Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Hannah Yanetsko . We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Hannah , thanks for joining us today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

It was always my dream, just never one I believed in.
I never saw a successful artist growing up. There wasn’t someone in my family circle or small town that I could see or looked up to in the art field. Honestly, until the last few years, I had no idea it was really even possible to be successful as an artist — to do what you love and excel and make a career painting. Sure, I knew people that sold art, but I thought that was it. My high school art teacher strongly encouraged me to apply ton SCAD, and although it had always been my dream, I never even applied thinking realistically, it wouldn’t give me a future I could count on.

Thankfully, I was wrong — Something I figured out in 2020.
We had just welcomed our first daughter, Adeline. We were newly weds when the pandemic hit, just starting to navigate life together and the next thing we know, thew world goes into lockdown, my husband loses his job as a result and we have a baby due in a few months. We felt panicked and helpless like most people and did our best to prepare for our daughter financially in the ways we could at the time.

I started when I was eleven shortly after my dad passed away. I sold paintings at local restaurants, art fairs and I had made always been able to make extra money painting, but it had been years since since I got the brushes wet. In those early weeks after our daughter was born during quarantine, that creative ember started burning and I begin painting again. It felt so good. I posted on Instagram and not long after, someone asked to purchase it. So I painted another and thought, maybe I could just sell one painting a month… One month after another, I was selling my paintings. I reached out to an art gallery and honestly, I had no idea what I was doing or how to do it, but I sent them my work and a few days later I got an email saying they were interested and wanted to set up a phone call.

Three months later, I delivered my first body of work to Art & Light Gallery in Greenville, SC. Almost all of the pieces sold within the first week. And for the first time in a long time, I believed in that dream. I’ve been dreaming ever since, and I can’t wait for all that’s to come in the future.

Hannah , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

“Hannah Yanetsko is a self-taught contemporary artist based in Davidson, North Carolina. Her large-scale paintings of edgeless oceans, punctuated with figures adrift in the water, are both dynamic and full of movement while maintaining a restful quality, replete with mystery. She suspends the ocean’s perpetual movement in dazzling sculptural resin surfaces, capturing and reflecting light, illuminating swells, peaks, and troughs. Inside these “other oceans,” relationships begin to appear between bathers,; subtly juxtaposing anonymity and familiarity, blurring the line between memory and dream. Her works invite the viewer to take a closer look; neutral palettes become a world of nuanced color and textural mark making — a balance that feels grounded and quietly avant-garde.”

Familiar with mourning; called to live and keep living. Wading through while raising my eyes.

This is the cadence with which I create. A mixed offering of ongoing, if sometimes undetected lament; and hope, mercifully ongoing as well.

My pieces begin with the basis of memory and renditions of memories. Some of them from spirit only rather than experience. Moments which may precede or parallel me. I find myself in the mystery with other daughters and sons whom have lost fathers, with the auca fisherman, and earliest morning wave watchers. and yet, I am sure of one thing: everything lost, love is returning. here in the waiting, wave after wave.

Wax and tar; coffee, paint. poured, buffed, spread and sloughed. Put on and scoured back. exfoliated and refined. marks and scars, grit and stains — this is the depth that gives ground to remembering and rejoicing.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

In my experience, many people are trying to find their voice creatively and it can take years and years. Don’t go on Pinterest or Instagram and gawk at pieces and get yourself worked up trying to re-create it. Don’t look at other artists work at all actually. I’m all about supporting artists, it’s how I make a living, but when you are on your journey of finding your creative voice, look inward, not outward. Look at old pieces you’ve done. What did you like? What did you hate? Look at the world around you. If the ocean moves you, paint what you see, through your own eyes. Don’t go google “Ocean Paintings.” And for goodness sakes, don’t take yourself so seriously. Every artist, no matter how successful or talented they are has pieces they can’t stand to look at. I’ve seen plenty of artists that are far more talented than I am and can paint and draw figures way more realistic than I ever could, but I think more often than not, people are drawn to works that push the viewer to see things a little differently. I don’t have the skill or the desire to show you the world as you already see it — that’s not what I’m doing, that’s not my voice. Honestly, my work is less about what you see and more about where you’re seeing from. One of my all time favorite quotes is, “If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change,” by Wayne Dyer. That quote is how I’ve navigated pretty much my entire life, it’s how I kept my head above water. And though perspective doesn’t change what exists, it changes how we engage with it and that can change everything.

My best advice is just keep pushing. Keep making works you hate, paint over them start something new, if you hate that too, try something else. If you keep pushing, you inevitably find something that works, and when you find that, just keep going. You’ll know you’ve found your voice when the voice inside you says, ”that’s it, that’s good” Your voice comes from you. So if you’re listening to anyone else… don’t.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

I’m constantly driven by, “How far can I take this?” I have huge dreams for HSYA and I’m constantly chipping away at accomplishing goals and growing my brand. At the end of the day, I’m doing this for my younger self who never could have dreamed I would get to do this for a living, for myself now, who is a mother to young daughters who are watching and will continue to watch me throughout their childhood, for other women and young girls with that have wild dreams. At the end of the day, I think the best thing I can do for my daughters is to show them how to fight for what you want, what you’re passionate about, what you believe in, and to never stop dreaming, no matter how old you are. it’s an opportunity i don’t take lightly, and a gift and I am truly so grateful for.

Contact Info:

• Website: hsya.studio
• Instagram: @hsya.studio
• Other: Pinterest @hannahstewartyanetsko