Wondering eye

“You’re traveling through another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind.” – Rod Serling, creator of “The Twilight Zone.”

Megan Holden, along with her imagination, resides in such a wondrous land that the past, the present and the future exist simultaneously.

Whether she’s dressing like a Victorian woman or a pinup model, making jewelry or drawing, Holden is always asking, “What if?”

“I had a rich and imaginative upbringing,” she said, “It was a Walt Disney, Rod Serling, and ‘Star Trek’ kind of childhood. My first Halloween costume was Nurse Chapel from ‘Star Trek.’ ”

Holden, 42, spent her early years in California, moving to Spokane at age 7 for her father’s work. She attended Gonzaga Prep, where an art teacher exposed her to many media and encouraged exploration, strengthening Holden’s desire to explore the wondrous land of imagination. Her dream was to study art in Italy, but dreams often change course, and she became a mother at 17. Twin girls followed three years later.

Without hesitation, Holden placed her art on the back burner, focusing on raising and supporting her children by working as a journalist, a bartender, a lifeguard, a nursing assistant and a medical transporter.

Since 2000, Holden has worked at Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center as a monitor technician, diagnosing cardiac arrhythmias. But the desire to make art has never left her.

Now, at her South Hill home, Holden spends her spare time creating pieces of jewelry out of things such as video card cooling fans, pennies, watch gears, repurposed chains, spoons, images or words in resin, keys, nuts and bolts, glass, stones, and small potion bottles.

Her style leans toward steampunk, cyberpunk, pulp art and found-object art. She makes the old new and gives the discarded or forgotten a new and beautiful purpose.

For the last couple of years, Holden has been brandishing ink pens, drawing intricately detailed pieces.

“I am very detail-oriented,” she said. “Many things today are not.”

In one of her newest pieces – “Do iPods Dream of Uriah Heep” – 54 album covers of the past are represented along with memories of people, places and objects that have left their mark on her in one way or another.

Her drawings take a viewer to a land of imagination where seemingly conflicting patterns, symbols, figures and shapes harmoniously reside in an alternate dimension where there are no rules.

Holden has shown her work at Inland Northwest art festivals and events such as The Art of Steampunk, a themed art exhibition at the Steam Plant restaurant in downtown Spokane.

Beginning Sept. 6, Holden will be the featured artist at the Cat’s Eye Gallery in downtown Spokane. The gallery is slotted to become a credit union. This will be the space’s last exhibit until the owner, Conrad Bagley, finds a new location.