 “Drift”, textile painting (eco-printed wool, cotton, stitching), 24 x 17 inches © Ayn Hanna “Drift” (above) is now part of the Fairview Ridges Hospital collection and will be hung in the Cancer Clinic in Burnsville, MN.
SOFA Chicago
Visiting the windy city in early Nov to see the SOFA show, I was reminded how much I really do love about big cities, and how long it’s been since I’ve been to one. Getting off the plane at Midway, all I could think was Wow, there are A LOT of people here and they’re all on their phones! (I really don’t get out much.)
65 Galleries, including several very cool International Galleries took part in this year’s show in the beautiful Festival Hall at the Navy Pier. There was an abundance of glass (although I heard there was less of it than last year) and not very much textile work. On the bright side, much of the textile work I did see had sold.
This was my first year exhibiting at the show and my gallery was encouraged by the response to my work. So, I’m planning to exhibit at SOFA again next year with a larger display of my work.
Blue Chicago
SOFA was pretty cool all right. And being in Chicago, even for a short weekend, we absolutely HAD to see some live Blues music. We found the place that hosts the best women blues singers – a small club called Blue Chicago. Wow, what a treat! We danced and sang along all night long with the Shirley Johnson Blues Band, taking in every last note we could, right up till closing time. Man, that “Sweetheart of the Blues” can sing and her band rocks the house.
Hanna-Gilhooly Holiday Open House Hiatus
With such a big year of shows (9 total with 1 still in progress and 2 opening this week) AND a wedding, well, we’ve decided to take this year off from hosting our annual Holiday Open House and do a “virtual” Open Studio instead. So, I have recently added some new items to my online store and am offering a 25% discount on all items through Dec. 16. Just click the “store” tab on the menu bar above if you’d like to take a look. If you find something in the shop you like, use code 25BGNAH during checkout to receive the discount.
Thanks for supporting my art,
 “LineScape #36 (Bridges)”, 42 x 69 inches (deconstructed screen-printed cloth, batting, stitching) ©2014 Ayn Hanna LineScape #36, my most recent work in this series and the largest so far was one of 2 of my works that was accepted to the Quilts=Art=Quilts show at the Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center in Auburn, NY. The even better news was that I received a phone call this weekend that it also won an award – the Award for Surface Design.
This award is special since the surface design work is something I have spent so much time in honing my craft – as a printmaker and process person, exploring ways of bringing my printmaking background and aesthetic to the textile medium has been my main focus in continuing to develop my textile paintings. I used a breakdown screen-printing process to print the layers of color and texture on this piece before adding stitching to it – breakdown screen-printing is a favorite process because I see it as the best blend of printing, drawing, and painting all merged into one.
 “LineScape #36” (detail) But Wait! There’s More – A big show Announcement
This coming weekend is the 21st Annual SOFA Chicago Show (Sculpture, Objects, Functional Art and Design) at the Navy Pier and I’m excited to let you know that my work will be exhibited in the Palette Contemporary Arts and Crafts booth #1320 at the show.
According to the SOFA website, this show is an “Exposition of Sculpture Objects & Functional Art + Design Fair, a gallery-presented, international art exposition dedicated to bridging the worlds of design, decorative and fine art. Works by emerging and established artists and designers are available for sale by premier galleries and dealers.”
The show includes 80 galleries and is expected to draw 35000 visitors over the 3 day weekend! If you’re in the Chicago area and are an art-lover, this show is not to be missed. I will be at the show on Saturday, 11/8 so if you’re able to attend, please stop by booth #1320 to see my work and say “hi”. I hope to see you there! (The piece below, “Big City #2” is one of my pieces that will be available at the SOFA show.)
 “Big City #2”, 20 x 20 inches (dye drawing on cotton, stitched and mounted to stretcher frame) ©2014 Ayn Hanna
Where were we? It’s fall, the energy of making is in full swing and it’s been a crazy month – 2 workshops in the past 2 weekends and an art show opening this coming weekend.
Eco-Dyeing with Natural Plants Workshop
2 weekends ago, we lucked out with amazingly beautiful weather for my fall workshop. It was an intimate gathering in my studio with a handful of student. We bundle-wrapped leaves and dyed them in pots. A few of the results below:
 One of my students, Mindy, achieved stunning results with maple leaves  One of Jacki’s bundles being unwrapped  Mindy’s dyeing results on pre-felt I’ll share more results from this weekend playshop in an upcoming post.
AIR Shift Workshop in Colorado Springs
Last weekend I was in Colorado Springs as one of a team of 4 facilitating a large group AIR Shift workshop at the Fine Arts Center, teaching artists business skills to help them develop their creative businesses.
 AIR Shift workshop at the Fine Arts Center in Colorado Springs, CO It was one of the most amazing settings I’ve ever taught in – we were set up in a part of the fine arts center that was exhibiting a large collection of Chihuly glass work – pretty spectacular to be discussing art, business, community surrounded by this work:
Quilts=Art=Quilts at the Schweinfurth Memorial Arts Center
And this weekend, 11/1 is the opening reception from 5-7pm of Quilts=Art=Quilts, an international juried exhibit of 77 artworks by 73 artists from around the world. This show will be on exhibit at the Schweinfurth Memorial Arts Center in Auburn, NY through Jan. 4th. I am honored to have 2 of my pieces from my LineScapes series included in this show, including my largest and most recently completed piece, LineScape #36 (Bridges).
Here’s a little preview of my work in the show:
 “LineScape #36” (detail) © 2014 Ayn Hanna
 “LineScape #14” (detail) © Ayn Hanna If you are in the upstate NY area near Auburn, I hope you will stop in to see the show. I won’t be able to make the trip to see it in person and I would love to hear what you think of the show if you’re able to go see it.
“Carbon-Carbon Triple Bond” is another of my personal badge pieces. This piece was purchased from our “Must Love Art” Exhibition and is now a part of the permanent collection of the School of Global Environmental Sustainability at Colorado State University.
 “Carbon-Carbon Triple Bond”, 5 x 5 inches, mini textile painting (vintage fabrics, stitching) © Ayn Hanna The inspiration for this piece comes from my early school years when I was sure I wanted to be a medical Dr. and consequently chose biomedical microbiology as my college major, which meant I took a lot of math, biology, and chemistry classes back then.
I’ve always liked learning and understanding new things. Chemistry was a challenge (and organic chemistry especially so) because I didn’t understand the “why” behind my need to know things like how many SP3 hybridized orbitals there are on a carbon-carbon triple bond. I had no context for how knowing that piece of information was going to make me a better Dr. and help me provide good medical service to a patient.
Making Art gave me the purpose I needed for understanding Chemistry
During my Junior year of College, I was finally no longer able to deny the artist within. I walked out of my bio chem class and headed straight for the Visual Art building and 6 years later had earned both my BFA and MFA degrees.
As a printmaker, I found some initial connections between Art and Chemistry and it felt good to finally have some practical application and context for knowing about acids and alkalies and understanding the periodic table. (Printmakers can pull off being geeky artist types.)
But, working with textiles and dyes – particularly once finding eco-dyeing and eco-printing – NOW I understand! Organic plant materials, earth oxides, the PH (acidity or alkalinity) of water and various mordants and modifiers, the use of metals like iron and copper….oh my, eco-dyeing is the perfect laboratory for learning about organic chemisty! Organic chemistry can actually be….dare I say it – FUN!
 various colors and marks achieved using natural plants to dye and print fabric If you would like to have some fun learning about natural plant dyes, eco-printing and yes, organic chemistry, (and who wouldn’t?) there are a few spaces left in the Eco-Dyeing playshop I’ll be teaching on Oct. 18-19 here at my studio in Fort Collins. All the details are available here.
It’s Art, it’s Science, and it’s Fun! Come play!
 Barbara and I with our two Host Couple families in front of the Wall of Hearts It was the Best of Times! And the show is still up through 9/27.
Our Wedding and Must Love Art Show Opening Reception were everything we’d hoped for. Many of our family and friends joined us for the party of a lifetime – and the party carried on throughout the weekend.
 the full heart wall installation The wall of Hearts -nearly 100 of them in all – were made by 76 of our artist friends from 13 states. We were encircled with love – these heart works and our family and friends gathered ’round – as we got hitched.
The rest of the gallery is filled with over 150 new art works by Barbara and myself (paintings, wire sculpture, and textile wall art) grouped into a number of themes – our work plays well together! The show has received rave reviews and our local paper covered the story in this Coloradoan article.
Most of the art in the show is for sale and over 50 of the Hearts have already sold! The Artists receive the money from sales of their work, with a portion of sales proceeds being donated to 2 local charitable causes, the Animal House and Keith Jentzsch Medical Fund.
All of the available Heart artworks and Barbara’s work are available for sale through the Must Love Art online store located here. Check out all the amazing ways these artists responded to the Heart Art theme!
My work is available through my online store.
The exhibit has been extended through Sept. 27, so this is the last week to go see it. Location is Carnegie building, 200 Matthews St, Gallery hours are 12-6pm, Wed through Saturday. We will have “professional” photos from the wedding ceremony and show opening in a few weeks. For now, here’s a peek at some photos I took of the show.
What’s your earliest vivid childhood memory?
Fear and Courage, the adrenaline rush of believing I was going to die, at age 3 and a half.
Growing up in Topeka, KS (aka Tornado Alley) summer time meant lightning bugs, hot humid days, and too many killer tornadoes. June 8, 1966, I rode out an F5 tornado in the crawl space of our home with my Dad and baby brother.
 “Tornado Alley”, 5 x 5 inches, Mini Textile Painting ©2014 Ayn Hanna Surviving a Near Miss
I coaxed my own courage as I watched my Dad use the butter knife to pry up the wooden floor panel in the front hall closet and cringed as he lifted me down into that dark hole, handed me my little stool to place in the dirt against the foundation and then handed me my baby brother wrapped in a blanket.
I sat quietly on my stool holding my brother, my Dad silhouetted in the light from the living room as he stood in the crawl space, his upper torso facing the other way, watching the TV through the open closet door.
When the TV and lights went out, in the black darkness and eerie quiet, my Dad came and sat next to me and wrapped his arms around us. That’s when I heard the freight train in the distance and I knew it was bad.
It kept coming closer, getting louder. I don’t remember if I cried or screamed out loud, but I sure did inside. I felt that monster on the other side of the bricks I was leaning against. The house shook as debris was thrown against it and I feared that tornado was coming right through the wall. But instead, the incredible noise began to soften, the train began moving away. Was it really going away? Yes, the sound grew faint and the dark quiet returned.
The next day, I rode my trike as my Mom and I went down the street to check on neighbors. At the end of the street, all the houses were gone, people were digging through rubble, hugging and crying. That tornado was one of the deadliest in KS history – it killed 16 people and cut a half mile wide, 22 mile long diagonal path through the city, narrowly missing our home. This is partly why I no longer live in the mid west.
Self-Reliance = Creativity
I loved school and books from a very early age. My family had no money and I learned that if I wanted anything “extra”, like to order some paperback readers from the book catalogs, I needed to make some money. This spurred my creativity and entrepreneurial spirit.
While still in grade school, my brother and I made some good money swimming in the golf course pond, collecting golf balls, and selling them on the street corner on Saturday mornings. I had an apartment cleaning job at age 13 and my first restaurant job at 15. I wanted to go to college and knew I had to save money and figure out how to finance that.
 “Self-Reliant”, 5 x 5 inches, mini textile painting, ©2014 Ayn Hanna In high school, I got a job cooking at a Mexican restaurant and needed a car to get to work. I found a used 1969 VW bug for sale in the paper. When I went to test drive it, I saw it was painted with white house paint…a little weird, but I bought it anyway. Writing out that check for $800 was the most I had ever paid for anything before.
That car turned into a money pit, but it also served its purpose in getting me back and forth from school to work and home again.
Those lean times growing up were definitely character-building. Necessity breeds creativity and a confidence in being able to figure out how to do what needs to be done. Having to rely on ourselves helps us develop new skills and find our inner power. Makes for some good stories and memories, too.
During my 21 year career in high tech, I’ve worked for 4 Silicon Valley technology companies in a variety of roles – HR and IT Strategic Business Planning, Project Management, Executive Coaching and Facilitation, and Employee Relations to name several.
In the early 2000’s, although I was living in CO, my role required me to spend most of my time in the bay area of CA, so for 8 years I was a corporate road warrior, flying from Denver to San Francisco or San Jose and back again 2-3 weeks of every month. As a frequent flier, I earned that Premier Exec status as well as all the tricks for traveling most efficiently.
 “Premier Executive”, 5 x 5 inches, mini textile painting, ©2014 Ayn Hanna My corporate career has allowed me to develop my skills in business planning and management, coaching and facilitation, relationship building, creating and delivering presentations and many other areas which I am able to use in developing my art career and business now as well.
I’ve taken on many challenging situations, led teams of people through big culture change initiatives and traveled/worked internationally, expanding my world view and learning many life skills. (It’s not every day that you have to bring home a suspect birthday cake that was presented to a manager by an employee, and store the evidence in your freezer while the crime lab tests it for poison – yes it did happen and yes they did find it was poisoned!)
 “Certified SHIFT-IT Coach”, 5 x 5 inches, mini textile painting, ©2014 Ayn Hanna Given my background in Art, my uber organizational skills and interest in systems and strategic planning, one of the more fascinating skills I learned and had great affinity for was Graphic Facilitation – literally making meetings visual by drawing (in words and pictures) what the meeting participants are saying and helping people see the connections and relationships forming in the work they are planning.
GF has many applications for groups, but also works with individuals – because so many of us are visual learners. As a coach and facilitator, and looking for tools to use to continue to develop my own career path, I discovered Christina Merkley’s SHIFT-IT program, loved it and jumped at the chance to become a Certified Visual Coach myself.
As a certified visual coach, I can now use this amazing framework and 17 visual map templates to coach individuals in making whatever shifts they want to make with their careers and lives. It has helped me make my own shifts in developing my art career and I keep coming back to use the maps when I’m ready for more. So wonderful now to be able to use these visual coaching tools to help others draw out what’s in their hearts and help them develop plans to reach their goals.
Results from a dye sessions in mid July, so these bundles have rested about a month before opening
Above, wool with eucalyptus and cotinus leaves, copper, steamed.
Below, cotton with eucalyptus and cotinus, cooked in an iron pot.
Here’s a group shot – a variety in depth of colors, and marks
depends on cloth, dye bath, mordant and time
It’s been a weird week of emotions. 2 art exhibit openings and my wedding coming up in early September have had me on a good high. But news of a local artist friend being hospitalized in critical condition (because he was beaten by some as-yet-unknown persons while confronting them for shooting off fireworks at 12:30 am in his neighborhood), coupled with the news of Robin Williams’ suicide makes me sad.
Like everyone else, I wonder how this could happen. There’s definitely something not right here, and we are aligned as tender human hearts in knowing so and grieving it.
To cope with the emotions, to move forward, I reach for a better feeling place. In doing so, I’m reminded of an experience I had several years ago which confirmed for me that we are all connected.
 “Abundance”, 5 x 5 inches, mini textile painting (fabrics, stitching), ©2014 Ayn Hanna Labor Day weekend 2001, I was at the San Francisco airport to pick up my Mom who was flying in to join me for a trip to Big Sur. I was thirsty and had time to grab a cool drink at the concession stand so I joined the line of those waiting to check out. After a few minutes I realized the line wasn’t moving, there were about 6 people in front of me and as I stretched around those in front of me to see what the hold up was, I saw the cashier staring over the counter at a little kid who was looking like he didn’t know what to do.
So I asked what was wrong and discovered that the kid didn’t have enough money to pay for his order. “How much is he short”, I asked and found that he needed a dollar. I reached into my pocket, pulled out a dollar and gave it to the cashier. She processed the transaction, handed the kid the couple of sodas and hot dog that he’d ordered, and the line began to move. The woman in front of me said, “that was kind of you”. I figured it was no big deal, and I’ve been in that kid’s position before and know how bad it feels, so I was happy to chip in. I got my drink, collected my Mom, and off we headed down to the beach house restaurant in Half Moon Bay. I wanted to take her to one of my favorite oceanside spots for lunch.
After a wonderful seaside lunch watching the waves roll in, we decided to take a stroll along the beach. The bright sun was reflecting off the water as we walked through the wet sand.
As the waves retreated, I noticed a sand dollar on the beach in front of me. I picked it up, beautiful white sand dollar. We kept walking a few more steps, another sand dollar lying at my feet. I looked ahead and there were several more sand dollars, laid out in front of us. I turned and looked back down the beach from the direction we’d been walking, and it was bare. I’d walked this area of the beach many times before at different times throughout the year and never before had come across a single sand dollar, let alone a whole bunch of them washed up on the shore. And that’s when I felt a chill down my back and a swelling of my spirit as the realization flooded through me – I am not alone. We are all connected. My act of kind abundance and giving one dollar with no expectations was being acknowledged in such a beautiful way. We may never know the challenges others may be facing nor the impacts our actions have, so best to treat each other with great kindness.
Reconnecting with this experience helps me make peace with the grief and sadness of situations like those this week, where there are no easy answers.
Namaste,
It’s true. After a mere 50 years on this planet, I’m getting hitched. And since we’re both artists, we thought, what better way to celebrate than to have a big art show?
“Must Love Art” is a large 2250 sqft. multi-medium collaborative exhibit by Barbara Gilhooly and I. It also includes a special installation featuring heart artworks by over 60 of our artist friends. The show will be on display at the CCC Galleries at the Carnegie Building from Sept.3-20th with opening reception on Friday, Sept. 5 from 6-9pm.
We met in graduate school 20+ years ago and both earned our MFA’s in printmaking and sculpture. So years later, when we fell in love and decided to get hitched, we thought the best way to celebrate would be to create a big collaborative art show.
We asked our artist friends to participate in our show and celebration by creating a heart-shaped piece of art for the “Heart Wall” installation. Together with our family and friends, in front of the wall of over 60 “heart” works, we will have our ceremony to celebrate our marriage at the CCC galleries in the historic Carnegie building in Fort Collins.
The “Heart Wall” is one of multiple themed installations included in the “Must Love Art” exhibit. In addition to the more than 60 heart-shaped works made by our artist friends, the exhibit includes multiple paintings, sculptures, textiles, etchings, and drawings created by Barbara and myself. Our work is evidence of the mutual inspiration and influence of two artists who live and work together.
The full show fills the entire Carnegie building gallery space. All artwork is for sale and a portion of proceeds from the sale of the artworks will be donated to the Animal House Rescue local charity.
 Carnegie building and Gallery space Please join us for our opening celebration if you’re in the area. The show will be up through Sept. 20th and we plan to make the artwork available through an online store for those unable to see the show in person and those who may wish to purchase the art.
The excitement is growing each day as more of the heart artwork keeps arriving – we’re starting to be surrounded by hearts. I’ve made good progress on work that I’m making for the show this past week with a dedicated week in the studio, and still working to finish some pieces as we navigate our way through the final “to-do’s” of planning our ceremony and opening event.
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