Meet Abby Hanneman
Abby Hanneman is an artist and writer based in San Diego, where most mornings begin in the Pacific and end in the studio.
After nearly four decades in photography, she came to printmaking the way most real things arrive — not planned, but recognized. She works primarily with collagraphs using non-toxic materials, drawn to abstraction, texture, and the tension between restraint and raw mark-making. Six months in, she’s already submitting to juried shows. That’s not a coincidence. That’s what happens when someone with four decades of visual intelligence finds a new medium that fits.
Alongside her visual practice, Abby writes about creativity, midlife, and what it means to stay genuinely alive across changing seasons — not as philosophy, but as lived experience
She is the author of The Ripple Effect of Joy and Live Wire: 90 Days to Reclaim Your Wild, Your Wit, and Your Will, a guided journal for women ready to stop shrinking and start moving.
The ocean has been a constant throughout. Bodysurfing, bodyboarding, moving with the water — it continues to shape how she works, listens, and stays honest with herself. So does Bodhi, her Bengal, who supervises the studio with appropriate authority.
Abby follows curiosity wherever it leads. At 66, it’s still leading somewhere interesting.
Books & Writing
Abby is the author of The Ripple Effect of Joy and the creator of Live Wire, a 90-day guided journal. Her writing explores joy, creativity, and the quiet shifts that happen when we stay curious and engaged over time.
Visual Art
Abby’s visual work spans photography, painting, and printmaking, with a current focus on collagraph-based printmaking. Her work explores structure, texture, and restraint, and is rooted in process, material, and attention. Selected work coming soon.
Ways of Working
Abby’s work is grounded in independent creative practice, writing, and visual exploration. While not currently offering workshops or gatherings, she remains interested in thoughtful exchange around process, creativity, and lifelong learning.
My Vision
My vision is simple and lived rather than aspirational: to stay engaged with creativity, joy, and curiosity as daily practices. I’m interested in how attention, making, and staying open over time can quietly shape a life—and how creative work can serve as a place of listening, reflection, and renewal.
This isn’t about fixing or transforming the world, but about remaining awake to it.
My Mission
My work centers on making and writing as ways of paying attention. Through visual art and words, I explore creativity, joy, and the subtle evolution that comes from continuing to learn and create over a lifetime.
Rather than offering instruction or solutions, my intention is to share work that invites reflection, presence, and a deeper relationship with one’s own creative life.