This year’s Winter Wonderland art is an abstract take on winter. We hope it brings to mind whatever you love best about winter, or perhaps strikes a feeling of awe for the extremity of winter. We interviewed abstract artist Hanna Kuhns for her thoughts behind the art she created for this year’s label.
Hanna, a skier and trail runner, enjoys the field of abstract art as it allows her to be free and have fun with what she’s making.
“For me, abstract art is active, and I am always working to create balance within the composition,” says Hanna. “There is a feeling of freedom that comes through the movement and response to the marks that have been made. There is also a freedom from the constraints of making an image that is visually literal.”
Hanna says she’s very much in the moment when she’s creating, and cites the idea behind abstract art as put by one of her favorite artists, Helen Frankenthaler: make with the idea of “letting ‘er rip.”
To stay true to that in-the-moment process, Hanna keeps a sketchbook with ideas including notes on materials she would like to work with, but then moves fast when creating to avoid a static approach. That means sticking to her original plan doesn’t always happen.
When I was creating the image [for Winter Wonderland], I was imagining the feeling of floating on top of a fresh layer of powder, breathing in the crisp mountain air. I thought about the feeling of winter and what colors I associate with it. I was thinking about time shared with friends outside,” she says.
Each year, the DOMA Winter Wonderland label must include a tree and snowflake in some form. With abstract art, this may be a reference to the feeling of standing in a snowstorm, for example. We love the movement accomplished in Hanna’s art for this label.
Hanna works as an artist and high school art teacher, and hopes to branch out into the backcountry ski world this winter. She will continue working on a series of prints and paintings where she experiments with traditional printmaking tools used in a non-traditional way. To find more of her work, check out her Instagram account @hannakuhnsart.
This is one coffee we’ve been loving on a winter morning, and the gorgeous art from Hanna makes it great for gifting or displaying. Snag a bag of our seasonal Winter Wonderland coffee soon at your favorite DOMA retailer or on our web.