Today we’d like to introduce you to Wes Hansen.
Hi Wes, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I’ve been interested in art, primarily comic books since I was about 6. I continued to pursue and learn to make all kinds of art through the years. I took up painting when I was 11. Initially I went to college for landscape architecture but graduated with a focus on set design in theatre and drama from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I’m 41 now and it wasn’t until last October that I got my first art studio to focus on making art for a living.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Although I wasn’t devoting my life to art early on it is still difficult to find a voice and or style to make yourself stand out from the rest. I feel like it’s taken my whole life of being exposed to other art and artists to figure out what direction I wanted to go in. I would say that I have been very fortunate since getting my studio in October to be having a show with a gallery this December.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Right now, I mainly focus on doing portraits of people. I use acrylic paint and my style came about out of not wanting to spend time blending paint. I break things down into colors, values, and shapes to simplify the painting process. I like to use a lot of contrast of light and dark values in my work and zoom in on my subjects.
We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you.
Well, I tend to attribute a certain level of success to luck. Yes, I believe that skill does play a part, but I think that being in the right place at the right time so to speak helps with success, especially in the art world. So, therefore, I would consider myself lucky to have a show already coming up this December. As for bad luck having a silver lining, I would say that some of my bad luck in the past has given me the capacity to make art or want to make art. Therefore, benefiting me now.
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