We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Hannah Culbert a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hannah, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about the things you feel your parents did right and how those things have impacted your career and life.
From a very young age my parents fostered in me a deep love of stories and storytelling. It’s a funny question, because I think not everyone would want their child to grow up and work in a creative field.
I remember being read to a lot, the earliest stories I remember my parents reading to me were Greek myths, which I devoured. I loved that they were strange and very dark in places, I think that made them feel more enticing but also more solid, a bit more real. I loved to read, and when I wasn’t doing that I loved to listen to stories on cassette tape. We had these tapes of this old radio program from the 40’s called ‘Let’s Pretend’ – My first introduction to the transatlantic accent! I adored these, they were radio play adaptations of fairy tales with full casts and sound-effects, and sometimes ads for Cream of Wheat and like, the host telling you to plant victory gardens or conserve sugar. In retrospect I have no idea where my mom got these. But I still remember what they sounded like, and years later (without remembering the name of the show) I was able to track down some archives of the audio online and rediscover them! And honestly it explained a lot. I get goofed on a lot by my friends for the weird old-fashioned phrases I use without remembering where I picked them up, but to be fair I never tried to break the habit. I do love an evocative turn-of-phrase.
I often gravitate to exploring the aesthetics of other eras in my visual art as well, and fairy tales and mythology are main sources of inspiration for my work. I love to really dive in with research for a piece, and to learn about art and design history, why things looked the way they looked. Clothing and costume design from different time periods are a blast to learn about and incorporate, too!
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?
Of course! My name is Hannah Culbert, I use they or he pronouns, and I am an illustrator and podcaster! I am a cast member on the Table Top Roleplaying Game podcast Dames and Dragons, and I also design products for our online store! In the past I’ve worked as a product designer, freelance illustrator and a background painter for animation, but as the podcast has taken off I’ve shifted my focus to designing and selling my own products. I run the online store for Dames and Dragons and sell my work locally at fairs. If I can find the time I’d like to set up an online store for my non-podcast related work as well, so hopefully that will be on the horizon!
Dames and Dragons is something I’m very proud of, my friends and business partners, Kat, Noel and Juniper have all put a great deal of work and love into it, and they’re some of the funniest, most talented people I know. Kat is a writer who has created our setting and runs our campaign as our Dungeon Master, Noel writes lovely original music and is our head audio editor, and Juniper and I both provide visual art for our website, store and our mail-reward supporters on Patreon. I’ve also had the pleasure of designing merchandise for show, and it’s been great to use the things I learned working in product design as a contractor to build something I have actual ownership of.
Our podcast, like myself, is goofy, queer, and very into mythology. We’re collaboratively telling a story set in a world with its own pantheon of gods that Kat has created. Like real folklore and mythology, it can jump very quickly between comedy and drama. I think a lot of my favorite stories are ones that are able to do that, and it’s something I feel happy with our execution of on the show. The fact that we do a good deal of editing helps with that, too. I hope when folks look at my personal art as well that a sense of mischief comes through.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
Since high school, I had dreamed of creating a narrative project as part of a team. As much as I love stories, I’m not a writer myself, but I love to improvise and tell a story collaboratively. Before joining the podcast I had worked professionally as an artist before, but in the professional work I was doing in creative fields I very rarely felt like I was really given the opportunity to include my own creative voice. The experience of actually getting to be part of the decision making process, to be listened to, and to have ownership of what I make has been amazing.
It has been really wonderful finding and connecting with an audience, and having the podcast grow into a small business. At this time I still work a day job, so it keeps me very busy, but it is very rewarding to get to have my love of storytelling and visual art come to fruition in this way. I’m really excited about the annual gift we’ll be mailing out to patrons this year. It’s something new that I designed a good while back as there was quite a bit of lead time, but I can’t wait to get it into people’s hands!
I am so grateful to all the people who listen to the show, who champion it, and who support it on Patreon. It really validates the work we put into creating it. It’s really easy to get discouraged if you’re pouring yourself into something and not getting any response back. As much as I love being part of it, it does take up a lot of time and effort, so having people engage with it is really motivating and energizing! It has been wonderful to have it supplement my income as well, as someone who majored in Illustration in college, any additional revenue stream is quite helpful, haha.
What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?
There’s a lot of things, but something that has been on my mind lately as someone who’s in fan spaces for video games, film and animation is this:
If you claim to love a piece of media, care about credit. Care about the treatment of the people who make the things you love. In the video game industry, the animation industry, the VFX industry, a great deal of people are working very long hours for a fraction of the value of their work. Directors or studios are credited with successes, but the individuals who do the labor and whose names scroll past in big blocks of text in the credits are largely ignored.
Hold studios accountable to create good working conditions and pay artists a living wage. Learn about how people who work for the studios whose content you consume are treated. Support unions! Make noise about when corporations make choices that value profits over fair conditions, artistry and livelihoods.
When you love the way something looks, look into the people who made it! Do a little research, find out who did that great character design, or that bit of animation and seek out their work, follow them on social media, if they have a personal project they’re working on, show it some love!
When people complain that the animation looks bad on something, consider that it was probably done for little pay under crunch conditions. Artists want to make things that look good and that they can be proud of, but they are often working in far less than ideal conditions and don’t have get to have say in making the actual creative decisions.
And of course, support independent creators and small-businesses that treat their workers fairly. Art is labor, so protect and uplift workers rights and vote for candidates who do, too!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.hannahculbert.com
- Instagram: @thistlebeetle
- Twitter: @thistlebeetle
- Other: Find a regularly updated archive of my illustrations at https://thistlebeetle.tumblr.com/ Check out the podcast and our online store at https://www.damesanddragons.com/
Image Credits
All illustrations and photos by Hannah Culbert