The Same Beginning Painting

Hanna Bruer is an abstract artist in Madison, WI. Her expressionist paintings prominently feature illegible text embedded in abstract layers and atmospheres. She has permanent installations throughout the Midwest, including Northwestern Technical College and Dane County Credit Union. Bruer has worked with the National Alliance on Mental Illness for their Healing Art Shows, earning Best In Show Finalist in 2015. She has provided live painting performances at venues such as the Majestic Theater and Memorial Union Terrace in Madison, as well as for Madison Museum of Contemporary Art Gallery Nights. Her work and story have been featured in the Isthmus and Cap Times publications, as well as NBC15 News. After a diagnosis of Borderline Personality Disorder in 2013, she found continued solace in her artwork and began using it as a coping skill. On top of an abstract atmosphere, the most identifiable aspect of her work is the use of text as imagery. The text is often an essay to herself; unspoken words of frustration and discovery involved with her daily fight for resilience. The importance of each gesture, word, and emotion reveal themselves in the layers of each piece. To combat self-doubt and insecurity, Hanna also offers her work as a performance, painting and baring her internal self in front of an audience. She converts a blank canvas into an active work of art, letting the bystander experience her creative process.