Self-taught Kentucky artist Hanna Wright uses bold lines and bright colors to convey emotions in her abstract faces and figures.
Artist: The rural Kentucky native was adopted at the age of four and moved from Barbourville to Keavy, where she grew up. She graduated from the University of the Cumberlands in 2015 with degrees in special education behavioral disabilities and elementary education.
Wright is a special education teacher in the Laurel County School District, where she has worked for eight years. In her free time, she creates her art at home.
The teacher and artist, who also lives with obsessive compulsive disorder/ADHD, believes her many experiences inspire her drawings.
In the beginning: Wright began creating art as a young child with her mamaw, Geraldine Scalf, a folk artist in Barbourville.
One of Wright’s drawings won the children’s art competition at the annual Daniel Boone Festival while her grandmother took home the adult art awards that year.
Art & materials: Colorful drawings of abstract figures and faces, using ink, colored pencils and pen on watercolor paper. Also works using acrylic paint on canvas or wood.
What’s popular: Gallery Postcards, abstract portrait paintings on canvas, and abstract figure drawings on watercolor paper ($100 and up).
Other favorites: Abstract figure drawings ($300).
Inspirations:
- Folk art and Southern culture.
- Artists including: Geraldine Scalf (her grandmother), Laurent Folco, Michael Banks, Picasso, Jim Kopp, Minnie Evans, R.A. Miller, Banksy and Mr. Doodle.
Recent awards/honors: Many exhibitions and publications, including:
- Arts For All Kentucky member, which provides arts and education programs for people with disabilities.
- SYNT: See You Next Thursday Flat File Exhibition, NY. 2023.
- Art of Possibilities Art Show, Minneapolis, MN. 2022 and 2023.
- Andy Warhol Museum of Modern Art: Homage to Yayoi Kusama, International Art Project Exhibition in in Slovakia. 2023.
Recent project: Working on original artwork stickers for a worldwide sticker database in Spain.
Where to buy or commission: Contact the artist on Instagram: @appalachianscribble.
Get social:
- Instagram: @appalachianscribble
- Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/hwright4643/artwork-by-hanna-wright-of-keavy-kentucky/
