Instagram: hannahs.portfolios
Email: hannahlatimer@live.ca
Hannah Latimer is an emerging Canadian artist from Ottawa, Ontario, who resides in Kitchener, Ontario. She is currently completing her final year of undergraduate studies at the University of Waterloo, majoring in Fine Art and specialization in Digital Art and Computer Science. Hannah’s work has explores ideas about feminism, the environment, and mental health. She works towards exploring ideas of space, and time, and trying to explain and understand pieces of quantum theory and the theory of relativity.
Artist Statement
My plan for my thesis project is to create a life size octopus, around 4 to 5 feet tall, and 4 to 5 feet wide. The octopus will be created using metal and fabric, and will include blue lights inside to give the impression of water. The octopus’s head will be made of fabric, and the legs will be made of metal with holes in them for the blue light to shine through.
This octopus is created with Mole Pipe, as well as sewing and different fabric patterns. The head is fully made out of fabric and stuffing, and the legs are fabric, stuffed with Mole Pipe and stuffing. All fabric pieces are sewn together and has blue LED light strips that are stuck on the legs of octopus.
In the case of octopuses, females are usually larger than males and often view them as both a potential mate, and a meal. It had been determined that it is relatively common for females to kill males during or after sex. Then, the female will carry the body of the male into her den, and eats him. If the female does not eat the male during or after sex, the male actually just goes off and dies. I wanted to create a giant female octopus as an ode to feminism and create a representation of the power of females. The octopus is one of the uncommon species where the females are the dominant sex, and I think this is very fascinating and strong.
Interview Questions
What aspects of your life inspire your art?
One of the biggest and most important parts of my life was actually the hardships that I have had to go through. I have dealt with many mental health issues, parental drug addiction, family death and more. These parts of my life actually help me to grow stronger, and inspire a lot of my artwork today.
What are your preferred mediums and why are you drawn to them?
I try to push myself to work with a large range of mediums. I want to be open to working with new materials so gain more experience and learn new methods or techniques. The mediums I have most commonly used in the past are sculpture, using fabric and sewing, and digital art, using coding, photoshop, Procreate.
Where do you see yourself in the future? How do you see your art practice evolving?
I see myself working as a curator of an art gallery or possibly owning my own gallery. I am currently working at The Museum as an exhibition volunteer, and am hoping this will lead to a full time job in August when I graduate. This position will hopefully start my career in the gallery and museum world. I myself never really thought of becoming an artist as a real career possibility, but throughout this degree, I have really rethought this opinion. My biggest aspiration is to have a gallery where I can curate art shows and actually display some of my own work.
What do you want people to know about you as an artist?
I am most interested in learning, understanding and explaining how pieces of the universe works. I hope when seeing my works of art, people better understand, or learn new things. I am also very interested in the ‘element of shock’ and creating pieces of work that surprise and sometimes create feelings of discomfort or even scare.