Hannah Witwicki
I am a self-taught artist. I took one acrylic painting class in college as an elective, But art is the only consistent interest I’ve carried through all the different chapters of my life. Desires like becoming a pastry chef, or a forensic anthropologist, didn’t last. I got my first creative job in college, and That was the first time I was forced to create on a schedule. Eventually, I worked as the design director for a large format graphics company, and I wish I had realized then what I know now: Just how much I could do if I started creating by habit. Instead, I went on a several-year creative hiatus to work as a mule packer. Then 2020 hit, and like everyone else, I was stuck at home with nothing to do.
I picked up on old bighorn sheep outline I had previously abandoned. I had been too afraid of adding texture to the piece, because I thought i would mess it up. This time, I just sat down and started working. I was so entranced by the process, by drawing thousands of tiny lines, that I didn’t move for five hours. When I finally came up for air, there was a beautiful, completed bighorn on the page in front of me, and the worries of the pandemic seemed smaller.
I currently am painting western artwork that reflects my time as a mule packer as well as custom pet portraits and botanical artwork.