Ian Hanesworth: ECLECTIC
“I’ve been working with plants as my primary subject for many years now. I never cease to be amazed by plants – by their beauty, their resilience, their medicine, their entanglements in human lives and histories.”
2022 Artist-in-Residence at Home ReSource
Ian’s carved paint artwork created at Home ReSource
How was your experience as an Open AIR Artist-in-Residence?
I had an immensely positive experience during my Open AIR residency at Home ReSource in Missoula. In order to cultivate a deeper ethic of sustainability in my practice, I challenged myself to work only with the materials available to me at Home ReSource – a plethora of used building materials, lumber, paint, tile, tools, and an eclectic assemblage of other oddities. For several years my practice has been focused on textiles and relief printmaking, so working only with materials from Home ReSource meant exploring new avenues of creating that were well outside my comfort zone. Open AIR staff was very supportive of these new explorations, especially when I hit roadblocks for weeks at a time. They encouraged me to keep working through the problems instead of resuming old processes that were more comfortable to me, but less aligned with my environmental ethics. This encouragement was vital and well-timed. I was able to eventually resolve the issues and land on a process that I have been continuing to explore since my residency.
Burdock (right) Echinacea (left) Linocut on organic cotton fabric dyed with plants + minerals 24" x 36" 2020
What was your research process during this time?
My research process was primarily material focused. I spent a lot of time troubleshooting the new materials I was working with and eventually landed on a process that I was happy with: sanding and painting old wooden cabinet fronts and using my woodcut tools to carve imagery through the paint and into the wood. These new carved pieces have similar subject matters and aesthetics to previous bodies of work but have significantly reduced material footprints, something I am hyper-aware of in my practice.
“Study of Self Reliance”
What are you up to now (post Open AIR)?
Since my Open AIR residency, I’ve been working towards my first solo museum exhibition, “Fragments of this Living Earth,” which is currently on view at the Minnesota Marine Art Museum in Winona, MN (my hometown). This exhibition features several distinct yet overlapping bodies of work, including Medicine Kin, an installation of six large-scale botanical relief prints on hand-dyed fabrics, a suite of ten botanical prints commissioned by the museum depicting plants from their gardens, as well as two new pieces employing the carved cabinet process I developed during my Open AIR residency.
Ian’s artwork in gallery exhibition
What keeps you returning to this subject, body of work?
I’ve been working with plants as my primary subject for many years now. I never cease to be amazed by plants – by their beauty, their resilience, their medicine, their entanglements in human lives and histories. Aside from being an artist, I am also an organic vegetable farmer; plants are at the center of everything I do. Most of my sketchbooks are filled with line drawings of plants that I meet, and it’s through this practice of carefully sketching plants that I feel most connected with them.
Medicine Kin -Gallery exhibition of Ian’s work
Any new projects in the works?
Now that my solo exhibition is up, I am taking a much-needed break from artistic production. I’m not taking a break from art, just from the production mindset that big projects entail. I’ll be farming full-time this season and am really looking forward to putting my energy toward learning how to be a better farmer. That being said, I always have a couple dozen ideas for new prints or other projects brewing in the back of my mind
Heaven - Linocut print on lokta paper, Edition of 12
To learn more about Ian, visit their website www.ian-hanesworth.com & check out their Instagram @hanes_worth
