Asia Hanon | Graphite Artist | Georgia

Asia Hanon is a Graphite artist based in Georgia and works primarily in portraiture. Asia's first experience as an artist was when she had won the Adam's Billboard award in the Scholastics Art & Writing awards her senior year of high school. At the time, Asia was very much influenced by the realism movement, in which she realized her ability to capture human expression/emotion. It was here that Asia realized that she wanted to pursue her career in this field. Asia went on to study Painting at the University of North Carolina At Charlotte, where she earned a Bachelor's in fine arts. It was here that Asia further expanded her knowledge in painting and drawing, where she won the Lucy Brown Winfree purchase award in the 35th Annual McNeese National Works on Paper Exhibition. Her work has also been exhibited at Core New Art Space in their exhibition Surface in/Sight: Printmaking Today. Her drawings are also being featured at the Museum of Science and Industry in their 2023 Black Creativity Juried Art Exhibition.

Artist Statement

In Marian Young Starnes, “Letters from Summerland: A Bridge Between The Worlds, she speaks on the idea of life after death and the relationship between the living and the dead. There is a quote that she states in the first few pages of her book, in which she says, “I am not there. Just as no grave will ever contain you, I am not there.” (pg.4) Hans Holzer, the first Australian paranormal investigator speaks on the same concept in his book, Ghosts: True Encounters With The World Beyond, in which he refers to life after death as immortality.

Holzer also states that the existence of spirits and the belief in the afterlife have been around for centuries.

As a young black girl growing up in the south, the existence of spirits has never been a concept that was hard for me to grasp. I have always believed in their existence and I was raised to believe in the afterlife. I believe that as our loved ones pass, the connection that we once shared with them in the physical realm is continued in the afterlife. It just takes a different form. Sometimes this connection comes in the form of dreams, visions, or a glimpse into the afterlife itself. I believe that what Marian Young Starnes quotes in her book is true. Our physical body does die but our spiritual body lives on after death. My work uses sacred geometry and figural work to explore our connection with the afterlife and our past loved ones; as I believe that this is a connection that we all have and share.