Contrast at the Forgotten Art… the Artists: Cunningham and Hanssen

HARLAN —Contrast is a powerful tool in art, used to engage the eye, emphasize elements, draw out depth, and bring balance. This year, the 2024 Forgotten Art... the Artist Sale offers an opportunity of immersion into the beauty and joys of artistic expression.The two featured artists, Clay Cunningham and Corey Burnett-Hanssen, bring strikingly different art and styles, highlighting how art can bridge two ends of a spectrum in harmonious display.
Returning to Harlan on Saturday, November 2, the annual Forgotten Art… the Artist sale promises a carefully curated collection of unique and diverse works. With over 25 talented artists, including several nationally recognized award-winners, the event will take place at the Therkildsen Center in Harlan from 10 am - 3 pm, bringing together vast artistic expression and talent once again.
Clay Cunningham: Clay/Pottery Artist
Clay Cunningham has sculpted over 20,000 fine clay pieces with loving, humble hands. His bowls, mugs, plates, vases, and decor have subtle, smooth curves with Earthy colors and elements of nature worked into them.
In many of his pieces, Cunningham likes to use materials dug from the Loess Hills of Southwest Iowa. Though his works ingrain the legacy of local history within them, Cunningham speaks of the importance of the now.  “For things to go well in the process, one really can’t be thinking about the past, nor fretting about the future. The material begs for one to be present and in tune with the process.”
During the day, Cunningham is a full time Senior Financial Specialist. As with many artists, he transforms to artist in the limited time he can find after family and work. Cunningham grew up in Kansas City and now lives in Omaha with wife, Maggie, and daughter, Amélie, and son, August.
He draws inspiration from artists and their passions. He enjoys the art community and the conversations with other artists and attendees, finding delight in others making homes for his works of love.
Cunningham remembers loving art from a young age, both seeing and creating it. In his nearly thirty years of working with clay, his passion for it has not chipped or faded. Cunningham wrote in his Omaha Gallery profile, “I am continually intrigued by the wonder material of clay. It exists in dualities of soft and hard, smooth and rough, resilient yet fragile. Exploring classical forms with modern surfaces is at the center of my work.”
Corey Burnett-Hanssen: Muralist and Multimedia Artist
Corey Burnett-Hanssen speaks in loud colors and a mix of contrasting images and textures that break away from classical fine arts. Burnett-Hanssen also does bold and large- mural-sized large, having been commissioned for several building murals throughout the Midwest.
Burnett-Hanssen grew up in Minneapolis, MN for most of his youth. He fondly recalls hours of tinkering with Legos, crediting the colorful blocks as the first spark of inspiration that would later evolve into his passion for multimedia art.
“With Legos I could take the different blocks and fit them together to create something new all from my imagination…  I’ve taken this concept of formulaic or experimental assemblage and applied it to working with various materials and processes,” Burnett-Hanssen shared.
After marrying his wife, Kimberly, in 2013, they moved to Des Moines the following year, where they now call home. For his day job, Burnett-Hanssen works as a concierge at MercyOne, happily assisting patients and visitors in finding their way. He encourages fellow artists to pursue what brings them joy and sparks curiosity, while also following what he calls the artist’s mantra: “work, work, work.”
The Forgotten Art... the Artists was one of the first art fairs he participated in after moving to Iowa, and now, 11 years later, he looks forward to returning to the event.
Burnett-Hanssen’s most recent project is a series called “Wildflowers.” Through this vibrant and imaginative series, he reconnects with childhood memories of his mother in her garden and photographs of her grandmother tending her garden in Japan. Using a variety of paints—spray paint, acrylics, enamels, and oil pigments—he layers textures and techniques, assembling and fitting together pieces of memories over time and space to make flowers bloom on canvas.
“Each of these pieces are my way of tending to something that evolves into a unique object, something like what I picture my mother and great-grandmother must have had with their gardens,” Burnett-Hanssen reflected.