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Phil Hansen (artist)
Encyclopedia
Later years
Hansen went to Shelton High School, Shelton, WashingtonShelton, Washington
Shelton is the county seat, of Mason County, Washington, United States. Shelton is the westernmost city on Puget Sound. The population was 9,834 at the 2010 census. In terms of population, the city is ranked 161 out of approximately 500 municipalities in Washington...
with Rob Phelan as his instructor.
Following that, he attended the Northwest College of Art, Poulsbo, Washington but dropped out after only two quarters.
He now works as an X-ray technician but spends all of his spare time and money on his art. His work and the way it is presented has given him a large following.
His breakthrough piece was a time-lapse
Time-lapse
Time-lapse photography is a cinematography technique whereby the frequency at which film frames are captured is much lower than that which will be used to play the sequence back. When replayed at normal speed, time appears to be moving faster and thus lapsing...
video of a two-day project called Influences. He painted thirty pictures on his torso
Torso
Trunk or torso is an anatomical term for the central part of the many animal bodies from which extend the neck and limbs. The trunk includes the thorax and abdomen.-Major organs:...
, one over the other, each picture representing an influence in his life. After it was completed, he peeled the layer off and cut a silhouette
Silhouette
A silhouette is the image of a person, an object or scene consisting of the outline and a basically featureless interior, with the silhouetted object usually being black. Although the art form has been popular since the mid-18th century, the term “silhouette” was seldom used until the early decades...
of his own profile. The uploaded video was streamed more than a million times on the Web, with process and final piece clearly revealed.
He began a project called Goodbye Art to help him be more spontaneous. This project involved him creating a new art piece weekly with a theme
Theme (arts)
In the visual arts, a theme is a broad idea or a message conveyed by a work, such as a performance, a painting, or a motion picture. This message is usually about life, society or human nature. Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a work. Themes are usually implied...
corresponding to its month
Month
A month is a unit of time, used with calendars, which was first used and invented in Mesopotamia, as a natural period related to the motion of the Moon; month and Moon are cognates. The traditional concept arose with the cycle of moon phases; such months are synodic months and last approximately...
. The difference, however, lay in the fact that after the process was completed and a final piece was obtained, he destroyed all traces of it except for a photograph
Photograph
A photograph is an image created by light falling on a light-sensitive surface, usually photographic film or an electronic imager such as a CCD or a CMOS chip. Most photographs are created using a camera, which uses a lens to focus the scene's visible wavelengths of light into a reproduction of...
. The video showing his process and the final result was uploaded on his YouTube user page. In the summer of 2008, Hansen decided to discontinue the Goodbye Art project to pursue other long term projects. In January 2009, he began a new project called Art Happening. This ongoing project involves him capturing current events in the form of art.
Grammy Awards
Hansen was chosen to be the official Artist for 51st annual Grammy Awards held on February 8, 2009 8 pm ET.A time lapsed "making of," video has been placed on YouTube, and will be placed on, the official CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
and Grammy websites.