and early career experience Hollis had at Creative Circus was interesting\u2014she found herself seemingly taking it more seriously than many who\u2019d come right out of a four-year program. She also balanced getting engaged and married in this time. Every year, Hollis\u2019s grad school organized portfolio reviews with advertising agencies in either New York or San Francisco. Luckily for all of us, the year it was her turn, Creative Circus took students to The City. Once here, they met folks from big firms, including one that offered her an internship. It was Hollis\u2019s first visit to San Francisco. And on that first time, I have to give her credit here\u2014she went to North Beach, had drinks at Gino and Carlo\u2019s and pizza next door at Golden Boy. I may or may not have spent New Year\u2019s Day in a similar way last week. Just sayin\u2019. Hollis\u2019s takeaway from that first impression? \u201cThis is a really beautiful town.\u201d We go on another sidebar at this point about the very San Francisco phenomenon of the sun blinding us (I call it \u201clasers\u201d), probably because of the hills here, right? It was 2016. Her husband was working back in Georgia, but she called him up and told about the internship offer, which would last three months. He was in a meeting back East where he learned that his company\u2019s West Coast salesperson was about to quit, and he was tapped to take over. The Universe, again, spoke. The newlywed couple packed up their four-runner and headed west with their stuff and their dog. Ahead of the drive, which would end in her husband\u2019s first visit to SF, Greg\u2019s grandma told him he had an aunt in The Bay, in Walnut Creek. Aunt Suzy\u2019s house was their landing spot, from which they\u2019d take BART into The City to look for a place of their own. Hollis had a friend from college who keyed her in on the Inner Richmond as a potential place to live. We go on yet another sidebar, this one about how Hollis grows actual vegetables at her Inner Richmond home. They found a studio on Seventh Avenue and Lake Street and moved in with their dog, Mamut. A couple years later, they moved on up to a one bedroom, where they live to this day. Hollis\u2019s internship got extended six months, which was fortunate. Her husband\u2019s job paid a Georgia salary. IYKYK. That internship became a job, and so they were able to stay, something the couple wanted to do. Her husband got a job based here, and it all worked out. I try my hardest to forget what chronology is and jump ahead, but Hollis brings us back to pre-pandemic times. Her design job was corporate-y, but she enjoyed it nonetheless. She got an animation put up in Times Square in this era. Still, owing to the buttoned-up, corporate nature of the job, she was burning out. The Creative Circus invited her back to talk to students. But yet again, Hollis ended up one-on-one with a recruiter from REI. She respected the company and gave in. A trip to Seattle, to REI HQ, later, the company offered Hollis a job on their brand team. She wasn\u2019t thrilled to be leaving her adopted home in San Francisco, but it was a good opportunity. It was January 2020. Fast-forward to March that year, and the movers were ready. Jobs were quit. Hollis and Greg had just returned to SF from a backpacking trip when REI told them that the movers were not coming, and that her job would start remotely a couple weeks out. Do y\u2019all remember March 2020? How the lockdown was supposed to last \u201conly\u201d until April 1 (dude)? Yeah, so REI told Hollis that her job would be a little different than what they hired her to do. And then they told her, \u201cPsych! JK. No job for you.\u201d (I\u2019m paraphrasing.) Hollis did what any sane San Franciscan would do. She drove to Baker Beach, screamed at the Pacific Ocean, and came home and made a plan. She\u2019d had a going-away party already, for fuck\u2019s sake. It was brutal. The world was upside-down. And it all turned out to be the kick in the pants she needed. Hollis started her own company. We then go into the story of the open call for art to adorn San Francisco\u2019s \u201cI voted\u201d stickers. The contest had come across her radar, and she filed it away for later. Then a relative sent it to her along with the suggestion that she give it a try. It turns out there were more than 600 applicants (in her estimation). The SF Department of Elections had a panel that narrowed that down to 10. And then it went to The People to decide. I remember all of this vividly. Needless to say, Hollis\u2019s design won. Hollis is also integral to the Clement Street Art Walk, which she runs with Fleetwood\u2019s Nico. The next one will be on March 19. Fall this year will see the next Clement Street Art Fair. As of our recording, she didn\u2019t have any art shows, but please browse Hollis\u2019s website of beautiful work and buy some (and sign up for her newsletter). Follow Hollis on Instagram. Or just walk down Clement Street on any given day and chances are high you\u2019ll see her. (I learned as we shot photos after our recording that Hollis designed the newly painted intersection crosswalk lines at Sixth and Clement.) We end the episode rather uniquely, for this show anyway. Hollis asks me if I have a favorite flower. You\u2019ll have to listen to find out. (#dahliatalk) Photography by Jeff Hunt ","author_name":"Storied: San Francisco","author_url":"http:\/\/www.storiedsf.com\/","html":"