Jess Hansen believes that all emotions can be expressed through the creatures of this earth, and her art captures the souls of the animals she depicts.
Jess was born in Utah and graduated from the Art Instruction School in Minneapolis, MN in April 2011. Since then she has won a number of awards for her wildlife art in pastel, ink, oil painting, and digital artwork. This includes 2nd place and number of other awards in the professional Division at the Utah State Fair, Juror’s choice award at the 2011 Utah Hogle Zoo World of the Wild Art Show in Salt Lake City, second place in the 2010 Art Instruction School Annual Art Competition, third place in 2017 Art Instruction School Annual Art Competition, and Best of Show for one of her digital pieces at the 2017 Anime Banzai. Her work was published in the 2010 and 2017 in the Illustrator magazine.
In 2019 she was accepted as a member of the selective international acclaimed group Artists for Conservation through a rigorous jurying process. She was also accepted as a member of the Pastel Society of America and the Oil Painters of America. Jess works in multiple mediums such as oil, pastel, India ink, and digital.
Major current themes in Jess’ art are a series dedicated to spreading word about endangered animals and a series of historical representations of extinct and/or mythical animals throughout history. Her mission is to further express imaginative animal souls.’
ARTIST STATEMENT
Through unique mediums such as India ink, pastel, digital, and oil I paint to capture the souls of animals. So many animals are forgotten and lost without people even knowing anything about them. My mission is to communicate the importance of animals to our world through art. To start my process, I select an endangered or misunderstood animal. I try to research everything I can about them and see them in the person if possible. Then I move forward portraying them with an overall theme in mind. Sometimes these themes are emotional portrayals such as a dramatic interaction between predators; others are just to illustrate that physical animal. I sketch a variety of different ideas before proceeding with a particular composition. I then select which of my four mediums I will do the piece in. I create fine art portrayals to convey emotional responses, other times it is design work so that the art can easily help spread awareness. Interacting with animals has been my life ever since I was born. I have worked with all sorts of animals from reptiles to mammals, loving every moment of it. After helping abused and abandoned animals I’ve seen many people don’t realize how much emotion and beauty animals have. I have made it my mission as an artist to be an animal communicator through my artwork and to allow people to see what they might not notice or ever see in person: the souls of creatures. I am currently creating a series titled, “Don’t Let Me Vanish” that features endangered and extinct animals. I also am trying to depict animals with historical significance by doing fantasy and mythical creatures from historical lore and mythology to capture cultural creatures that were once thought of as real. Through my art I work to portray imaginative animal souls and emotions.
LINKS
IMAGES
Jess Hansen, “Lion of the West,” 2020, oil, 24 x 48 in.
Jess Hansen, “The Approach,” 2022, pastel, 14 x 20 in.
Jess Hansen, “The Clash,” 2022, india Ink, 16 x 20 in.
Jess Hansen, “Vanishing Soul,” 2020, pastel, 11 x 14 in.
Jess Hansen, “Forever Gone Golden Toad,” 2023, oil painting, 16 x 20 in.
Jess Hansen, “Let’s Have A Peek,” 2018, pastel, 10 x 8 in.
Jess Hansen, “Young Chimera,” 2020, digital painting
Jess Hansen, “Enfields in Balance,” 2020, india ink, 15 x 11 in.
Jess Hansen, “The Gift of Love,” 2016, digital painting
UTAH’S ART MAGAZINE SINCE 2001, 15 Bytes is published by Artists of Utah, a 501 (c) 3 non-profit organization headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Categories: Painting | Utah Artists - H
