My work has always contained an element of mystery through its most prominent feature: the  illegible script. These writings are my innermost thoughts, and I’ve always wanted to keep them obscured and unattainable. With my new project, Inward, I will step out and finally reveal the text from selected paintings. Inward will show the true concept behind each piece, raw and unregulated.
Before I unmask my words, I want to know what you see in the selected piece. I have always found it fascinating what the audience perceives compared to what the artist intends. Everyone sees the world through different eyes, and I’m curious to know the significance others find in my work.
For one week, I’ll have an entry form available at hannabruer.com for you to share your interpretation of the piece that is currently spotlighted. At the end of that week, I’ll unveil my text. The next week we’ll carry on with another piece, and we’ll repeat this for a number of weeks. Participation is not necessary, and remaining anonymous is completely acceptable.
I’m grateful for your curiosity and appreciation, and I look forward to sharing myself with you by shedding light on what I’ve always turned inward.
Thank you, my friends.
Love,
H

6.7.17  //  Work #4:
Fear and Affectation (2015)

Interpretations:

This tells a kind of story to me- the softer peach colour reminds me of skin, and all it's softness, but it's contrasted with the very bold black and whites and primaries (and green.). It brings to mind a commentary about what it's like being a soft-bodied human animal living in a city filled with activity, expectations and hard, steel and glass structures. Civilization and activity "vs" the soft intuition of being human. It's like the wild frenetic activity that lives beneath the skin from the environments we create, and eventually take into ourselves as part of the animal we become.  - Amanda

Your titles are so good! In many ways our fears can be lessons in ways to deepen and love ourselves more fully. Still working at using fear to propel me forward and be thankful in some respects to let fear indicate where the barriers are that I need to hop over. I see this as a conversation about fear and how it can get caught in cycles letting fear prevent us from doing what we need to do, when we face fear head on that's when we break the cycle.  - Sara

Artist Notes:

Affectation is behavior, speech, or writing that is artificial and designed to impress. This piece is hard for me to talk about. Trying just to be a functioning human being is a heartbreaking endeavor. I think we all feel like we're all acting human in hopes that someday it'll be true. I really love the two interpretations I've selected to put up. They're absolutely beautiful.
Love you. -H

5.30.17  //  Work #3:
Dividing The Quick From The Dead (2015)

Interpretations:

I see a bird flying past a sunset. The day has been scorching and the earth is dry. I see a figure with a gun standing behind a fence taking target practice over a well...which also looks like gallows.... - Unknown

The quick and the dead are both you, both everyone. If we're not quick enough in certain situations, we're dead. There are people who survive just by their ability to think fast. I think we have all been either quick or dead in different decisions, not necessarily life.   - Moses

Survival of the fittest can be survival of the quickest. This dark sunset is coming in quick, and that may leave some dead.  - Erin

Dividing the quick from the dead is like dividing the good, the bad, and the ugly. Someone's gotta do it. Someone's gotta survive. You did it perfectly.  - Unknown

Artist Notes:

This piece is a great representation of the inner dichotomy. There are the quick, and there are the dead. Use whatever analogies you want. Everyone has two sides to them. Some people are better than others at being able to combine the two into a complete human being with rational thought and compromise. I have become quite successful at nurturing two separate sides that refuse to communicate or work together. So every day, every minute, every second, one half of me is always quicker than the other. This piece is my way of trying to show that I wish my lighter side could take over more often. Maybe I'll get there some day. We all will. -H

5.22.17  //   Work #2:
Kill To Protect (2017)

Interpretations:

Something about a journey...I see lots of movement in the pen...deep feelings attached...the journey continues. Hard to pull out self expression of deep hurts. I am still suffering with my own expressions of this life, what is real what is not...I am so uncomfortable here...one sided like the painting. More is hidden than revealed. Worth the growth, and pain, so much joy around...journey on. Often hurt others, judge, etc so true feelings stay hidden. Hard, so hard. Stay in the joy.  - Unknown

The colors are the shades of anger: blazing into fury and fading into a smoldering pity. The is hurt and heartbreak, embracing pain like a life raft and yet hating it all the same. Trent Reznor would approve.  - Ian

It really makes me want a beef stick, and that's a straight up serious compliment. - Unknown

I would probably kill to protect the last bar of dark chocolate with salted caramel. But in all seriousness, this could be a battle with ego/mind. It tries to protect us out of self-preservation but often the ego keeps us from reaching our dreams. The struggle is real and it's a daily battle, the waters are murky and sometimes fear wins out over taking a step. Egos kill dreams but they might come in handing for protecting the last bar of chocolate on earth...maybe? - Sara

I love you. - John

Artist Notes:

Anyone that knows me fairly well knows I've struggled, and still struggle with, self-destructive tendencies. A lot of thought and learning has led me to believe that it's a misguided way to self-preserve, to self-protect, and seclude myself. I think we all have some sort of behavior or thought pattern that we struggle to keep in our back pocket for when we think we need to protect ourselves, and sometimes these behaviors are even more destructive than whatever perceived danger there is taunting us. Figuring out what in our minds is worth protecting versus what isn't worth its own weight is a difficult struggle. I love learning more and more what's not worth my time, and what I'd actually kill to protect.  And thanks, John.  -H

5.15.17  //   Work #1:
Just Like That Bluebird (2016)

Interpretations:

Lots of telephone poles. How birds sit on phone lines and observe...wanting some space for objective observation.   - Unknown

I see the crosses as power lines in a dream cityscape, and the text is a narrative in the background, perhaps telling the story behind the dream.  - Unknown

The title alone makes me think of David Bowie because the line is from his last song Lazarus. I listened to that song for soooo long that it is imprinted in my brain.  In many ways that song has meaning for me... In a nutshell just existing sometimes is painful and we endure lots of suffering, but when we come to terms with our mortality all of the hurt and pain sort of fades away and we see life and beauty through the eyes of the present, there is freedom from that.  I fee like (and I am not religious) this piece is about ascension not to somewhere else but over our minds. - Sara

The crosses suggest redemption, and the multitude of crosses in the many bright colors speak to me of freedom and salvation found in numerous places. Hope is behind everything. - Ian

Getting lost in hopelessness is something I deal with every day, and I think the artist is someone that can relate. It's easy to get lost in her pieces, work your way through them, and then find your way home. This piece to me is just a way of losing yourself, going through the journey that all entails, and then finding yourself in the end. - Daryl

"Redemption and reconciliation." - Brian

Artist Notes:

I really loved the selected interpretations of this piece. I can relate to all of them in some way, and they also make me look at this piece through a few different lenses. The text in the piece is fairly bleak and coming from a place of complete discomfort - but those aspects of our lives, to me, are some of the most important. Without recognizing some of our most hurtful actions, we can't really adjust accordingly. This piece, and really every piece I've created, was a great way for me to work through my frustration of being human and having some less than admirable qualities. Being human is generally difficult, but there's beauty in the struggle of creating your life and making peace with who you are. I was also DEFINITELY listening to David Bowie.  -H