Photos by Jim Coarse
Text by Richard L. Gaw

One day, in the middle of his four-decade career as an art and design director in the marketing and advertising industry, the Middletown abstract artist and sculptor t. a. hahn looked beyond the immediacy of the work in front of him and asked himself what he was going to do next as an artist.

It was then that a Cedar Waxwing landed on the windowsill outside of his third-floor office, and as hahn watched the bird tap on the window with its beak, it was as if the bird was silently reiterating what the artist had known all along: that oil painting and sculpture inspired him and brought him peace and harmony. That moment – the bird tapping on the window – inspired hahn’s series “Peace Taking Flight.”

“I am enamored by the flight of birds and their motion and the colors of them in motion,” he said. “I am also the son of a fighter pilot, so watching birds allows me to appreciate our avian friends. My art is also about using observation and concept development that allows me to interpret what I am able to see in their flight and then present them in a slightly different perspective.”

Combining oil painting with sculpted wood – such as driftwood from the Chesapeake Bay shoreline and floor beams from a 200-year-old home in Middletown – hahn creates a narrative statement empowered by the power of observation.

“What I love about driftwood is its story – that it is something that had an existence and by force of nature or not is no longer a part of its origin,” he said. “The influences of winter and water and snow and ice and heat and time have shaped this wood. From the time it was part of a tree to the time I take it from the Chesapeake Bay shoreline to the moment it becomes a work of art, it slowly evolves into another story.”

Influenced by abstract modernists such as Jasper Johns and Mark Rothko – as well as his wife, the photographer Barb Scalzi – hahn’s works have been widely exhibited in over 60 solo and group shows at scores of venues through his affiliation with the Delaware Contemporary, Philadelphia Sculptors, Noyes Museum of Art at Stockton University, the International Sculpture Center, and the Gilbert W. Perry, Jr. Center for the Arts in Middletown.

There is no artist in the history of humankind who does not approach his or her art without the twin applications of discipline and persistence – skills hahn learned over his four-decade career as an art director.

“Because I enjoy building and analyzing, creating my art becomes about problem solving, combining a discipline and a visual system to make one unit out of two mediums,” he said. “As an art and design director, I can easily answer the question, ‘What is my purpose?’ As an artist, however, my purpose is harder to define, but ultimately, it comes down to creating the work and hopefully, having someone see it and spark a conversation about it.

“To me, my art is personal, and if someone enjoys it, that’s one of the niceties in life that comes around every once in a while.”

To learn more about the artist t. a. hahn – and his wife, the photographer Barb Scalzi – visit www.ta-design.com.