My name is Meghan Hanson and I am an artist and architect working in the intermountain west. I am fascinated with exploring our place within our larger world and I do this through creating art that studies it. Humanity is a relative latecomer to this earth, yet our footprint is vast. I believe we need to take time to think about how our existence and creations work within the natural landscape. My art draws inspiration (and media) from both the natural world and the man-made. Often it is the built-forms that help us see and focus on the wild world around us. A road or a fence or a person can create scale in an otherwise vast landscape.

My work is heavily influenced by my career as an architect. My thesis, written over 20 years ago, states ‘architecture is the physical reality of how we see ourselves within the world. It seeks an understanding of self and place and relates us back to our natural world.’ The art
must ‘gather’ the world and relate it back to the earth. ‘Great art makes manifest the truth of being as a whole’ (Heidegger)

Having lived and worked in the intermountain west my entire life has influenced my passion for land preservation, the agrarian lifestyle, and what I call the new Western Vernacular. This term, taken directly from architecture, defines the use of old materials, forms, and practices in new ways and with new technologies. In art, I explore this by using reclaimed & patina’d wood to create crisp and clean images that contrast with the wood’s more rustic nature.

My art studio reflects my beliefs as well. It is the loft of our home in the Bitterroot Mountains of Montana. Certified as the first US Passive (PHIUS) House in the state of Montana it is designed to be net-zero energy. Its form draws on local barns and agrarian outbuildings. The loft studio has large triple-glazed windows & two skylights situated over the drawing table.
Working in a variety of mediums I explore our surrounding worlds, the interplay of the natural and the humanmade. I work with watercolor to create intricate paintings of life around me. And I work in multiple mediums with my travel journals which accompany me locally and while exploring foreign landscapes. My work with reclaimed wood grows from my love for old structures and patina’d materials.

When looking at a beautiful old piece of charactered wood or a new piece of watercolor paper, we need to remember that before that board was a board, or that paper was made, it was a tree. In most cases the woods I use in my art are probably much older than I am. I try to respect that history through my art.