Artist's Bio
Randy Hanson was raised in Decorah, Iowa, where he immersed himself in the rich natural surroundings filled with hiking trails, forests, rivers, hills, bluffs, effigy mounds, waterfalls, and caves. He cherished activities such as hiking, biking, canoeing, tubing, fishing, and hunting for fossils and morel mushrooms, while also spending quality time with artists, musicians, and educators at Luther College.
Randy went along with his family on many trips to explore the United States as well as Europe, Malta, and the Middle East. His father (Richard Simon Hanson) was a professor at Luther College and he did many trips overseas to do research and year long sabbaticals where we visited many ancient sites and museums. His father was also an archaeologist with his specialty being a numismatist (cleaning and identification of coins). Randy participated in several archaeological digs in Israel including a number of months as a regular worker doing various jobs for the digs. This had a great impact on his perspective in life and was very influential in his art.
Randy Hanson's advanced education in art began at the Polytechnical Institute of Malta. He then earned a B.A. in art from Luther College in Decorah, Iowa. Randy then studied drawing, painting, ceramics, perspective design, multimedia, and printmaking (under Mauricio Lasansky) at the University of Iowa. After that he was accepted into the UW in Madison WI graduate program where he earned an M.A. and an M.F.A.
in painting and was a recipient of the Vilas Award for outstanding scholarship.
Current Exhibition
Mount Horeb Area Arts Association Spring Art Tour
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