Photographs taken that later on led her to ask, “Did this really happen?” inspired Filipino-American artist Hanna Pettyjohn to paint. Her past strongly influences her art, touching subjects such as her family in Year of Glad, 2010 and her Texan roots in The American Sweet, 2009.

This June 29, in Few and Far Between at 20SQUARE, Pettyjohn once again journeys in time, taking fragments of her past and translating them to oil paintings of landscapes. Her pieces reflect an impression of an experience unlike her previous shows where she analyzed a thought.

“Fragments of memory are always all that we ever have, the remains of time we spend being alive, understanding, loving, and eventually all that will remain of us as we recognize our transience.” shares Pettyjohn.

Her showpieces are based from photos taken when she was in transit during a recent trip. Dominated by colors blue and brown, the paintings take in basic elements of the earth- sky and land, fusing something as profound as an “emotional memory."

Her works bring out feelings of nostalgia and wonder. They take the viewer to another place, far from reality. Luckily, we have Pettyjohn to share it with us at present.

Words by Jel Tordesillas

This show is metaphorically, a line drawn from one point to another, a way to convey an impression of a particular space and a particular expanse of time. I always like and always seem to use the idea of fragments (in my work); in this case these fragmented images are what remain of a significant and personal journey. Fragments of memory are always all that we ever have, the remains of time we spend being alive, understanding, loving, and eventually all that will remain of us as we recognize our transience. In an attempt hold on we try to capture life in text or in photographs, in any way possible, recognizing impossibil- ity of this task and, more importantly, the significance of the action.

Hanna Pettyjohn
Few and Far Between
June 2011

As a child, Hanna Pettyjohn, mimicking her father’s work (of renowned local potter Jon Pettyjohn), imitating expert fingers form clay, and taking this to task, she’s learned how touch and sensitivity make you an artisan of many other things, materializing her ideas in oil on canvas. As a writer, she derives her inspiration from her literary compositions and translates these excerpts into artworks.