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Red Bank Vice Mayor Hollie Berry is Carrying a Torch and ‘Painting’ with Fire

Writer's picture: Mason Edwards!Mason Edwards!

By Mason Edwards, Chattanooga Times Free Press

Staff photo by Matt Hamilton / Hollie Berry uses a propane torch to burn images into wood at her home studio in Red Bank.
Staff photo by Matt Hamilton / Hollie Berry uses a propane torch to burn images into wood at her home studio in Red Bank.

As the vice mayor of Red Bank, Hollie Berry, 37, spends her days navigating local government — but dedicates her spare time to art. While politics is a recent chapter in her life, her love for art began at a young age. From early sketches to oil paintings, her journey led to the distinctive style she's known for: torch painting — a process of burning images into wood using an open flame.


Berry grew up in the 1990s near Houston, and her artistic instincts emerged by age 4, when she favored her drawings over coloring books. At 9 years old, she experimented with oil paints and, later, charcoal drawings. As an adult, she moved to Chattanooga, opened her studio and asked herself, "Why transfer the [charcoal] onto a piece of wood when I could just burn the wood itself?"


Standing on her concrete and metal patio, Berry freehanded her first piece at her North Shore apartment, armed with a bucket of water and a fire extinguisher, just in case. "I was trying not to set my apartment on fire," she says, adding that the piece "turned out so much better than I expected."


When people visited her old studio at Chattanooga WorkSpace, Berry says they often ignored her meticulously crafted oil paintings, instead asking about the burned piece of plywood leaning against a wall. "After that happened enough times, I thought, okay, I need to make something out of this," she says. "I'm certainly not the first person to ever make an image by using fire to burn a piece of wood, but I was not familiar with anybody working in any medium like that when I began."


Berry lights her torches inside her house, in her studio that's next to her living room. For safety, she only uses the smaller, handheld flames indoors and always opens a window. She also keeps a fire extinguisher nearby and only burns herself when accidentally touching tools she forgets are hot. Despite her safety plans, she used to worry about setting off the fire alarm in her studio — a fear that came true. "Everybody thought it would always be me that set off the fire alarm ... and I did, but it had nothing to do with my art," she says. "Our microwave in the kitchen malfunctioned when I was heating up a burrito."


Berry refined her technique, repurposing tools and household objects, like pallet knives and pie cutters. She holds them against the wood, blocking the flames from darkening the surface, to achieve intricate details and sharp edges. Her propane torches create broad strokes, while her butane soldering torches render fine details, like eyelashes on a giraffe. She incorporates wood grain or knots into shadows, creating high-contrast, monochromatic pieces that capture light and shadow. "Many describe it as haunting or somber because of the medium," she says. "But the subjects I choose — wildlife, dancers, pets — are often lighthearted. That tension creates pieces that are interesting to keep looking at."

Staff photo by Matt Hamilton / Hollie Berry works on her artwork, using a propane torch to burn images into wood.
Staff photo by Matt Hamilton / Hollie Berry works on her artwork, using a propane torch to burn images into wood.

Berry sometimes performs live torch painting demonstrations, including at Chattanooga Zoo's "Spirits in the Wild" fundraiser. During the event, she creates a piece that is auctioned off as she completes it. "It's nerve-racking," she admits, "but I've done it enough times to feel confident."


In 2020, with art festivals and gallery shows halted by the pandemic, Berry was drawn into politics. A friend encouraged her to run for Red Bank's city commission after learning an unopposed candidate might win by default. Initially hesitant, Berry agreed. "She guilted my sense of democracy," she says. "I got to sleep on it for one night and talked to my family, and they all said I should do it."


Berry won the election, leading the city as mayor through the pandemic and infrastructure improvements. In December, she swapped roles with the friend she ran with, who had served as vice mayor. For now, she wants to find a new balance between her roles as vice mayor, mother and artist. "I'd like to create with more consistency," she says.


Balancing art, public service and family life hasn't been easy. "Red Bank is the biggest art project I've ever tackled," Berry says. To her, politics and art shape the world into something better. "[Politics are] like installation art," she explains. "You're enacting force upon the world to make it more beautiful."


Whether drafting city policies or painting with fire, Berry follows the same approach. "Don't be afraid to fail," she says. "Experimentation means making things you'll throw away, but that's how you grow."


Find Berry's work at hollieberryart.com.

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