This week I was  pleased to enjoy an awesome demonstration from one of the most fantastic artists I know Marilyn Hoff Hansen. I enjoyed it so much I decided to make this post is feature on her. Marilyn is know for her beautiful horse sculptures and paintings. The artwork in this post is hers. I first met Marilyn at the Idaho Art Lab about a year ago during my first Artist residency. I was familiar with and admired her work before this time, but now that I know her I admire her for the wonderful person and artist she is. The first time we met she was pleasant and friendly and so willing to share all she knows with me. Some artist tend to want to keep secrets about their processes. Not Marilyn, she was happy go into detail about how she works. She likes to joke and tell me “Come by my studio and I will teach you all I know… It will only take about 5 minutes”. This of course is far from the truth as Marilyn has a wealth of knowledge about many aspects of art. My conversations I have had with Marilyn have inspired me to do more relief work and to begin casting in concrete. Her casting techniques have taken her many years to develop and perfect and that knowledge she freely gives. I am very grateful for that.
I recently assigned a relief sculpture project to my high school sculpture class. One of my students wanted to sculpt a horse and I thought to myself. “It would be so great to have Marilyn come in and do a demonstration for my sculpture class!” So I called her to ask if she would come and she gladly accepted.

What lucky students I have to be able to meet such a woman. I too learned a ton from her in the short time she was in my class.
She talked about her casting process and then showed her thought process as she composed a new relief sculpture piece for us. It was fascinating to watch. I was the lucky one because after the class was over she stayed for some time during my prep hour and I got to ask her all the questions I wanted.

I hope you will spend a little time today to visit her website and facebook page, and see more of her wonderful artwork.
I love getting to know other artists and being inspired by them. Thank You Marilyn.