Artwork copyright Judith Hahn. Photo courtesy of Washington State Arts Commission, 2017.

Artwork copyright Judith Hahn. Photo courtesy of Washington State Arts Commission, 2017.

Artwork copyright Judith Hahn. Photo courtesy of Washington State Arts Commission, 2017.

Artwork copyright Judith Hahn. Photo courtesy of Washington State Arts Commission, 2017.

Wenatchee River Dry, 1994

Judith Hahn
American (born 1941, died 1999)

Location: Lake Spokane Elementary, Nine Mile Falls

About the Artwork

Wenatchee River Dry is a two-panel painting by artist Judith Hahn. She created the composition by subtly shifting and combining the same scene, but from two slightly different viewpoints and painted them opposite each other. The artwork is part of Hahn's body of Northwest landscape paintings that capture light and shadow using negative space and impressionistic colors. Hahn noted that she wanted the viewer "to feel as though you're standing in the middle of the dry river bed, and the rocks are 'tumbling,' visually around you."

This artwork was acquired for the State Art Collection in partnership with Nine Mile Falls School District.

About the Artist

Painter and printmaker Judith Hahn (1941-1999) was interested in color and light, as seen in nature.
Hahn lived and worked in Woodinville, Western Washington. Diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in 1981 at age forty, her artistic process and style evolved to accommodate her physical limitations. Using a wheelchair limited her range of motion and the size of the artworks that she could create. As a result, she started created diptychs, or two-panel artworks, where she could combine two panels to make one larger artwork. She noted, "Because my disability severely limits my mobility, I work (in studio) from photographs we take in the field, although I often use only part of a photographic image, or combine several."
Hahn earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Illinois and a Master of Fine Arts degree from Michigan State University. During the 1990s, several of her artworks were donated to support the Multiple Sclerosis Society.