We were lucky to catch up with Hannah Dobek recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hannah, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.
In 2013 I answered a late night phone call from someone I barely knew. I was a barista and part time artist then, and full time single mother. I was up late working on a piece when suddenly, the phone rang. I almost didn’t answer it, but something told me I should. Later that night, after an almost two hour conversation with a local gallery owner, I was offered a position helping him to run the space. I had only shown there once or twice, barely knew him, and knew nothing about running a business, whatsoever.
But I accepted, and moved my life into a massive brick building, dragging along my two kids. For the better part of 10 years, I immersed myself in helping to create a unique Art space + music venue in a small town that needed one. I have always been an introvert with crushing self doubt, most comfortable by myself with my art supplies, but it had always been a dream to work at a gallery, so I said yes. 12 years later, and here I am looking back at it all. That offer meant uprooting our life and independence, which I had fought tooth and nail for. It meant having to be in the public eye on a regular basis. This man was a complete stranger but that phone call and the risk of saying yes completely altered the direction of our lives. I remember driving away with my things packed into a van, leaving my beautiful apartment that I’d come to love, asking myself if this was me being a bit naive and impulsive…. And yes, I was both.
However, It was an excellent risk to take, looking back. I always wonder what might have happened if I ignored the call. I was one on a whole list of prospects, apparently.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Well, as far as the music venue Industry, I grew up around music, as my parents were jazz musicians. However it had the unusual twist of being Christian jazz, a fact I came to accept and later relish. I now understand it helped to shape my sense of quirkiness. A traditional, run of the mill sort of life path was never in the cards, my family was unapologetic in its uniqueness, and eventually I came to appreciate that, strange as we were. I get my sense of humor, eclectic curiosity and strong willed attitude from growing up with people’s confused looks when I told them what my parents did with their music. I got into creating art to help process those feelings, along with the typical teen angst.
In my early 30s I found myself running a music venue and gallery, so carrying mic stands, late nights cleaning a messy stage area or planning how to promote a show kindof felt second nature. I was around this stuff from a young age, it was just songs about Jesus in churches, not sex and psychedelics in a dark room. When I got older, I spent my twenties going to so many live shows in Upstate + Western New York, so when I came to the gallery, the music aspect, I knew a lot of the lingo and how to make people feel at home in a large space. I had been on both sides of that dynamic, somewhat. I really think that growing up around musicians and people that did their own thing is one of the reasons I haven’t started selling carpeting or working at an office. The dream won’t die. Of course, that could still happen.
As far as the Art aspect of what I do, I’ve been an artist forever. It’s always just been following an urge to make things. Maybe it was my introversion, which can develop a keen sense of observation, like noticing things about people, or how light and sound effect visual moods, compulsively altering things I couldn’t deal with, etc. I got a lot of early encouragement from my Homeschool art teacher, Julia. She encouraged me to look for the absurd, notice the details of things, take risks by slashing lines where they shouldn’t go and carrying a camera everywhere “in case something happens”. She called it shooting from the hip. You don’t second guess yourself, just take the picture. This was back when you had to wait a week to see the photos.
But I use a lot of my own photos and ephemera in my collage work, and I obsessively collect old books and magazines, the way she taught me to. This blossomed into a pretty chronic hoarding habit, but anyway. It also became a kindof brand I guess, if you look at pictures of my old studio.
I didn’t really go to art school, I couldn’t afford it, but I took a few classes before I left New York for Pennsylvania. There is so much I don’t know how to do. I didn’t get very serious about Art until I found myself in a massive, isolated haunted house with two small children. My thoughts would keep me awake if the baby wasn’t crying, so I just started the habit of creating at night to process things.
It became a kind of lifeline ‘conversation’ with myself while my kids slept and I tried to work through the emotions I had. I was staring down a failing marriage, post partum depression and mental health issues, but I always looked forward to making art at night. I submitted to a show one day,, and so my Art career began right as my relationship was beginning to crumble. I have so many regrets about those years. I wish I’d been able to be more present and less anxious as a mother. I have done everything backwards in a lot of ways. Always take stock of where you are.
As far as the Art industry, I have a good eye, and a driving work ethic, that’s it. I probably believed in the importance of the role enough to create a sense of authority, but the truth is I was very much learning as I went. I can talk art with lots of people, unless you put me in a room of competitive academics. In that case I feel very intimidated, and probably won’t say as much. But I might be able to tell you what paintings in that room will sell, because I have a pretty solid gut instinct that way. It’s an intuitive click, whether I was tasked with selling another artist’s work or my own, I came to a sense of “feeling”. Most of my skills turned out to be networking and promotion skills. No one is more surprised than me, because I had always found people so intimidating and mysterious. But I also have a love for psychology and dynamics, matching ideas and visuals, people and visials. These things may be some of the most important things to know when it comes to running a creative business. Navigating group dynamics, pitching an idea that makes people want to come to your show, etc.
A lot of it is observation and psychology.
As far as what I provide, I’m just an awkward creative person that likes to make stuff and hopefully sell it. I’m kindof a visual storyteller. I am a self taught painter, a collage artist, an abstract artist and installation artist. I’m a former living statue performer, and all of these things kindof inform each other in my work. Some of my work looks like it was made by the same artist, but a lot of it is experimental with no plan. I’m just as confused by the results of this approach as the viewer, but I have accepted to try things anyway. Ir has gone both ways.
So, I make visual art, I have curated over 40 group + solo art shows, I make art for bands and have promoted live music for almost 15 years. I have hosted public and private events, been a promotion copywriter as well as a creative writer. I could probably consult young artists and a few musicians with how to approach their work, use social media, etc.. I have also worked with several photographers, as a model and an assistant. I also have a side hustle, doing pet sitting on the side, and I volunteer as a liaison and caretaker of homeless cats. Anything but sell carpeting…
As far as what sets me apart, I’m not sure how to answer that, other than I’ve always done things my own way, I try to evoke strong emotions with any visual work I do, whether it’s a stand alone piece or a commission for album artwork. I’m a complete Luddte when it comes to designing these . I don’t really use modern, technical programs to speed up the creation process. I like searching for paper images in books and magazines to inspire my paintings, use for collage, develop a band concept, etc. I see this approach as a form of rebellion against things like AI, and encroaching tech. I’m sure it won’t matter in a few years, but anyway.
I’m most proud of my two awesome kids, the fact that they both are good people and also love a lot of the same things I do. Art, music, photography. My daughter is a great photographer in her own right and my son’s record collection is off the chain. As far as my work, I’m most proud of the fact I was able to help facilitate a successful art and music scene for so long. Especially as an introvert with a fear of people. I’m proud of the time I spent building a small scene, in spite of that, There’s now a new generation coming up to enjoy it, which is fun to watch.
In 2025, after 12 years doing that, I’ve made a commitment to myself to finally work on my own ideas. As much as I loved running a space and building a scene, eventually it came down to the choice of me choosing my own nature, which is an artist, over another decade or so of public recognition, perceived success and private frustration at not being able to really focus on my ideas. I deliberated with the decision for years, until I finally spit the words out. I know the space has had enough guidance and energy from me to become something new now, even without me.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
Well, I’ve battled chronic depression and emotional turmoil for a lot of my life, this often led to making poor decisions early on, and then having to correct those through a grueling learning process. Some of that learning process has been public, and carried a level of shame for me. You have people around you, and maybe they care, but you really have to go through the landscape of self-actualization alone.
A lot of the art I’ve done has been a direct result of trying to process my own dark tendencies. For the first part of my adult life, I was very self destructive and fearful. I learned to transmute a lot of confusion and rage through the portal of creativity. It wasn’t perfect but it gave me a container to catch those triggers I guess. I’ve always said I can’t focus as well when I’m not sad or angry. Although as I’ve gotten older, it’s like your tendencies upgrade and you have to stay on top of your ability to avoid doing the important work.
It’s so easy to let important habits slip, differ to other responsibilities, tell yourself you will get to it later. The thing is, at this point I’ve lost people that were important to me, I’ve allowed fears to keep me back and both of those experiences make you realize there isn’t always a ‘later.’
For instance, the summer before last, I was feeling very beat down, burned out with the career role I’d been maintaining, I was still doing it but was feeling very dissociated and empty. I took a temporary job caring for an elderly woman who was dying. Her name was Sylvia, and over the course of almost a month, my conversations with her changed my entire way of thinking. She’d tell me stories about who she used to be, before her illness. She had lived to roller skate and get into trouble with her little brother. She’d been passed around to different family members during the Great Depression. She told me how she met her husband and showed me photos of her long past life. Eventually the conversation turned towards me. She’d ask me why I wasn’t doing more of what I wanted, why I was settling, not just professionally but also in a relationship that had passed it’s prime, why I was so scared to meet myself, and be authentic.
“I just feel like there’s no time for me, everything around me is always so urgent. Beteeen raising kids, professional obligations and trying to maintain a life, I always feel like everything else is more important. I don’t have the time to do what I’d like to right now. I will get to it eventually.”
She’d roll her eyes, sit up in her bed and glare at me, raising the tone of her voice.
“Well when is that? Eventually is nothing. Take the time! The time goes away.”
Sitting there in a small country house, with the air conditioning humming and a dying woman’s challenge was exactly what I needed to understand the urgency of life. We stared at each other and both of us knew the importance of what she’d just said. Her words stuck to me. She was gone a few weeks later.. I hear her saying that when I catch myself differing on things I’m afraid to do now, whether it’s starting an art or writing project, having a difficult conversation with someone, or uprooting myself and starting my life over, a process I’m in the middle of right now.
If you have a gift or a unique way of being, it’s always a choice to downplay those things, but it eats away at you on some level, and will probably die with you as well. How to find a way to voice your gifts is half the struggle. Especially if you agonize over decisions, are needled with doubt or comparisons to others. Maybe you tend procrastinate, or put things off.
But I’m proof it’s possible to get better at dealing with those things, if you stay with it. I do believe the Muse, the Universe throws people and opportunities into your path at the right time if you keep the channel open. Some of these experiences are even disguised as difficulty + heartbreak. You just can’t quit. You take breaks, sometimes for years, but you don’t quit.
Have you ever had to pivot?
As far as having to pivot, I did reach a point, after running an art + music space for about 5 years, where I had to really refocus on my role as a mother. My kids were still in elementary school when I came to run Metropolis, and for a while I could coast and keep an eye on them while I was working. But eventually, they got older, middle school hit, with all its drama, extra classes and parental responsibilities. At the same time, the gallery role got a lot more demanding, I was also balancing a difficult custody schedule, court appearances in regards to that, and the PR obligations of being the public face of a business. These roles, along with my own creative development had started to really oppose each other. Public life and making myself too available outside of my parental role had really started to encroach on my ability to prioritize my kids’ needs. It was little things at first, like my choices to answer phone calls and last minute requests from artists and musicians that eventually started eroding my ability to be present with my kids. I was drinking a lot to handle the stress of public expectations, school obligations, parental + finances stress and never having any time off. At some point i made a conscious choice that my kids had to come first, with the gallery and all the clamor it brought being second priority. This was very uncomfortable initially, because the sense of accomplishment I gained from my professional role was so addictive. I loved being able to connect people, promote successful events and impress patrons with my knowledge of the local art business. With parenting, I faced a lot more challenges, a glaring lack of self-confidence and let’s face it, kids are always throwing curve balls you cannot catch. It took a while for me to really lean into the fact that the dopamine high from public recognition was a kind of drug, and really being available to my kids, prioritizing their opinions and feelings over being liked by strangers was so much more important. I’m a recovering people pleaser, in a lot of ways. Still growing new boundaries. But that slow series of decisions to protect my parental relationship, to really start saying no to people, even fun professional projects I was offered, I didn’t make as much money and probably even pissed some people off, but it was a very important decision. You have to protect the time you have with people that are truly important to you. You cannot take them for granted. Slowly the amount of activities I agreed to died down, and although I now look back at that and wonder if I could have been more intentional keeping the momentum up, I do think I’d have really alienated my children, and even landed myself in some sort of rehab or mental health crisis, living in such an inverted way.
Unfortunately, our society rewards a lot of this inversion. It rewards people’s ability to take on way too much, spread themselves too thin, be performative, and overfunction, You really have to keep a good head on your shoulders and allow yourself the mental space to question why. It’s always up to you, where you put your time and energy, how much time you waste, whether you show up for yourself and how much you demonstrate your care for those closest to you. It can have long reaching effects that can’t always be fixed later. At the point I made that decision to refocus on them, it may have had serious consequences for them, if I’d chosen differently, if I’d kept allowing my public life to carve away at my private one.
Contact Info:
- Website: Still in its early stages, through Squarespace: hannahdobek.com
- Instagram: @sister_vinegar
- Facebook: Hannah Dobek
- Linkedin: Hannah Dobek
- Youtube: Metropolis Collective
- Other: I have run the Metropolis Collective Facebook + Instagram pages since about 2013. I’m on my own now out to get some context, you can go to those:Facebook: Metropolis Collective
Instagram: Metropolis Collective
Image Credits
Photo credit: Ivy Compton // Shots by Ives