Today we’d like to introduce you to Hannah Jacoby-brooks
Hi Hannah, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
Originally, I am from Atlanta, GA. I grew up in the metro area before moving downtown to attend Georgia State University. While in undergrad, I was also extremely involved in college band & I was able to experience a plethora of things I wouldn’t have been able to without it. I was in a movie, on tv, and marched in the Macy’s Day Parade. I majored in Studio Art with a concentration in Drawing, Painting, and Printmaking at the Ernest G. Welch School of Art & Design. I knew I wanted to continue being in academia, so I applied to 13 graduates programs which landed me at the School of the Museum of FIne Arts at Tufts University in Boston, MA.
I received my MFA in interdisciplinary Studio Art.
Post- MFA, I am now working as a professor and the manager of the Digital Fabrication Studio at Montserrat College of Art on the North Shore of MA!
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
The road is never smooth when you decide to grow up to be an artist. Aside from the constant nagging of people who don’t know you saying that it is impossible, it is an everyday constant work towards making it a reality. I took a long time to get my BFA because of my inability to deal with the people saying I was crazy, so naturally I changed my major upwards of 8 times before going back to art (which of course was my first decision).
Graduate school is different in that you finally made it to another level, and they picked you because you were good, right? There is insane self-doubt and imposter syndrome in grad school. Everyone is sleep deprived and trying to say something genuine for the first time and make it relatable and funny and extraordinary. Looking back, I was an insane person. Grad school broke me down to the point of realizing that I am the part of my art that makes it interesting, and I am embracing that sad/ funny part of myself that is interesting.
Now that I have the job and I am making money from my art background, I am struggling to find time to make work for me! Life is about balance, and I am prioritizing myself. The art making always comes, but I often get impatient about the when it comes.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I always say “historically I am a printmaker,” which is entirely true. Even when my work takes the form of text, sculpture, textiles, or performance it is about the language that surrounds print media.
My thesis focused on the dialogues that occured in between me and my sewing machine whilst making hyper-specific garments for moments that have already passed. The dialogue, much like the rest of the process, was a coping mechanism of dealing with internalized shame as being a person from the south as well as self-hatred. The pieces were accompanied by the written diaries/ letters I wrote “to” my sewing machine, Linda. The title of the show was Dear Linda – so when my machine broke and was unable to be repaired, the focus because hysterically sad. There is a level of drama and comedy that pairs the true feelings of shame and self in my work. I am very inspired by Chris Kraus and Maggie Nelson in the spirit of auto-theory mixed with feminist notions.
I am proud that I can make myself cackle and cry when making the work.
We all have a different way of looking at and defining success. How do you define success?
I define success as a state of being – I am successful at dedicating myself to my health everyday or I am successful at being a wife because I try really hard.
It is a broad topic, but the level of effort is hard to attach an empirical value to.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://hjbrooks.art/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hjbrooksart/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/H.Brooks1313/
Image Credits
images courtesy of the artist