Today we’d like to introduce you to Hannah Houston.
Hi Hannah, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I’m an artist from Sacramento, CA. I’ve been creating for as long as I can remember but I started taking my craft more serious after 2021. I work with so many different mediums and I’m always learning new ones. I work primarily in acrylic, charcoal, ink, and oil pastel. In recent years, I have also started to do live painting during events around my city.
My favorite thing about creating and sharing my art is the people I’ve gotten to connect with. I’ve met so many interesting people through the years.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It’s been a slow road but I think with any creative career you have to have a lot of patience and consistency. I’ve had slow months and years without many events or shows and I’ve had time where I was in multiple shows a month. Some galleries and shows will be smooth sailing and busy and some with less than exciting set ups and almost no people.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
My art is all centered around emotion and expression of a feeling. A lot of my work includes people, faces, figures, etc. I love focusing on color and the movement of a subject.
Something else I aim to do is recycle materials to use. A lot of canvases and large scale pieces are on recycled or donated wood, fabric, and anything else people are getting rid of. Working on different kinds of surfaces has really allowed me to get good at working on virtually any surface. It makes for interesting textures too!
One of the most rewarding things about sharing art with people is getting to connect with people who say they’ve “never been into art until now”. There’s something really special about hearing about how a piece I made really spoke to them.
Can you talk to us about how you think about risk?
I wouldn’t say I’m a risk taker in general but I do like to experiment and push myself out of my comfort zone.. all the time! A philosophy that I’ve adopted over the years has been the “do it for the story” approach. Why not try to get into a really big gallery or do a show in NYC even if I think I can’t get in? What’s the worst that could happen if I applied to something I was afraid of applying to. This approach has gotten me into some really cool rooms.
When it comes to live painting, that was a really big push out of my comfort zone at first. Dressing up, being vulnerable and painting in front of 50-200+ people was so scary at first but now it’s something I really look forward to. I’ve gotten to meet so many interesting people this way.
Contact Info:
- Website: Herbagaga@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://Instagram.com/herbagaga
