We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Hannah Atallah. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Hannah below.

Hannah, appreciate you joining us today. The first dollar you earn is always exciting – it’s like the start of a new chapter and so we’d love to hear about the first time you sold or generated revenue from your creative work?

I didn’t originally intend to pursue art as a career. I had been drawing and making digital art and sharing it with friends in a small capacity. They encouraged me to set up an Instagram account to share it and I started to share the work there. A stranger in NYC who had been following my account connected with one of the designs and asked if they could buy it as a print. It was unexpected and that early support changed how I viewed the work and encouraged me to create more.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am an interdisciplinary artist and muralist. I focus on large-scale public art projects and installations and seek to make site specific work that is thoroughly researched and incorporates community and relevant cultural histories. I have created work across the US, Mexico and Jordan and am currently based in Baltimore, MD.

My recent work focuses on the impacts and intimacies of forced migration and displacement both globally and locally in Baltimore and DC, cities that I’ve called home. I seek to honor the previous life of materials, current lives of people who are systemically made invisible, and the artistic legacy of the Arab world (where my family is from). In my recent work I have been building a living archive of Arab cultural workers. Through this, I seek to uplift the dignity of people and cultures affected by traumatic events and systemically made invisible.

I have also been working on interdisciplinary work that transcends disciplinary boundaries, such was what might traditionally be considered painting or sculpture.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

The book Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza by Gloria Anzaldúa greatly influenced my thinking and comfort with not needing to fit into boxes or the limits people often place onto artists and works of art. Thinking this way is liberating and expansive. It frees us up as artists to explore multiple disciplines and continuously cultivate a sense of wonder. It also frees us up form being constrained by society’s limited and often oppressive constructs of identity that are placed onto artists.

Here are a few phrases that she writes that I often return to:
“An image is a bridge between evoked emotion and conscious knowledge…Images are more direct, more immediate than words, and closer to the unconscious.”

“To separate from my culture (as from my family) I had to feel competent enough on the outside and secure enough inside to live life on my own. Yet in leaving home I did not lose touch with my origins because lo mexicano is in my system. I am a turtle, wherever I go I carry ‘home’ on my back.”

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

Our fellow community of artists are often our strongest resource. We can help each other share skills, give feedback, share tools and connect to other opportunities. We are valuable to each other. I have come to appreciate this more and more as my career progresses. Being in the US or in individualistic societies, collaboration and mutual support are less encouraged systemically and that can seep into one’s mindset. Recognizing this early on and valuing and uplifting each other as we grow makes a big difference.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.hannahatallah.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hannah_atallah

Image Credits

Conrado Muluc, Max Berger