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

Sarah, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about the things you feel your parents did right and how those things have impacted your career and life.

I am a third generation visual artist. My mother never, EVER made “real” art tools out of reach or “too special” for us to use as kids. It was simple – she showed us how to use and care for professional tools properly, and, as a result, we created beautiful things because we were using the right tools for the tasks.

My early years were spent living in Jamaica, West Indies. We didn’t do a lot of sitting in front of the television. Something I remember my mom saying often was, “You’re bored? Go make something in my studio.”

Our family business was furniture and clothing manufacturing, so art tools, textiles, structural materials – all of those ingredients were around to allow us to create anything our little minds could imagine!

We had the good fortune of traveling the world often and with a great spirit of adventure. The exposure to world-class museums AND street art gave me an appreciation of the fact that art is everywhere. Without question, that celebration of cultures, colors, and craftsmanship carved the artistic path I chose.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I spent 24 years in the luxury wedding industry as a fine lettering artist. My mother Kaye Hanna, an internationally-acclaimed artist, was my instructor and mentor. I started doing small, local jobs out of college and ended up as a designer for an iconic New York letterpress studio. I had my hand in thousands of weddings and my work printed in the glossy pages of Vogue and InStyle magazine.

When Covid hit, the wedding industry came to a screeching halt. I had been teaching at an arts and anthropology school in California. I was in that role mostly as a creative outlet (and because, let’s face it, kids are hilarious and endlessly entertaining – especially kids who love art).

During lockdown, I was getting cold calls from parents asking me to teach art to their kids. My response was, “I can’t commit to a semester. But I can teach them a semester in a day. Then they can continue to work on their own for however long this mess lasts.”

Word caught on, and now I travel all over the country to do my ART IN RESIDENCE family painting sessions!

I go into people’s homes and we spend the day creating huge, original works of art. The children do the painting. I do the instructing and keep the artwork on track. The results are always fabulous and always meaningful to the family.

True story: A Palm Beach designer asked me to recreate a piece of art that they saw on my Instagram feed (not realizing that the art they wanted for a custom, luxury home was created by 4 children under the age of 6). Of course I revealed this and of course they still wanted it. That was one of my favorite commissions of all time.

I love the new direction my career has taken. Weddings are coming back, but I am all in for my Art in Residence program.

As an added bonus, about half of my clients are families whose wedding invitations I did 2 to 10 years ago. They now have children and want me to work with their little ones.

I solve this problem for my clients: “I love art, but I don’t know what to buy. It seems overwhelming, and what I really want is something that is meaningful to my family.”

The thing that sets me apart is my extraordinary level of patience. That patience is due in part to my nature and in part to spending a quarter of a century working on luxury weddings. I lucked out and always had great wedding clients. Even so, you know who is less demanding than a bride? A four-year-old with a paintbrush.

I feel the greatest sense of pride when I see the look on a child’s face at the end of their session that says, “I made that. I made that huge, beautiful thing!” The texts in months following of their art and a note saying, “Mommy, please send this to Miss Sarah. I want her to see what I made” are high on that rewarding list too.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

Stop. treating. art. like. a. hobby.

Artists, please stop with the race to the bottom. Place value on your work and others will too.

Society, please stop bargaining down artisans. You wouldn’t do that to your surgeon or your builder. Don’t do it the craftsmen and women who bring beauty into your life.

Art is a profession.
Artists are to be compensated fairly for their skill.
THE END.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

My goal is to put the tools, the confidence and the encouragement to create in the hands and hearts of everyone who is interested.

We do ourselves a great disservice as a society to label art in the ways that we do: ‘frivolous’ or ‘only for the elite’ or ‘a hobby.’

At the beginning of every ART IN RESIDENCE session, I ask the young artists, “What is art?”

I would really like to see ART defined in the terms of those answers:
ART is joy.
ART is life.
ART is your story.
ART is happiness.
ART is possibility.

I cannot say it better than Hippocrates: “Art is long. Life is short.”

Contact Info:

• Website: www.sarahhanna.com
• Instagram: @artfulcorrespondence

Image Credits
Juan Patino Photography Sarah Hanna