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

Hannah, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

The most meaningful project I’ve worked on was a small zine I made called Shaking Hands Making art,

During the winter of 2019, I spent time in and out of the emergency room with debilitating pain. My chronic illness had relapsed, leaving me weak and struggling to continue with my college classes.​
The worst part was that, as a side effect of one of my medications, I developed hand tremors that worsened when I tried to use fine motor skills. As an artist, I felt like I was losing my ability to create the way I wanted to.
I started carrying around a small sketchbook to draw in whenever I needed a distraction. I used a ballpoint pen as a way to embrace the shaky quality my line art had taken on, allowing me to be in the moment, accepting my art for exactly what it was as soon as I put the pen to paper.

What makes this project so meaningful to me is that it proves that even during the worst times in my life, I am always turning back to art. Art can be anything and during those few months it felt like scribbling out little doodles was my lifeline. I didn’t know what the next few months or the next year would bring, but it’s very helpful for me to remember that art can be anything, and no matter what happens it is still possible to create meaningful art.

Hannah, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Hi, my name is Hannah Hoffmeister, and I’m an illustrator based in Dallas, TX. I primarily work in digital art, but I’ve made art in just about any medium – acrylic, charcoal, ink, oil, gouache, even crocheting/fiber arts. Lately I’ve been painting pet portraits – it’s been really amazing for me to be able to combine my love for animals with my love for illustration to create pieces with that extra spark that makes our pets special.

In my personal art, I’m always trying to capture that surreal feeling you get in dreams. I’d say my style is a little bit creepy and a little bit cute – I like to draw little ghosts and demons, but in a round and friendly way :)
I think the greatest purpose of art is to depict things that don’t exist in the real world, and I’m most proud of my drawings that do exactly that. Creating nightmarish little creatures isn’t scary to me, but rather a beautiful way to take things that exist only in my head and make them tangible.

I’ve been an artist ever since I was old enough to hold a crayon, and I feel incredibly lucky to have grown up surrounded by people who have encouraged me and my art in every way – especially my parents who have been my biggest supporters throughout my life. I graduated from the Savannah College of Art and Design with a BFA in illustration in the spring of 2021, and since then I’ve been working as a painting instructor as well as freelancing.

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

I think the biggest lesson I’ve had to unlearn is that art has to be “good” to be worthwhile.

While I was in college there seemed to always be this pressure – that every piece of art you did had to be your best one yet, that you had to be on this constant upward slope of improvement. After I graduated it left me feeling incredibly burnt out, and I feel like a lot of my peers can relate. I’m incredibly grateful for everything I learned in college but I do wish there had been more room for making bad art.

Not every piece of artwork you make is going to be perfect, and not all imperfections need to be improved upon. I can’t stress that last part enough, make a terrible piece of art and accept that art exactly the way it is. Just because your drawing didn’t turn out quite the way you wanted it to doesn’t mean you wasted your time. The minute you put a single mark on a blank canvas, you’ve created something in this world that would not exist otherwise. That’s what makes art beautiful.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

The biggest thing I come across when talking about art to “non-creatives” is this idea that artistic talent is something you’re born with, or something that is magically bestowed upon you somehow. I can’t count how many times I’ve heard the phrase “I’m not an artist, I can’t even draw a straight line!’ (I can’t draw a straight line either lol, that’s what rulers are for).

All art comes from the desire to communicate, and everyone is born wanting to communicate. The only difference between me and someone who doesn’t consider themselves an artist, is the desire to keep trying to make art over and over again, even if you don’t get it right the first few hundred times. Every skill I have was learned and improved on through years of practice and hard work. I was lucky enough to get a lot of help and encouragement at a young age which gave me a head start – but it’s really never too late to learn a new skill as long as you have the determination to keep at it.

This also ties back to the idea that art has to be “good” to be worthwhile, it really doesn’t. With the rise of AI art recently, a lot of people see the technology as a way to create stunning art instantly, even if you’re don’t have the magical gene that makes you good at art. In my opinion, that defeats the whole point of art. As a human, make bad art. Make terrible art over and over again and try to see the value in what you’re doing – and if you’ve ever doodled in the margins of a notebook, feel free to call yourself a creative. :)

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.hannahhoff.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/artbyhannahhoff/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hannah-hoffmeister-5624411a3/
• Other: https://www.blurb.com/b/9464964-shaking-hands-making-art

Image Credits
all images credited to Hannah Hoffmeister.