Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jason Hanson. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Jason, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Do you wish you had started sooner?

My creative career could not have been better timed. I knew I was an artist by the fourth grade, but I didn’t know all the skills I would need to operate as an artist in the big wide world.

I pursued art through high school and college and ultimately dropped out on three different occasions. The last time I dropped out was the year 2000, the same time I started a career in technology and software engineering.

Fast-forward 20 years to when a near-death experience inspired me to start painting again full-time. The person who went back into the studio was drastically changed from the 20-something who was at war with the world.

For a while, I lamented all the years I had lost doing tech work when I should have been painting. I kept that story going for a while till I started to notice all the dozens of skills needed to be an artist in the 2020s. I had those skills.

From photography, video editing, web design, construction, legal contracts, managing staff, project management, and excellent communication, I had lived a life of being paid to learn and use those skills. The list is long of skills I learned in the 20-year break I took from painting.

Looking back, it was a lot more like an intensive grad school program where I learned all the foundational skills I would need to exist as an artist. I’ve lived through so much and have grit, determination, and life experiences I may never have gotten if I stayed painting all those years.

Today, the work has never been better, and I’m resourced with almost every skill I need to thrive in today’s art world.

Now is always the perfect time!

Jason, 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?

It took nearly dying in a motorcycle accident to get me, an art school drop-out, to paint again. After regaining the ability to walk and most of the function in my hands, I found myself in an empty St. Louis art studio after quitting a 20-year career in tech. I knew I had to get the dreams I was having onto canvas before they consumed me.

My work explores the liminal space between the dream world and waking life. Every time I translate a scene from dreams into life, it contains a message for someone meant to find it. Pushing the societal boundaries that condition and bind us, I invite us to accept our whole selves by lifting up the people – the parts of us – that we reject, deny, and hide from one another.

My edge as an artist is always to surrender more. The more I surrender to be used by source, the more messages from source flow through me.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

Something non-creatives may struggle to understand about my artist life is the way I structure my schedule for maximum creativity. There is very little routine in my life. I don’t work 8 hours a day 5 days a week. In fact, doing so would probably destroy my creativity.

Creativity comes and goes in waves big and small. I structure my life to match this. The structure of my seasons matches the rise and fall of projects I’m working on. The structure of each day matches the ebb and flow of creative inspiration.

I’ve learned that it is fruitless to attempt to create when I don’t feel creative. When I do feel creative and inspired, the work flows out of me, every mark in the correct place at the correct time with no need to rework anything. When I force myself to work, when I’m uninspired, the work always needs to be redone the next day.

My life is about optimizing creativity. Tools that I learned in the business world, like OKRs, KPIs and Kanban boards are not only not helpful, but often destructive to the progress of my creative work. When I left the world of corporate software engineering, I needed a new toolkit to prepare and motivate myself to do creative work.

These are my top tools. Many of them are inspired by Julia Cameron, author of The Artist’s Way.

Mediation: I meditate every day for ten minutes. The form changes from time to time, but I sit in meditation every day. Without this, I’m not fit to be with other people. This is how I keep my inner fire from going out, even in the darkest of times.

Morning pages: I do three hand-written pages every morning. I find ideas for my next project come on the pages. I’ve been doing them for years, and I’ve had so many arguments with people on my pages that never even needed to be shared with the person once I realized I was creating the drama. Morning pages are a way to connect with myself every day.

Artist dates: I take myself out on a date about once a week. The only requirements for the date are that I go 100% alone, and what I do can serve no greater purpose other than play and joy. It must be frivolous.

Essence pace: I have found the pace that I’m most productive at, and I structure my life around it. For me, it means lots of downtimes followed by flurries of intense activity. This might mean that I spend 4 hours doing my morning routine and lying around. At some point, I catch a building wave of creativity and create with intensity for 1-4 hours. The work completed in these bursts is equivalent to several 8-hour days of “forcing” myself to work.

These are some of the tools that allow me to show up every day with unlimited amounts of creativity.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

As an artist, it’s essential to make the unseen seen. I look for people and concepts that are true but pushed to the edges of society. I center and celebrate what is pushed to the edge. When we pay attention and meet the needs of those at the edges, the whole of society is better served. It’s my job as an artist to share these uncomfortable truths about what we unjustly cast aside for our own emotional comfort.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.jasonhanson.art
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jasonhansonart/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jasonhansonart/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@jasonhansonart

Image Credits
© Jason Hanson