In today's episode, I welcome Hannah Biggs! Hannah is primarily a mosiac artist who also draws coloring pages and has self-published two comic coloring books for kids. She talks about the process of being given the inspiration for her largest mosiac project to date, along with its design and creation, as well as about a really impactful experience she had witnessing art used in an Orthodox church. Part of the profits from all her sold art go towards supporting missions and charity projects around the world. (Fun fact: the cover image of this episode is of the mosaic Hannah talks about in this episode!)

Get in touch with Hannah Biggs: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063717901468 | https://www.facebook.com/wanderlustcedarville 

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Episode 079 - Hannah Biggs

[00:00:00] Lindsey Dinneen: Hello, and welcome to Artfully Told, where we share true stories about meaningful encounters with art.

[00:00:06] Krista: I think artists help people have different perspectives on every aspect of life.

[00:00:12] Roman: All I can do is put my part in to the world.

[00:00:15] Elizabeth: It doesn't have to be perfect the first time. It doesn't have to be perfect ever really. I mean, as long as you, and you're enjoying doing it and you're trying your best, that can be good enough.

[00:00:23] Elna: Art is something that you can experience with your senses and that you just experiences as so beautiful.

[00:00:31] Lindsey Dinneen: Hello, and welcome back to another episode of Artfully Told. I'm your host Lindsey, and I am very excited to have as my guest today, Hannah Biggs. Hannah is a mosaic artist, maybe primarily, but that barely scratches the surface of all the cool things that she is and does. And, full disclosure-- I'm so excited especially to have Hannah here because she is one of my lovely cousins and it's so much fun to see all the art in our family. It's just so cool to see how we all kind of branched out into little different artistic endeavors. So, Hannah, thank you so much for being here today. I'm thrilled to talk to you.

[00:01:16] Hannah Biggs: Thanks for having me.

[00:01:17] Lindsey Dinneen: Of course. Well, I would absolutely love if you wouldn't mind sharing a little bit about your background, maybe what got you interested in art in the first place and sort of how that has changed and evolved over time? Because I know you've had a lot of really cool opportunities, especially, and I just love to hear all about it.

[00:01:39] Hannah Biggs: I don't remember a time in my life I've not been interested in art. As a kid, my mom would print out a list of all of the ways you could enter art at the county fair. And she would tell us that we had to do a certain number of them from the different categories in order for us to like pass art for our homeschool. So I tried a lot of different medium and it's just always been a part of my life.

[00:02:04] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, well, that's great. I did not know that. That's hilarious. Actually, I can picture that. So I'm curious-- I guess I'm not familiar with that-- so, so what kinds of artistic things did you try? I mean, you said you tried a lot, but I'm just curious -- does any of them particularly stand out as being like, you know, "oh, I, I loved that project and you know, it was important to me because."

[00:02:29] Hannah Biggs: Probably not. They all happen when I was pretty young. I guess the thing I liked most was just trying all the different things. And as a child, if you're the only person entered in a certain category, you automatically get the blue ribbon. So.

[00:02:44] Lindsey Dinneen: There you go. That's hilarious. Well, yeah. And of course that's exciting, you know, obviously as a kid, I'm sure it'd be just as exciting as an adult to be like, "yes, I'll take it and run." Oh, awesome. Okay. So you don't really remember a time when art wasn't a part of your life, but I do know that as an adult, you've probably developed further into skillsets. And granted you're a wife and a mother and you have lots going on. So I'd just love to hear about how that your artistic endeavors have changed over the years and like over time, how has that evolved?

[00:03:19] Hannah Biggs: Okay. In high school I got into poetry. And then in college I started doing a lot of drawings. And then when I had kids, I did a lot more sewing and, you know, made them like costumes and stuff. And then my pastor's daughter at my church is a stain glass artist and she's phenomenal. And I mean, glass is just so pretty. So I asked her if she would teach me how to do it. And I went over to her house one day and she was showing me some of the basics, but we didn't have time to do the whole project. And as I'm walking out the door, she asked if I was interested in mosaics and I have always loved the look of them, but I've never done them. And so that's what I told her. And she's like, "would you be interested in trying?" Like "yes, of course." So she hands me like a box full of supplies tells me that she has tried it and doesn't want to do it anymore. And since she does stained glass, she always has all these scraps laying around that she doesn't know how to get rid of. And so she just kind of sent me out the door with a list of instructions and didn't show me how to do anything. And I went home and tried it and fell in love and never looked back.

[00:04:34] Lindsey Dinneen: Oh, that's awesome. I love that, you know, one artistic endeavor can inspire a new one. You know, you and her that such a complimentary set of things. That's so cool. And yeah, stained glass is the most beautiful thing ever. That's one of my artistic, you know, would love to try in the future. But okay, so you started doing mosaic work and what kinds of projects have you done with it? I mean, I, I, I have a little bit of a sneak peek, so I get the behind the scenes a little bit, but I'd still love to hear your journey because if I'm not incorrect, you've recently finished a pretty major mosaic project. Is that true?

[00:05:15] Hannah Biggs: So the most recent, I should say the largest project I have ever done was a project I did for my church two and a half years in the making. I was actually working on a different project and I was also reading in Revelation at the same time. And I, I swear God spoke to me and gave me the inspiration for this because there's no way I could've come up with it on my own. But in Revelation chapter four, it talks about the throne room of God and how behind the throne there's a rainbow, like an emerald kind of radiating out from the throne. And so the picture is seven arcs of the green rainbow and three worshipers in different poses of adoration, and the bottom there's like the streets of gold. But the really cool part is that each arc of the rainbow represents a character trait of God. And the gold foundation has 12 large stones each surrounded by 12 small stones. And the 12 big ones represent both the 12 tribes of Israel and the 12 apostles and the 144 little ones is symbolic of the prophet. There's a verse that talks about our faith being founded on the apostles and the prophets and teaching and stuff. And so there's just a lot of symbology in there and it's now in my church.

[00:06:50] Lindsey Dinneen: That's amazing. That's so cool. What a, what a beautiful vision and a representation. I think, I mean, I love art for so many reasons, but I think that is just, it takes it to a new level, right? When you have a very particular inspiration that, you know, is divine. I mean, yeah. Like you said, it's not from you and so, and so you were able to bring this to life and show especially God's character. I liked that idea of, you know, that being incorporated in the mosaic of like, this is that interpretation and you do that through just a really beautiful medium. So, okay. So two and a half years in the making. So how, how big is it actually? Let's start there.

[00:07:36] Hannah Biggs: It's, it's two feet by two feet. I wasn't working on the glass part for two years, but the design of it has been in process for two years. But the actual glasswork itself took seven months.

[00:07:50] Lindsey Dinneen: Okay. Still substantial. And so when you go, yeah, no, I, I mean, for sure. So because I'm not a mosaic artist, so this is, you know, really interesting to me is of course you have to design it first. So when you first got this vision or this, you know, idea, was it like crystal clear exactly what you were supposed to represent or did it take a lot of sort of tweaking of the design over time to, to get it to a point where you thought, "Okay, this is in line with what I had this vision?"

[00:08:24] Hannah Biggs: So when I, when I first had the idea and I sketched it out, it was mostly like the people in the colors and that hasn't changed. Like that part itself has looked exactly the same since the beginning. But the arcs and their symbols has taken more tweaking, trying to figure out how best-- like which, which stories have the, the simplest symbology what character traits of God are. So I broke up the arcs into, I guess, three categories. So the center arc has Hebrew in it actually. And it's the name of God. So it says I Am that I Am, and on the three arcs closer to the throne are who God is without us. So God is infinitely sovereign. God is omniscient, all knowing, orderly-- that's one category.

[00:09:28] And then I learned a new theological word called aseity, which means that God is complete within himself. He doesn't need anything from anyone. And so I did a braid for that one to represent the Trinity and his aseity, that like who He is all His different parts. Like He is complete and He all works together with himself. And then the three closer to the worshipers is who God is to us. So there's He is creator God, He is faithful. And He is just so trying to figure out how, how to best represent those things has been a lot of, a lot more planning, I guess.

[00:10:14] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. That makes sense. And, you know, I would think it's a lot different creating a piece of art, quote-unquote, has a higher purpose then. You know, there's absolutely nothing wrong with creating a super whimsical mosaic, right? But there's a totally different level of responsibility, I feel like?

[00:10:33] Hannah Biggs: Yes.

[00:10:34] Lindsey Dinneen: Right? That you kind of feel when you're doing something like that. So that's, that's cool. Like, I'm so glad that you spent the time and, you know, and did your research clearly and dug in and weren't just like, "here's the thing." And, you know, I think it's cool what you did, so that's awesome. But I know that you, that's not where you stopped. So can you tell us about, what's kind of exciting next for you in this realm?

[00:11:03] Hannah Biggs: So, I joined a shop. There's a little-- I don't know if art collective art shop-- is the right term right here in Cedarville called Wanderlust. And-- a bunch of artists gives the wrong impression, although not on this podcast-- they're, they're makers of things. So there's, I believe there's 10 of us right now. You know, there's, there's a lady who does like honey and homegrown tea and there's me and I have my mosaics, but I also have my comic books and scripture coloring pages there. And there's a lady who does jewelry and the, the whole point of the shop is that all of the things there are unique. They're homemade and they're local to us in Ohio. And it's like, there's, there's all sorts of crazy cool stuff there. And none of the, none of the artists compete. So like I come in bringing all of my following and they bring their following and we all joined together and we are all part owners in the shop. So basically all I have to do every month is pay rent and I can have as much or as little art there as I want. And like me simply being there benefits everyone else and everyone else being their benefits me. It's, it's been really great.

[00:12:29] Lindsey Dinneen: That's awesome. And that's such a cool concept too. And like you said, you can, you can all bring your following, so to speak, your fans, but then, then they get the opportunity to see everybody else's work and vice versa. So it's a great way to expand your audience and people you wouldn't ordinarily get in front of necessarily without spending an arm and a leg and advertising or whatever it is. So that's great. And you touched on something that I would absolutely love to delve into more. So you talked about your coloring books, so please share all about that and what it's like to publish something like that. And I mean, what an endeavor.

[00:13:05] Hannah Biggs: So they're, they're not, they're not like published, published. They're, they're, self-published.

[00:13:09] Lindsey Dinneen: Still!

[00:13:10] Hannah Biggs: It's still really cool.

[00:13:11] Lindsey Dinneen: It's still real, like you have this physical product you created it in your hands. It's still super cool.

[00:13:16] Hannah Biggs: So I've always wanted to do in October where you have the 31 prompts put out by Jake Parker and you draw something every day and then you ink it and it's done. But the first year I tried it, the word list was amazing and it had like dragon and legendary. And I forget what the other one was, but like adventure words. And then it had things like coat and snow and cold, and I'm like, "Well, clearly this is an adventure that happened in winter." Like, there's a story half written, but I'm not very good at writing stories. So I asked my husband, "Okay. We could somehow loosely tie the words together and like make a, make a story and just have like one picture per page and like one sentence per page, no big deal." And he comes back to me with like people talking for the first day and I'm like, " Is this a comic? Am I drawing a comic book?" And he was like, "Sure, why not?" There was not a lot of forethought that went into this, the first one anyway. But it was so much fun and it's a hilarious story. And you basically, what I ended up with was a coloring, a comic book that you can color yourself. So, you know, you can buy a comic book and you also get a coloring book. And when you're done with it, you have a comic book that's all colored in your favorite colors with lots of cute little animals doing crazy things on an adventure with treasure and dragons.

[00:14:54] Lindsey Dinneen: Awesome.

[00:14:55] Hannah Biggs: And then the following year, a good friend of mine-- she writes, she writes short stories and I gave her the prompt list and within four hours she had like a fully written out story for me.

[00:15:09] Lindsey Dinneen: Wow.

[00:15:09] Hannah Biggs: So that one's, that one's a lot more cohesive-- a little, a little less fanatic, but it's still fun with a lot of great faces. Yeah.

[00:15:19] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. And I love that too, because you know, one of the things that I personally enjoy so much about the arts is the collaboration aspect, right? So you might not feel that either you're inspired to write something or that it's, you know, that that's maybe not your area of expertise or strength, but, but you have these other people that you know, that that is great for them and, you know, maybe they don't draw. And so to put these things together is always so cool. I just, I love the collaborative nature of arts and how one thing complements the other. So that's super cool. Well, awesome. And so those are also for sale at that shop, if people are interested in purchasing those or any of your work, do you also have a way for them to do so online? Say if they're not local or how to connect with you?

[00:16:12] Hannah Biggs: Yes. They can either do it through the Wanderlust Cedarville page or through my Broken and Made New page on Facebook.

[00:16:20] Lindsey Dinneen: Awesome. Well, I'm curious, are there any particular stories that come to mind of these really impactful moments to remember when it comes to the arts? Either maybe you witnessed an art form or experience that really moved you, or you even witnessed somebody else witnessing your own art. And that it was some moment to remember, like, does, does anything come to mind as far as that goes?

[00:16:47] Hannah Biggs: I mean, anytime someone would come in and see the Revelation mosaic in process or afterwards, that's always been really cool to watch, because again, I know it's not me that they're excited about. I know it's that they're seeing a little tiny piece of the beauty of God. But I think the most impactful experience I have ever had with art was actually at an Orthodox church. My sister-in-law and her husband are Greek Orthodox. Let me back up. When I went to college at Spring Arbor University in Michigan, I took a bunch of classes, like Bible classes. And for one of them, we had to experience worship in some other form, other than the traditional like Baptist church. And a group of people wanted to try an Orthodox church. And there was a Russian Orthodox church nearby. And I went with them and it like on the outside, it was this like little white barn in the middle of absolutely nowhere.

[00:17:57] And I walked in and it was so beautiful. You could feel, like tangibly feel, the holiness of God and, and how much they revered Him. That's not something you get in a regular church or, I mean, the kind of church that I go to, it's much more practical. But like they had this like lush red carpet and icons on every single wall with like the gold borders and rich colors and detailing the life of Christ and the like notable stories from the Bible. And at the front of the chapel there were these--they have some special name for them-- but they're, they're almost like the dressing curtains like the, the metal ones that you stand up and you get dressed behind. I'm forgetting the name of them, but they're all made out of gold intertwined. And like, it was just gorgeous.

[00:19:06] So that was my first experience with an Orthodox church. And that one was a Russian one and they're a little bit more on the conservative side where like all the women wear head coverings and stuff. But it like that in itself made a really big impact on me. And I was talking with my sister-in-law and her husband about Easter in the Orthodox tradition, and they told me that they do the 40 days of Lent. And that their Good Friday service is really important. And so I went to a Good Friday service here in Ohio. And you, you walk in and everyone is dressed in black ,and colors are a really big deal to me. And, you know, so that already sets the tone and the church's kind of dark. And as they're going through the service, at one point the priest and some of the elders or whatever their official titles are, they pick up this shroud that represents the body of Christ and somebody is waving incense and the, the priest is holding the Bible and these people, there's four of them holding the shroud and they start walking down the side aisle of the church and everyone is singing this really solemn hymn.

[00:20:34] And we walk out of the church and we're walking around the parking lot and I just suddenly saw, "Wait a minute, everyone's dressed in black and there's like pallbearers and the body of Christ and like, oh my goodness. I'm at a real funeral." Like they're not messing around here. Like Jesus died. And like, it just hit me, like Good Friday has never hit me before. But then they, the pallbearers stand on either side of the doorway to go back into the church. And they hold the shroud above their heads and you have to pass under the body of Christ in order to get back into the church, which was really cool. And then once everyone came back inside and sat down, the pallbearers bring the shroud in and they lay the body of Christ, the shroud, on the alter, like they're putting him in the tomb and then it's done. Like the service ends and you have to go home. And like, I just started weeping. Like He died and I have to leave. Like, I don't want to leave. Like I want to wait for Easter. Yeah.

[00:21:49] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah.

[00:21:50] Hannah Biggs: Pictures are important.

[00:21:52] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Well, and I mean, obviously that spoke to you in a completely different way 'cause it was, it was so immersive that it was almost like you were experiencing it firsthand versus reading about it. And that of course makes an impact, but not as if you were experiencing it. So that's amazing. Oh, wow. Plus, I mean, I, I definitely relate to the churches that are more Orthodox or, you know, in Europe, for instance, there's so many of these gorgeous, just stunning architecture and there is a difference. Like you walk into them and I mean, I suppose your brain could go two ways, right? It could be either like, "Oh my gosh, it's so lavish." Or you could go, "Okay. But this is honoring the majesty of God the way that they have chosen to decorate it and you know who He is." And that's a really cool thing that they do care so much that they put so much into, you know, the beauty and the majesty of the church. So yeah, I can totally relate to that. That's, that's really powerful. That's really cool. Well, thank you for sharing that. That was a fantastic story. I do have a couple questions that I would love to ask you about art. So my first question is, what would change would you like to see in the art world? So that can be super broad or super specific based on your own experience. But if there's one change that you could see happen in the art world, what change would you love to see?

[00:23:29] Hannah Biggs: Wow. I have no idea. I guess probably more along the lines of what we were just talking about, where art is in the church, more like all art in all of its forms.

[00:23:46] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And then is there something arts related that you've always wanted to try, but haven't yet either because of life circumstances or because maybe it would take another layer of courage, but you want to do it someday?

[00:24:06] Hannah Biggs: Does just started to try count?

[00:24:09] Lindsey Dinneen: Sure.

[00:24:10] Hannah Biggs: I just started learning to play the cello.

[00:24:12] Lindsey Dinneen: That's awesome.

[00:24:13] Hannah Biggs: I wanted to do that since I was eight. It's going to be a really long process.

[00:24:17] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, that's awesome. Congrats. I mean, that's, that's so cool that you're picking that up. I love it. And then my final question is, at the end of your life, what's the one art related experience you would want to experience again for the last time?

[00:24:35] Hannah Biggs: Wow. I have no idea. I'm hoping to have a lot of art experiences between now and then. As you experience art, you take your own life experience into it with you and so the art that I see now is very different than the art I see as a child, even if it's the same exact piece, because I carry all of my life experience with me into understanding it. And my guess is that as I get older and experience art, I will appreciate it more than I'm currently appreciating art. And I will be more excited to see those pieces again, because they will mean more to me then than anything means to me right now, but I could be wrong.

[00:25:31] Lindsey Dinneen: Well, I absolutely love that answer. That was very thoughtful. And I think you're right. I think you're absolutely right. The way that we view art from even one year to the next can change radically based on our life in that year. Yeah, I love that. That's such a great perspective. Well, Hannah, this has been an absolute pleasure to have you as my guest. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you for what you contribute to the world. I love the fact that you are fully engaging in multiple different art mediums and bring beauty and a little glimpse of divinity into the world. I think that that's really special and impactful. So thanks for doing that. And, and thanks for being here. This has been great.

[00:26:20] Hannah Biggs: Oh, thank you. I'm, I had a lot of fun. There, there was one other thing that's part of the shop that you might want to know about. So I have been redoing the third through sixth grade book for Awana. And so I have been doing scripture coloring pages that are geared more towards older people. And that might be getting for real published at some point next year.

[00:26:46] Lindsey Dinneen: Sneak peak, everyone! You heard it here first. That is super cool. Well, goodness, I can't wait to learn about that journey and how all that goes, but how cool. Congrats, that's just super exciting.

[00:27:00] Hannah Biggs: And some of those are available at the, at the shop.

[00:27:03] Lindsey Dinneen: Great. That's very, very cool. Well, thanks again so much for being here and thank you so much to everyone who has listened to this episode. And if you are feeling as inspired as I am right now, I'd love if you would share this with a friend or two and we will catch you next time.

[00:27:24] If you have a story to share with us, we would love that so much. And I hope your day has been Artfully Told.