Bridging the Gap: Hannah Sessler

Whether she’s shaping clay in the ceramics studio, expressing her daily emotions through cartoons that she draws or painting props in Fisher Theater, senior Hannah Sessler is always creating art for herself and for those around her.

Sessler first began creating—and destroying—in the name of art when she was just a toddler. As she said, “I started drawing on the underside of my kitchen table and no one found out for years and by the time they did it was completely wrecked.”

Sessler continued to pursue her pass into middle school, and now, high school, where she has taken full-time art classes. She has completed Exeter’s art course progression, finishing Art 444 in the spring of last year. In this class, Sessler created her first deer sculpture, named Ralph, which soon became her personal symbol and one of her favorite pieces.

Her final project in this class featured her reactions to the death of a friend, expressed through the strokes of her paintbrush. Art 444 let her explore her artistic creativity, which sparked a greater drive to pursue her passion of art.

Sessler is also a co-head of the Democracy of Sound (DoS), a club that hosts annual sound festivals to encourage the people of the Exeter community to see spaces and hear sounds in way that they wouldn’t normally. Her involvment in this club has brought more installation art to campus in creative ways.

Senior Zoe Meyer, a close friend to Sessler, described her commitment to creating. “She is unafraid to take artistic risks and she is very sure that art is what she wants to do.”

Sessler’s dedication to art is so profound that it has affected all of those who work with or around her. Music instructor Jon Sakata, a faculty adviser to DoS, commented on the manner and dedication that Sessler puts into creation. “Hannah’s practice is not just one of expending enormous amounts of energy, thought, imagination, expression; her practice is one of extending energy.”

Like many artists, Sessler uses art as an outlet to express her views on the world as a whole. She often creates comics detailing the day’s events, but also she works on larger, more charged, long-term projects. Sakata said, “To create is to resist; art is by its very nature political and micropolitical, and Hannah’s work is an inspired daily creative activity and activism!”

Sessler approaches her day-to-day life similarly to the way she creates—she comes to life with an energetic and problem-solving attitude. Recently, Sessler reached out to the Exeter community through an online crowdfunding website and asked for help with funding her gap year. As of May 14, not long after the campaign started, Sessler received half of the requested funds and over 100 people have shared the link to donate on Facebook.

Meyer described her excitement for Sessler’s gap year and her plans for world travel and art exploration “She deserves it, and it will give her so much inspiration for her art. She hasn’t had it easy, especially financially, and I see how truly touched she is by people’s donations,” Meyer said.

On June 20, Sessler will be flying to Portugal to begin her gap year adventures. While there, she plans to continue her work in photography and oil and watercolor paintings. She plans to stay with the World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF) organization which offers food and board in exchange for volunteer work on organic farms.

Later in the year, Sessler hopes to return to the United States and live in the Midwest, where she will stay with her extended family, performing odd jobs on a daily basis to pay for herself. Also, with an emerging interest in woodworking, Sessler plans to focus on learning the basics of carpentry, continuing work with photography and expressing her emotions and thoughts through the other several mediums that she works with.

Sessler has also used her artistic talents to help out the cast and crew of Fisher Theater. She has worked as a makeup artist in the play “Wit” and the winter musical “Once on this Island,” for which she also created the main proscenium.

Cary Wendell, the technical director of Fisher Theater, explained Sessler’s importance to the functioning of the theatre and the shows that happen there. “Hannah is someone who I have come to trust to produce a high quality artistic product on her own,” She said. “She’s always been a pleasure to have on any crew because of her dedication, talent and team spirit.”

While not only a talented artist in several mediums of expression, Sessler has become a person to whom many people flock to listen and spend time with. Meyer commented on Sessler as an all-around interesting individual. “She has such an amazing mind and she can see so much cool and interesting potential in the things around her,” she said. “She is so emotionally astute and she makes those around her feel welcomed and accepted in her own unique ways.”

Sakata concluded with a quote that he thinks encompases Sessler’s personality and artistic skill, “I have witnessed not only an artist with immense craft, capacity, drive, love for what she’s doing; but a singular agent of creative act and action who has met adversity—whether it comes from external conditions or inner questioning of habit and technique—with the force of resistance.”