HANNAH EINHORN
HANNAH EINHORN
(she/they)
Cherokee, East; Shawanwaki/Shawnee; Yuchi
Interviewed by Edie Hopgood (she/her)
“The interactions of my queerness, neurodivergence, gender, and social class come together to form a unique person, and one of my goals is to honour this uniqueness as well as the theorists and activists who paved the way for people like me.”
Hannah Einhorn is currently earning her BFA from the Watkins College of Art at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee. Her emphasis is in painting and ceramics, but Hannah also incorporates collage and drawing techniques into their practice. She has continued to exhibit her art with the university throughout their education and has been recognized with several awards. Hannah participates in volunteer work with local arts organisations and has helped their colleagues get involved in service by holding the position of President during the 2021-2022 academic year for her college’s chapter of the Kappa Pi Art Honors Society. This organisation allows her the opportunity to hone her curatorial skills by overseeing exhibitions proposed by their fellow members. Hannah has earned professional experience by holding internships with the Red Arrow Gallery and the Nashville Parthenon and by acting as the Gallery Assistant to the Gallery Director of Watkins for one year. She has also been featured in an interview with the FEMME Art Gallery in Nashville and has written for local independent arts publication Number: Inc.
Hey Hannah! Tell me a bit about yourself.
Hello! My name is Hannah. I’m originally from Madison, Alabama, a suburb of Huntsville. Growing up, my parents fully supported my artistic goals by placing me in art classes which allowed me to build a strong foundation for myself. Later, I moved to Nashville to pursue a BFA in Studio Art from Belmont University and have really loved getting to know the city. It has a similar southern comfort feeling to my small hometown, but Nashville’s art community, which is so much bigger and more diverse! My goals for the future is to expand my portfolio by showing my work locally and out of town. I am also excited to apply to residencies and to pursue an MFA in the next 3-5 years!
How did you begin creating art?
I started to take my artistic practice more seriously during high school. One of my art teachers was really amazing, and she took me and my classmates to all sorts of art events in the community and helped us apply to creative programs. Before that, art was something my mother introduced me to as a very young child. She would get out paint and markers and have my siblings and I sit around the kitchen table making things for hours.
My favourite thing she would do was make colouring sheets for us; she would get a black marker and draw something, usually patterns or flowers, and she would teach my siblings and I how to “colour in the lines.” I kept making my own art well past these early childhood years and eventually realised it was the only thing I wanted to spend my time doing.
What is the first artistic medium that spoke to you?
The very first artistic medium that spoke to me is acrylic paint. My mom had a few sets of primary coloured paints when I was a young child that my siblings and I would go through ridiculously fast! As I became a teenager and young adult, I stuck to water-based paints and then found that I really enjoy acrylic gouache and often pair it with watercolour paint. I think my appreciation for gouache comes from my early experiences with fast-drying paint that meant I could layer it indefinitely.
As a child, did you have any formative experiences surrounding art?
I have two really special memories from my childhood. The first, on a trip to Washington, D.C. when I was around 8 years old where my parents took my siblings and I to visit the Hirshhorn Museum. There was a huge Yves Klein exhibit, and of course, at 8, I had no idea about his historical significance. I remember being really captivated, as up until that point, I had mostly been exposed to more traditional forms of art. Yves Klein is very politically and socially complicated, but seeing his exhibit at such a young age opened my eyes to the different types of forms art can take.
The second experience I had involves a childhood friend of my father’s. He grew up in the state of New Mexico and bonded with a Mexican woman who, as an adult, began making art surrounding the Day of the Dead, which is a yearly traditional celebration in Mexico. Her craft involved really intricately cut paper fashioned into skeletons in various domestic scenes. I was able to meet her as a child, and I found her work intriguing from a storytelling sense. Looking back, I’m very grateful I had such an early experience with a different form of cultural expression than my own.
How tedious is your making process? How long does it usually take for you to make a piece?
It varies immensely depending on the piece. My painting and drawing processes tend to be much quicker than with sculpture. My style across media tends toward abstraction, and my 2D materials are usually quick-drying water-based paints or inks which lend themselves to quick brushstrokes and controlled blending. This makes it much easier to do multiple layers in one sitting, as I tend to apply several layers before a piece is finished, which means that I can often finish a painting in less than ten hours.
When it comes to ceramics and sculpture, on the other hand, many more factors come into play. In ceramics, managing the drying process is incredibly crucial, and paying attention to firing temperatures is important. Because of the varied tedium of the different media I work with, I’m usually developing several pieces at once, working on one while the others are drying, being fired, etc.
How do your different identities as an individual impact your artistic practice?
Ultimately, I think my identities are at the root of my work, as is the case for many artists. I try to view myself intersectionally, taking note from influential feminist Kimberly Crenshaw, who coined this term. The interactions of my queerness, neurodivergence, gender, and social class come together to form a unique person, and one of my goals is to honour this uniqueness as well as the theorists and activists who paved the way for people like me.
“Exhibiting my work is a huge passion of mine; it ultimately feels like eating a big dessert at the end of a satisfying meal. Seeing my art in gallery spaces is the cherry on top after a long period of hard work in the studio””
What led you to make the transition from 2D work to 3D?
When I entered Belmont's BFA program, I focused my research and studio time on painting. From my perspective, 2D image creation was much more easily masterable than sculptural work, which seems to have more possibilities. I’m definitely not saying I mastered 2D image making, but I did become easily bored with it and felt like I was confining my ideas into wall-hanging rectangles. My first foray into 3D work that was successful was making ceramic planters in the shape of butts wearing bikini bottoms. They’re fun and cute and making a series of them was really beneficial for me to hone my clay skills. After I felt more competent, I experimented by creating ceramic additions to some of my 2D collages. The ceramic pieces were hung along the wall with the 2D canvases as 3D continuations of the compositions into space. I also started building asymmetrical canvases to play with the traditional idea of confining 2D work to rectangles. From there, I became much more interested in more traditional mixed media sculpture.
What is your favourite medium to work with?
At the moment, I’ve really loved developing my ceramic skills. I usually use a coil-building technique and underglaze for the surface design. Something about the satisfaction of pulling a well-made object or sculpture from the kiln is addicting! I find myself looking for more things I can replace in my home with handmade ceramic versions. I also have gotten really into acrylic gouache in my painting/drawing practice. The pigment intensity is unmatched by other media and I find it extremely easy to layer on itself and other things. It sticks to so many surfaces, so I often use acrylic gouache on my ceramic work as a cold finish or in my other sculptural work.
Are there any mediums you haven’t tried yet but would like to?
I would love to develop better woodworking skills. It’s such a practical skill as well as artistic. I would love to be able to build my own canvases, get more creative with my pedestals, and experiment sculpturally. The craft is so well-developed with a rich history, and I know there’s so much to learn.
At the moment, what is the main source of your inspiration?
I’ve been so interested in Donna Haraway’s Cyborg Manifesto. Identity creation is fascinating to me and I recently incorporated this concept into my senior thesis through the creation of an avatar character I call “The Crazy Cat Lady.” In popular media, I’ve been consuming a lot of reality TV. It’s trashy and fun, but also uniquely captures certain relationship dynamics in a documentative form that I sometimes try to emulate in my own work. In the U.S., Ethel Cain’s album titled Preacher’s Daughter is blowing up. Cain’s art encapsulates a certain American nostalgia surrounding religion and the countryside while also tapping into traumatic experiences that many Americans who are raised as women experience in their formative years. Her song “House in Nebraska” is especially meaningful for me.
How do you find balancing your studies and other commitments with your creative endeavours?
Luckily, my creative endeavours are largely my studies at the moment. I knew I wanted a degree, and art was the career path I wanted to take, which has led me to becoming an art student. I have had to balance my making and working in the past, as I was able to have some awesome internships and seminar classes, but as a senior working on my thesis, I am able to dedicate most of my time to my art. When I’ve had a busier schedule, the thing that allows me to make time for my art is the reminders of the undeniable relaxation I feel when I sit and let my mind wander whilst making something.
How would you like to see your art progress in the future?
I would love to become a full-time fine artist. Exhibiting my work is a huge passion of mine; it ultimately feels like eating a big dessert at the end of a satisfying meal. Seeing my art in gallery spaces is the cherry on top after a long period of hard work in the studio, and I love getting real-time feedback from gallery visitors. I also really enjoy community education and would love to continue learning new skills and possibly even teaching a little bit. From an aesthetic and conceptual standpoint, I am very interested in experimenting with different forms of installation and immersive art techniques. I also plan to do more research on gender and ontology from a critical standpoint.