Hannah March Sanders, 3rd Place Winner

Winner of the Summer 2013 Competition

FORCE OF NATURE

A contemporary look at an ancient subject.

FOOT PRINT NO. 16

crocheted upcycled fabric

5 x 7 in
1000. usd

artist statement

Dark clouds, plumes, and projection maps are the rising stars in our daily intake of news media. My work investigates these brumes and billows formally as well as analyzing their participation in a discussion about the future of this planet. Mankind’s false sense of control over natural resources leaves us vulnerable to nature’s powerful acts of reclamation: hurricanes, floods and the ground sinking beneath our feet. I explore the relationship between man and environment through events close to my personal experience such as Hurricane Katrina; the BP oil spill in the Gulf; and other contemporary political and ecological catastrophes.

Accompanying the prints and watercolors I make on this theme, I create collections of crocheted pieces called Foot Prints. These large, low relief fabric sculptures are assembled from printed scraps as well as repurposed clothing. The pluming shapes of the Foot Prints mirror Doppler images of monstrous weather conditions, encroaching on the tenuous infrastructures of cities and ecosystems. The depiction of dangerous substances and serpentine weather systems functions as a reoccurring image throughout--as setting, victim and protagonist.

bio

Hannah March Sanders received her BFA at Tulane University and an MFA in printmaking from Louisiana State University. Along with her husband, Blake, Hannah operates Orange Barrel Industries, an artist collaborative that organizes portfolio exchanges, exhibitions and other art events (http://orangebarrelindustries.com).

In recent years, Hannah has exhibited work across the globe at the Printmaking in Graafika Festival in Estonia; The Shed in Galway, Ireland; Global Vision at Kyoto Seika University in Japan; New Narratives at the International Print Center New York; and 30 Years of LSU Printmaking at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art in New Orleans. She currently teaches foundations at the University of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates.

other works by the artist

hannah march sanders

bowling green, ohio [USA]

www.hannahmarchsanders.com

www.orangebarrelindustries.com

ArtSceneToday Q&A

Q: Where do you see yourself in the art scene today?

A: I see myself as someone who will always be working to improve my own practice while remaining highly involved with my community. In addition to being an educator, I continue to work hard on my own technique and craft as well as exposure. I work with my husband to run Orange Barrel Industries.com, through which we curate and install exhibitions, mini print conferences, and promote the arts in a variety of other ways through our website, blog, and Facebook Page.

Q: What is in your inspiration?

A: I have a mysterious inner drive to draw, arrange, and create images and objects that both reflect and expand my understanding of what happens in the world around me, an irresistible urge. I work daily on my drawing practice, which is often all the inspiration I need to fuel larger projects. That being said, nearly anything can inspire me--lately I've been drawing all of the profile pictures of my Facebook friends. At the core of my inspiration is a love of research and investigation. I am inspired by magical realist fiction, mythological narratives, historical documents, diagrams of weather systems, news feeds and information graphics. I collect "evidence" like mad--taking screen shots of oil fires, animals, storm damage, and politicians and cataloging them in a series of folders on my computer. I collect real-life data by saving photos, printed matter, and other things that strike my fancy such as produce stickers in my sketchbook. I later look back to this collection of ephemera and form hybrid images from them that become watercolors, prints and soft fabric sculptural works.

Q: What are your challenges?

A: My biggest challenge is the balancing act between all the things I feel like I need to be working on: teaching, job searching, drawing, crochet, print portfolios, Orange Barrel Industries activities', and so much more. Everyone has days where they wonder if they are spending their energy on the right things. While it is good to question how one's time is being spent, it can sure get you down sometimes when you don't know the answer and, perhaps, never will know!

Q: How did you/do you choose your medium?

A: Crocheted Re-purposed Fabrics (the medium for this work): In graduate school, I created a series of large woodcut prints combining Louisiana narratives and the Labors of Herakles. I printed these onto multiple bedsheets, which I then cut apart and appliqué stitched back together to form colorful, layered surfaces. This process left me with a wealth of fabric scraps that I began to crochet together in my spare time into large, low-relief sculptures mirroring the shapes of spills, smoke and storm projection maps. The process of crochet became my way to relax in the evening: ripping and tearing fabric and methodically combining it while I ate dinner and watched a movie with my husband. You can read more about how I fell in love with the process here. As for the other mediums I often chose to work in, many of those are born through convenience. I am a printmaker by training, and I love to create large woodcuts, intaglio prints and lithographs. However, as a couple of young teachers, we move a lot, and we don't always have access to the kinds of equipment needed to work in those mediums. I have a little watercolor kit that fits in my purse, I've set up a mini relief print shop on a folding table in my kitchen, screen print on my dining room table, and I can crochet right on the living room floor with fabric I get at the thrift store for next to nothing.

Q: Which artist has influenced you the most?

A: How could I choose just one? I feel I am influenced most by the conglamorate hodgepodge in my mind of all of my "favorite artists" I've looked at over the years such as Henry Darger, Ida Applebroog, Kiki Smith, Mel Chin, Ai Weiwei, Louise Bourgeois, Walton Ford, Chris Ware, Goya.... the list could go on and on! And my friends and family would be on that list, too. I suppose if I had to choose one artist, I'd say it's likely my mother, ceramicist Meg Hogan Campbell, since she gave me half of my genetics, the hardest critiques I've ever had, artistic as well as life support (food, clothing, advice,) and she continues to be a hard working example of what it takes to be devoted to your craft for a lifetime.

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FORCE OF NATURE

Exhibition Page