Hannah and her Munbeibis
Sitting down (virtually) with Hannah was such an amazing experience.
When I first started my blog, her page came across my screen and I was intrigued by her beautiful Munbeibis.
Of course I reached out to her to inquire whether or not she would be interested in sharing with me her artistic aspirations and she was more than happy to share her inspiring story with me.
Hannah started her artistic journey in 2014 where she started using air dry clay while living in San Francisco. At the time, Hannah worked as a zine designer producing other artists' work.
Her first creation was inspired by her own thoughts and feelings around her upcoming 25th birthday. She took these intuitive visions and began to play around with how these emotions could transform into an object.
Staring at the San Francisco moon, she began to question "is anyone up there listening?". Her curiosity was awoken by her own inner child while looking at the moon that night, eventually resulting in the name Munbeibi. Munbeibi is a Finnish phrase meaning "my baby".
A few years later, while visiting her sister in Hokkaido, Japan, the two of them decided to take a drive and go see the fall leaves. On the side of the road they saw a sign that said "Pottery" and decided to stop and venture into the studio. This moment that may have seemed insignificant at the time, resulted in Hannah meeting her pottery teacher, Kawaguchi Hidetaka. He taught her how to use a pottery wheel and to embrace the slowness of the art. Sadly, he passed away not long ago but Hannah continues to bring his memory to life through her art.
Hannah is represented by Sweetpea Gallery in Canada and Nora Gallery in Japan.
Hannah always had the thought in her mind to create her Munbeibis but like so many of us, she stored that dream away. It's so easy to self sabotage your own dreams and aspirations when the world tells you how you act and who you should be.
Childhood trauma and life experiences can really create a disconnect from the things you love. Working through your trauma and reaching your inner child helped Hannah connect to her passions, aspersions and give back to herself what was robbed of her at a young age.
We question why we are put in this category where there is no room for play, for exploration. We must act a certain way by a certain age and accomplish specific goals made up by society to feel adequate.
The freedom of self acceptance and allowing yourself to be your own person is what you will find when you look at Hannah's work.
If you would like your very own Munbeibi, go to munbeibi.com 🙂
To listen to our full conversation, click on the link below.
