Photo courtesy of Elizabeth Berry.
“My earlier drawings were horny cries,” says Hannah Pozen ‘19 of her illustrations hanging above the sugar and cream in Coffee Closet. The nine panels are attached to a red frame I can only assume was once a window. My first article for The College Voice investigated the art scattered around the interior of Coffee Grounds. So, it only felt right that I learn more about the current artwork in CG for my second-to-last article. I returned to my investigative roots and (virtually) sat down with Pozen over FaceTime to learn more about this particular project and her time after Conn.
Pozen majored in Art History, but took studio art classes and envisioned pursuing a secondary degree in art. She had discussed MFA programs with artists, but it was not until a family vacation where she spoke with an artist in residence that this path began to solidify. Formerly employed at Coffee Grounds, Pozen used her latte skills to work as a full-time barista in San Francisco while applying to programs in the CA area. When COVID-19 hit in March 2020, her top choice said they would not be able to welcome a class of 2022 due to financial problems. This, however, did not stop Pozen. She got onto the waitlist for Mills College in Oakland, CA who ultimately accepted her. Currently, Pozen is finishing her second semester of a two-year studio art program at Mills. Her studio has become a safe and comfortable space where she feels the most gratitude and is able to, literally and metaphorically, brush away the “blah blah blah.”
Although Pozen now refers to herself as a multidisciplinary artist, she says “I have always been drawing.” Whether painting in her studio courses or doodling in the pages of her notebook, art and illustration have always been there. Her current aesthetic, however, grew out of her time abroad junior year. One day sitting in a cafe, she did a figural line contour sketch: “Once I recognized I liked what I was doing…and it resonated with others…and I could do it again, I was like this is it.” Illustration also allows her to incorporate writing into her drawings, emulating the style of a diary. It’s “a place for my thoughts to exist in a visual world,” explains Pozen.
However, having just one aesthetic is an identity Pozen is toiling with as she pursues her MFA. She originally applied with an illustrative portfolio with the idea to build these zones and universities beyond the drawing frame. But when she got to Mills, she asked herself: “was I just gonna keep doing this forever?” This question pushed her to start thinking about painting, which she had previously worked in via an abstract-focused painting class with Professor Barnard. However, she wanted to move away from abstraction and instead use similar techniques and aesthetics present in her illustrations in a new medium. One piece of feedback she received from her professors was removing the figure from her paintings, a hallmark of her illustrations. She is still trying to figure out how to combine her aesthetic and this critique, but says “it has been really fulfilling to solely rely on objects and manipulation of space.”
As for her art hanging in Coffee Grounds, Pozen says it is about “yearning for somebody.” We’ve all been there. “The only way I could think to handle that [experience] would be to draw that.” The illustrations are based on real experiences but are also imaginary: it “isn’t real but the feelings are. The people are real, too, in the context of my brain.” Pozen says, “I work a lot from memory and experiential feeling to make the stuff that I do.” The story stems from having a crush and instills that relatable feeling of wanting to tell someone you love them, but not being able to. As mentioned previously, her illustrations have this diary-like feel, which she has often been told to steer away from. But Pozen explains this aesthetic allows for vulnerability: “you’re sharing, which to me is the best part of being a human, and you are sharing your vulnerability.”
The illustrations hanging in CG originate from a project Pozen completed in Professor Wollensack’s class, Artist’s Books. Part of the syllabus included a class trip to RISD where Pozen saw Karen Chance’s 1987 book “Parallax” which navigates the stigma around AIDS. Chance’s book has an accordion format that allows for a Western front-to-back reading from the point of view (POV) of someone who is very hateful towards the AIDS epidemic. The last page re-orients the reader to begin a new POV in the other direction which tells the story of someone who is living with AIDS. “The formatting of it blew my mind,” explains Pozen. This structure was her inspiration to tell two perspectives of a love story. The narrative itself grew out of a shared summer with a close friend. Pozen explains this was her first time navigating queerness while her friend was more confident in her identity. This dynamic led to some difficulties with communication, says Pozen. The first perspective is of her friend as they listen to music, ride the subway together, and lay side-by-side in the park. Pozen purposely made these panels ambiguous through vague facial expressions to suggest the uncertainty of whether or not her friend returned the same feelings. In contrast, the second POV is Pozen’s and more obviously portrays her love for her friend through hearts and stolen glances.
The last page is lyrics from Angel Olsen’s song “Something’s Cosmic,” which is alluded to throughout via the two listening to music together and yellow stars twinkling in the night sky. Olsen is another idol for Pozen and this particular song speaks to cosmic love, a bond that you don’t have to comprehend because it’s greater than you both. Pozen associates this song with that summer. Taylor Swift’s Platinum Edition of Fearless may put you in your feels, but put “Something’s Cosmic” in the queue if you want to stargaze and fantasize.
Pozen ended up making four editions of this particular illustration, one of which ended up in Coffee Grounds after the manager at the time, Martha Wiley ‘19, encouraged Pozen to display it. As a creator, Pozen says having spaces like Coffee Grounds and the Barn at Conn are so important: “these creative spaces are there for you, and you are totally entitled to feel seen in those spaces.” Pozen explains that navigating queerness at Conn can be difficult but displaying queer art in these spaces reaches out to students who are also dealing with this navigation. Pozen expresses that “visualizing queerness in any form is super sick.” Her goal is to create visibility around queerness but also let students know that these creative places exist on Conn’s campus.
Right now, Pozen is trying to find a more sustainable distribution practice so she can share her illustrations. But for now, head over to Coffee Grounds for an oat milk latte or New London Fog and enjoy Pozen’s artwork, reminiscing about your own version of a complicated love story, which I am sure we can all relate to.
