Muralist Hannah Williams is Making Glens Falls, NY Her Canvas

Follow Hannah Williams on Instagram @hanwilliamsart. Images - March First Media

It wouldn’t be a stretch to say Hannah Williams manifested painting an 80 ft. mural in downtown Glens Falls, NY.

During the pandemic, she and her boyfriend (who she met while painting a mural on the wall of a local business) took long walks around the downtown area. Every time they approached 20 Warren Street, she envisioned the walls covered in art, the brush strokes brought to life by her hand.

Today, the Queensbury native is a little over a week into her largest piece to date: one of the oldest buildings in the city, a 30x80 ft. building-turned-canvas. “This project means everything to me. I've been so passionate about public art and murals, especially in this town and have been wanting this for almost a decade,” she expressed. She was first inspired by public art when she visited the Wynwood Arts District in Miami. “They took a struggling section of the city and turned it into an economic success by literally covering the area in art,” she explained, elaborating that murals enhance community by boosting morale and bringing people together. Studies have also shown that adding a mural to a building increases annual revenue and foot traffic by 50%.

“For anyone that knows me, it’s pretty funny because whenever we're walking around downtown Glens Falls, I'm always like, ‘We need murals! I want this wall. I just need to paint something; someone give me a chance!’ for so many years. It just means so much that it’s actually happening.” 

The finished design will depict wildlife and plants found in Glens Falls and the Adirondacks. “I have a black bear, a barred owl, a full moon and constellations, native flowers and lightning bugs,” she explained. The design will primarily be on the long side of the building. “It’s going to wrap around slightly to the front to give it more of an interactive feel, more three-dimensional when you look at it at a certain angle.”

Hannah has completed the base coat and is utilizing her doodle grid to start the detail work. Image - March First Media.

Her design was one of three chosen for the city’s first mural program, an endeavor Glens Falls has been mulling over for a decade. 

Meanwhile, as the wheels of bureaucracy turned, Hannah was finding her style. At 29-years-old, she has been a working artist for 15 years, honing her talent at Queensbury High School. “I had a wonderful teacher who just really supported me and saw that I had a passion for it; I thrived in her classes,” she said. “I can’t thank Sandra Jabaut enough for harvesting that passion and supporting and believing in my abilities.”

Hannah went on to attend SUNY Adirondack’s fine arts program. During her studies, she threw herself into art, performing as a live painter for a band, matching her brush strokes with the music. Those gigs led Hannah to tour music festivals throughout the state, where her canvas was a 10x10 foot frame of PVC pipe draped with thrift store sheets. 

“The first time that I was going to do this, I was extremely nervous. I hadn’t worked that large before or in front of people in public like that,” Hannah reflected. “I got so zoned in. When you work large scale, it’s just so much physical movement. It really feels like you’re putting your all into it.”

“I kind of got lost in creating for a few hours, and I’ll never forget when I actually took a break to turn around; I was expecting to just walk away. But there was a group of people sitting down and quietly watching me.” She was struck by the group’s instinctual pull to the art, asking herself, “If I had this sort of reaction, what happens beyond this?”

Ten years later and with 21 murals under her belt, Hannah’s current audience consists of motorists, cyclists, pedestrians, and residents going about their lives around 20 Warren Street. 

While the Glens Falls mural program has been a work in progress for a decade, Hannah has been working behind the scenes to make the project a reality since last fall when the city put out a call for artists for the inaugural mural program. She and the other two artists (both are from out of state) were notified they were chosen in January. Finally, on August 2, after overcoming obstacles and challenges, she presented to the city, and her contract was approved.

But during the time between being chosen and having a signed contract in hand, Hannah has wholly shattered the stereotype of an unorganized, laissez-faire artist. “There’s no specific school for wanting to be a professional muralist, there’s so much that has to go into this, not only to learn how to paint a mural but there’s a whole other business aspect to it,” she explained. 

“You have to find a business owner willing to have you put up something on the wall, going back and forth with a budget, figuring out the paints and materials, getting permits, there’s so much that goes into play.”

As Hannah puts it, you have to be an entrepreneur and your own advocate when you take on the responsibility of a project of this size. And while she has shouldered the bulk of that responsibility herself, she made sure to express gratitude to fellow local business owners who played a role in the build-up to that first brush stroke. 

“It’s amazing. I’ve been able to work with local businesses to disperse that business between all of us to get to this point. I had to work with a local insurance agency to get general liability insurance; I had to work with a lift company to get certified to operate a boom lift and get a rental, a paint company; it just kind of goes down the line. I’m totally missing other people here, but it’s been so involved.”

Hannah got certified to operate a boom lift for this project! Image - March First Media

I’ve known Hannah for ten years, having had the privilege of traveling to Italy together to study great works of art in Florence and Rome. I can confidently say that she has been nothing but positive in our time together. As she chronicled the process leading up to the mural on social media, she never once complained or made negative comments about what she was experiencing. 

But in reality, her work and this project have faced criticism. Throughout our discussions, she opened up about some of the backlash and questions over her competency as a businesswoman. “There’s an element of having to really stand my ground because some people don't take me seriously based on my appearance,” she said. “There have been assumptions that my boyfriend would, of course, operate the lift for me because he’s a ‘man’ and I’m a ‘woman.’ There have been random men reaching out to me saying, ‘This is quite the project to take on for yourself; you might need some help,’  which is all very frustrating. But regardless of the social barriers or assumptions, my stubbornness shines through, which in turn has made me a stronger advocate for myself.” 

Hannah is aiming to finish the mural after labor day, but as you can see, the full vision of her creation is starting to crystalize. Once the final coat is applied, and the project is completed, her art will stay on the building for at least five years. Back in August, when she had the signed contract in hand from the city, she shared her feelings about the accomplishment on social media. “Murals don’t last forever…mine will hopefully stand for a length of time but eventually will be painted over by another artist given a chance,” she wrote.

Those words encompass who Hannah is as a person, a businesswoman, and a community member. At her core, she just wants this city to be filled with color; buildings, electrical boxes, and sidewalks sparking joy in the lives of residents and tourists alike while allowing artists an outlet to share their talent and passion with the community. 

And when she touched that brush to brick for the first time, she moved one step closer to her vision for Glens Falls coming true. 

For more on Hannah’s mural project, visit this link for Hannah’s appearance on Write Yourself Up.