Artists Sprung from Cornfields

A French friend once told me the Impressionists all came from rural towns. I liked that because my own artist father (born in Winterset in 1921) was a farm boy whose talent transported him to the big city from an 80-acre farm in Madison County—not to Paris, but to Houston.

I thought to myself later (though I didn’t dig too deeply, haha), wait a minute—didn’t almost everyone in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries come from the sticks?

Because of my artist father, I grew up around pencils, pigments, paintbrushes, and canvas. To me, making art was normal. I discovered quiltmaking in the 1970s, and became an artist myself. Because of that, my children grew up around colored pencils, graph paper, fabric scraps, and design walls. Making art was normal for them, too.

Hannah, my oldest, after graduating from the University of Iowa in 2000 with degrees in Journalism and Human Sexuality Studies, headed for New York almost immediately, and stayed there. She was one of the thousands who traveled by foot from her job in Manhattan to her apartment in Brooklyn on 9/11/2021.

Hannah has been making things for years, often three-dimensional fashion pieces, but more recently, acrylic on canvas.

Hannah Fons, born in Winterset in 1975, educated at the University of Iowa and the Fashion Institute of Technology (F.I.T.), NYC.

“A Household Saint,” 18 x 24 inches, by Hannah Fons, acrylic on canvas with metal elements.

From Hannah’s website:

Fons is a Brooklyn-based artist working in acrylic on canvas and leather, as well as other textiles and organic materials. Informed by shamanic and animist belief systems, her work uses muscular lines and vivid color to explore the ancient, archetypal currents and complexes that influence all humans everywhere, emerging through spiritual practice, folklore, ritual, and dreams.

“Nothing is Without Poison,” 11 x 14 inches, by Hannah Fons, acrylic on canvas with metal elements.

“A Household Saint #3,” 11 x 14 inches, by Hannah Fons, acrylic with metal elements and pearls.

Hannah’s “Household Saints” is an ongoing series of talismanic spirits created to protect and illuminate homes and other spaces. Patterned after Byzantine and Medieval icons, they draw inspiration from myths, fables, folklore, and dreams.

As a kid, Hannah ran barefoot through the same cornfields my father helped till with mule and plow as a teenager. Neither probably knew there were paintbrushes (and not the house painting kind) in their future.

Hannah’s first solo exhibit was a three-evening event at the Brooklyn Art Cave March 13-15. I made sure to be there for the opening Thursday night.

Making art is immersive, therapeutic, a joy and a solace for the the maker.

If you are a maker, you know what I mean. If you are not a maker, I hope you have had the inclination to (and been able to) further the career of an artist by purchasing their work, and that the presence of their art in your home brings you solace and joy.

“A Household Saint #7 (Thought and Memory),” 16 x 20 inches, by Hannah Fons, acrylic on canvas with metal elements.

At the event in Brooklyn three canvases, one of them a Household Saint, were sold. You can contact Hannah through her website if you are interested in purchasing her work.

P.S. Also present opening night were Hannah’s siblings. In the spirit of “The Real Quilts of Madison County,” here we are below, pulling ourselves together for the snapshot and then the pose. (A fine time was had by all.)

From left, Mary Fons, Hannah Fons, Rebecca Fons, Marianne Fons

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