Jake Spitzack
Staff Writer
One spring day 30 years ago, a much younger Jeffrey Hansen was hauling blank canvases and painting supplies into the Tilsner Artists’ Lofts along with all his other belongings. At the time, he, like most aspiring artists, didn’t quite know how far his craft would take him, but he was bright-eyed and full of hope and ambition. Shortly after moving in, he prepared his finest collection of paintings and displayed them at the Spring Art Crawl in 1994. He ended up selling two paintings and one sculpture during the 2-day event. Today, he still lives at the Tilsner and remains a loyal participant of the Crawl, always eager to open his door, connect with people and get his work out into the world.
“I had no idea what to expect [of his first art crawl], other than what everyone said: ‘all you do is open your door and hopefully you’ll sell your art,’” said Hansen. “Back then the Crawl was very new and popular and there weren’t a lot of other copycat events. There were almost 3,000 people that came through.”
For most of its history, the semiannual crawl was held strictly at venues in Lowertown, and all participating sites were open on the same weekend. Unfortunately, the once heavily attended event took a massive blow when the pandemic struck in spring 2020, forcing the cancellation of both the spring and fall crawls that year. Since returning in fall 2021, the Crawl has been held in different districts throughout the city on consecutive weekends. Hansen said the turnout at the Tilsner has fluctuated a lot through the decades and that his sales peaked in 2019 after several years of consistent growth. In fall 2021, he was the lone artist at the Tilsner to participate and about 300 people came through his studio. In 2022, the number of artists crept up to five and Hansen saw an uptick in visitors. This April, 13 artists at the Tilsner will show their work and he expects the number of visitors to be closer to what it was pre-pandemic.
“It’s been a slow recovery, but it’s definitely got better,” said Hansen, who was the Art Crawl site coordinator at the Tilsner for seven years in the 2000s and again after the pandemic. Part of the resurgence is due to new artists moving into the Tilsner. He encourages them to be part of the Crawl and offers this advice: “You can keep your expectations high, but don’t let it destroy you if you don’t sell anything or don’t have as many people come through as you expect. Don’t let it discourage you from trying again. That is one thing with art, you really have to keep trying. Push yourself for more creation and keep trying new things.”
Hansen, a White Bear Lake-native, is an abstract expressionist painter with a degree from the now-closed College of Visual Arts in St. Paul. Early on, his works largely featured biomorphic shapes, but a turning point came in 2018 when he woke up in the middle of the night and was inspired to create a perfect circle on a canvas using a homemade compass. Now, nearly all his pieces feature circles in some regard.
“There’s a lot of underlying meaning and hidden symbolism for the circle,” he said. “I’ve always been fascinated by the idea that it’s a symbol for infinity…. My compasses pull and scrape the paint across [the canvas] in thick layers and as it’s doing that it leaves trails of all the different paint I’m using, and that’s where I don’t have any control. It’s just going to do what it’s going to do, and I have to visually and emotionally connect with it at that time.”
Hansen enjoys leaving a portion of his work up to fate, even if he must occasionally scrap a piece that doesn’t resonate with him. His inspiration comes from a wide variety of areas including nature, household items and other artists. He uses paintbrushes, palette knives, and textured materials like tinfoil, sandpaper and cloth to bring his pieces to life. His most recent piece, a colorful oil painting on a 10-by-10-foot canvas, was inspired by the children’s game Pick-Up Sticks.
During the Crawl, his studio will be open 6-10 p.m., April 26; noon-8 p.m., April 27; and noon-5 p.m., April 28. His collection will include many recent works as well as some he created 30 years ago but has touched up to be, in his eyes, finally complete. He will also sell photos of Lake Superior that he made with his film camera for a photo book project in the early 2000s. He said some people visit him year after year during the Crawl and have seen his progression as an artist. Many have become regular customers and he always makes sure to have a variety of sizes of work available.
The Crawl has been organized by the volunteer-run nonprofit St. Paul Art Collective since 1977. This year, it is held across three weekends, April 12-28.
“I do like the idea of it being spread out [over multiple weekends and districts],” he said. “It gives the artists themselves the opportunity to go to those other areas when they’re not open. I did that at the last Crawl and it was nice to be able to go check out what other art is out there and what those people are doing. I had never been to any of those places because I’ve always been open for the Art Crawl.”
Hansen also participates in the Art-a-Whirl in Minneapolis each spring and consistently displays his work at shows in Ithaca, N.Y., Kansas City, Mo., and Cincinnati, Ohio. He and his wife, a housing advocate, have no plans to leave the Tilsner.
“It has always kept me motivated knowing there’s always going to be another opportunity to open my door…and let people see what I’ve been working on,” said Hansen. “I’ve had people say they remember me from way long ago and that I was doing something so different then. It’s fun to get that every once in a while.”
For more information on the art crawl, visit stpaulartcollective.org.
