Alissa Hansen is an artist working primarily in watercolor and ink. She was born in Lincoln, Nebraska and grew up in Overland Park, Kansas. In 2004, Hansen graduated with a BASA from the University of Nebraska at Omaha and in 2005 she moved to Denver, Colorado. After fourteen years in Colorado, she and her family moved to Wahoo, Nebraska to be near her parents, due to her mother’s dementia diagnosis. Since moving, she has sought to redefine what home is, using her art as a means to explore that idea. In 2021 she was an artist-in-residence at the Homestead National Historical Park in Beatrice, Nebraska. Her work can be seen in a variety of local galleries.

After moving to Nebraska in 2019, I found myself homesick for Colorado. To ease this sense of longing, I purposed to connect with my community and put down new roots. At that time, I remember coming across a passage by Christie Purifoy, which spoke to my situation. In her book, Placemaker, she writes, "What is placemaking? It is deliberately sending your roots deep into a place, like a tree. It means allowing yourself to be nourished by a place even as you shape it for the better...whether we intend to stay or know we'll be moving in six months". Allowing Nebraska to nourish me was absolutely making a difference. My sketchbook filled with portraits of the people and places around me. I often walked around my town, observing the historic buildings and wondering what stories they held. So began my series of architectural drawings and watercolors and a deeper relationship to Nebraska.

My artwork often begins on foot. I love walking - the slow, meandering, observant kind of walking which allows my curiosity to wander. I’ll find myself studying details such as a dusty stairwell, a hand-painted sign, or the elegant arch of a tree trunk. Whether it is an abandoned building or a Nebraska cornfield, places will tell you their stories if you are patient enough and willing to listen. I’m thankful for the legs that keep me walking and the eyes that give me sight. “Humans were made to walk,” I often say. If the day comes when I can no longer walk, I hope to look back with gratitude on my pedestrian days.

I often work from photos back in my studio because of the quiet and convenience, though I do paint plein air when the mood strikes. I usually begin with a pencil sketch to test out the composition before committing to ink and watercolor. I love lines and a pen in my hand is a joy. Though some of my work is meticulously detailed, I often prefer to stay loose and avoid replicating perfectly straight lines and true colors. I seek to capture feelings and emotions over exact realism. Someone once commented that my paintings evoke “the memory of a place” and I found that to be a fitting description.