Meet Hannah Sulak | Actress. Poet. Ceramicist.

We had the good fortune of connecting with Hannah Sulak and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Hannah, what are you inspired by?

I am inspired by creation itself. This pertains to nature, to humans, to the interaction between both. I found Ceramics through my need to ground and center after hours of delving into the spectrum of humanity emotional narratives – through every day relationships, but also through my profession of acting. It is one of the greatest honors, navigating the inner and outer worlds of another being. Likewise, I am equally infatuated by the malleable nature of working in clay. Forming something from seemingly nothing. Giving it permission to take shape. Going in with given intention and then throwing it away and letting truth come forth.

I believe that God created humans from the dust of the earth. With breath and word, and earth, God brought us to life. Choosing to embrace my multi-faceted creative hub of poetry, ceramics, and acting, I feel that I am closely reflecting the very things that gave me life. Through my intimate interactions with characters on a page, I am able to form deep understanding of both the good and the evil in the world. I craved that level of intimacy with myself. Who was Hannah? How does she move throughout the world, how does she make people feel? How is she a vessel for the things she chooses for her life path? How does she listen? How does she inspire? I would call myself a soulful intellectual. My mind gets jumbled and tangled and knotted sometimes. I can feel emotions so strongly that the very same emotions that can make me feel like I’m lost in a cloud of unsettled dust, can help clear it away, if I embrace my training in their wielding. We are, as people, capable of a great many things. Of making beauty from the broken. Of finding mental stability and health.

This, I find to be true with my pottery. I often throw vessels on a wheel. This process is circular, eternal, a loop that never ends. To me, there is a sustaining symbolism behind this. We live in rhythms and cycles, patterns and purpose. Some may see circles as binding, I choose to see them as freeing. The sun and moon, spheres themselves, make rounded arcs across our sky, ruling over life’s currency, time. I used to struggle with extreme anxiety and depression in my youth. I would get overwhelmed by the overflow of tasks throughout the day, get lost in lessons of old, or crave for things yet to come. The thing that would guide me towards peace the most, was focusing on what’s unfolding in front of me.

To unfold. Like a knot satisfyingly solved, A concept that inspired my knot series, A reminder for a desk, a dashboard, a dining table, a pocket or a bedside – to try again each day, to unfold. It’s so important to let ourselves be holistically known. We live in a culture that is fixated on individualism and self-reliance. I have found goodness in this myself. Not hoping to devalue that quality. But to welcome people into our worlds is brave. It’s harder. And choosing to step into theirs (with boundaries), is also radical. One of the strongest revelations I gained coming into my adulthood was – as wildly complex as my own inner world, my “main character” energy was in my head, each person was walking around with the potential of such complexity. I love humanity, yes, even strangers. For an enemy is just a story we have yet to hear, and only love gets close enough to actually know it. My hope is that my pottery connects people, serves as a beautiful reminder to people of our shared humanity.

That we are creators from creation.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I grew up in a house where there were rooms that weren’t being used. That may be a seemingly simple statement. But depending on the eyes that brush over these words, it could have a range of impact and undertone. Privilege.

The rooms that were being used, were decorated and themed by my mother. Naturally. The home was her domain. Spaces revolved around Swedish Tones, yes, the IKEA yellow and blue; and animals such as chickens… she encouraged us to decorate our rooms in our own fashion, allowing us to create walls of safety and self reflection. But, ultimately, when all your interior design is influenced by old pottery barn magazines left on the coffee table, walks through the mall, and the historical fiction novels you’re reading…your room is bound to be a mesh of disaster.

As I sit my body back from my laptop for a moment, glancing back on that part of my life, I can’t help but feel ever so slightly sick. The middle class facade. The sweep it under the rug passivity of a white family. It feels like clutter in my chest. An ache of shame and a cry for a disclaimer. I want to hug that younger version of me and say, “You don’t know yet, it gets better” Just wait until you’re 18. You fly…”. To the land of LALA I went.

I have obvious privilege in life…especially privilege to pursue the art… it may seem flippant or hobby-like to most, a profession that is only accessible to the well off upper class society. Some pursue the arts to join such ranks. But the gritty truth is that no matter where you come from… whatever you’re having to endure to exist in art, create it – there is always innate sacrifice of the self. A giving over of what makes you up, what comes from your being. Literally, letting your body and voice become the art, your time, your physical energy, your spiritual and emotional expression.

It is in my coping with Trauma, where I found my art. Coping with the hidden, stuffed down parts of my childhood, looking at how such events do and don’t have told on me. Finding a safe place, to bare my soul to the world. Funny enough, it was in front of many eyes. Art saved my life, and I want to use it to save others. I processed my grief through living into the grief of my characters, I found joy by embracing the joy of my characters. I found beauty in the simplicity of a block of clay, and conquered my fixation with perfection by finding fun in the messy.

Humanity is ooooh so beautifully messy. I found my art in the enjoyment of such paradoxes. Putting aside one’s personal pride, to play a prideful character, fully, and unapologetically. Voicing an opinion or a viewpoint, even when you know it might uncomfortably rub up against another. Crying in therapy so that you can loosen the faucet in front of countless gazes. Art isn’t for the faint of heart and yet it is. I love movies. I have an AMC A List. And as silly as I find Nicole Kidman’s cute lil commercial before each showing, she says “…not just entertained…but reborn”. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve walked out of a theater feeling as though I was levitating. Moved to action. Creatives feel the intensity of life first circle, so that others can feel the impact of those experiences second circle, safely, so that they can choose to transform. What do we often reach for when life’s uncertainties face us? Our favorite melody, memoir, magazine, movie. The genius of creatives.

My art seeks to celebrate humanity, its diversity, its complexity. One thing, however, I feel, has touched each person in life. Mental health. My acting, my pottery, and my poetry, all reflect, celebrate, and break down – the wellness of the mind and spirit. If there’s one legacy I would want my art and my life to leave behind, it would be that I SAW. I think that my eyes are those most beautiful things about me…about most people really. The perspective they provide, but also the miracle of their appearance and abilities. They are a window to the soul. When light hits my eyes, they turn a sage green, with a rim of gold in the middle. My mothers turn a misty sky blue, my father’s a deep chestnut brown. I mull the meaning of these colors… I hope my perspective always remains persistent, patient, pure, and widely welcoming to all. Empathy. If it’s real to them, it’s real period.

I look at my room now, with its minimal, clean white walls, my simple mattress on the floor, and vases and vases of dried flowers hand thrown pots scattered about and I think, this, this is a reflection of my mind. I would welcome people here. And that’s what it’s all about.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.

Kitchen Mouse Cafe in Highland Park. It’s like walking into a pastel toned crayon box. Each wall is cloaked with a collection of hand woven tapestries. The staff buzzes around like worker bees. Vivid and zesty vegan options are abounding. A rainbow accompanied play place for kiddos is tucked in the corner, and each table is anointed at the center with hand painted stone vases with fresh flowers. The people watching here will always provoke a grin. Micro bangs, tatts, platform shoes, reading spectacles of every shaped frame, and the occasional mustache beanie combo. Famous folk make their casual presence every so often too…shhh.

Just down the street is KOTN. Freshly opened. The first in person store in the US. They sell sustainable, eco-friendly Women’s and Men’s clothing and home goods. Their mission is to change how things are made, offering timeless design that honors the people and the places they are made. The simplicity and quality of their staple pieces bring a calm and a peace to your peep around the store. They make their clothing from the finest natural fibers which can biodegrade at the end of their cycle. A percentage of every order goes to the ABC’s Project, which helps fund education in the communities that farm their cotton. They work directly with 2,390 smallholder farmers in the Nile Delta and Faiyum regions of Egypt. A two-hour drive outside of Cairo, Faiyum is an oasis made up of three lakes in the middle of the desert, and home to some of Egypt’s oldest towns, antiquities, and over the last 30 years, a hub for artists, writers and the like from around the world. Growing from a pottery school that opened in the 1980s, the Tunis Village has become an international destination for ceramics. Learn more at https://kotn.com/about

Griffith Observatory. The perfect lookout, and cultural center. Brilliant white buildings and a grassy picnic area, provides a spot for a restful evening. Takeout from Pine and Crane (in Silver Lake) or Sage Vegan Bistro (in Echo Park) is always a stellar lunch-dinner option. The humming of foreign languages, and dialects is usually the space’s soundtrack. A golden hour hike on the trails just above the park never disappoints, and the Hollywood Sign is nestled just to the side of the foothill nearby. When night finally chases the color from the sky, and the sky starts to freckle its face, the city lights that span below, serve as its mirror.

Story Books & Cafe has quirky shelves and tables of locally published, antique, and best selling novels alike. Tucked in the back is a bustling little espresso machine. Across the street is AS American Vintage with racks upon racks of Thrift Store second hand gems.

If you’re looking to peer at statues, beautiful paintings, botanical gardens, coy fish ponds, Japanese Architecture, and a towering GreenHouse, check out The Huntington Gardens in Pasadena. I could lose myself there all day.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My heart, so many faces flash across my mind when I think of my community and support systems.

Family. Although my sweet mum knew little of the entertainment industry, it’s “all in”, competitive nature, she always encouraged and supported my exploration of the arts. She used to get a little frustrated with me for going too deep into the worlds of the novels I would consume for hours. While reading The Hunger Games in middle school, I disappeared for hours in the land behind our house, scavenging with blackberries, and sketching birds. I would often forget to eat. Yet despite all this, she would usher us outside to find our imaginations. She put me in dance, in sports, in choir, in piano, in musical theater, so that I could try, and taste the colorful potential of the performing arts. She noticed my proficiency in literature. And most importantly, when she saw me flourishing, she let me choose. She gave me the choice. A privilege I will never forget. A shout to the siblings, Emily Kemp, Mikaela Sulak, and Zach Sulak, who also tirelessly tolerated my loud shower singing for years.

Mentors. Either they find you or you find them. Teachers found me. I attended College at Azusa Pacific University and received a BFA in Acting. There are too many professors to give credit to, so for that, you can view my resume. Last semester Senior Year, I overachieved with my credits, and was unable to keep my scholarship unless I filled my schedule with random classes so that I could remain full time. One such class, was ceramics. Three years later I was able to take a master class out of the studio I work out of – “Green & Bisque” in Pasadena. Eric Landon (@TORTUS) was doing a teaching tour, and I felt like I was finally able to embrace delicate, specific, and liberating techniques that fostered the gifting of guiding and channeling the clay where it needed to go, no compressing or squeezing it.

Community. Twice a week, I meet with my AA group. My Actors Accountability group. It consists of Sharayu Mahale, Shalani Bathina, Bushra Khan, Azim Hirani, and Anand Mahalingam. All are well accomplished Indian-American creatives, whom I have the pleasure of calling friends. We come with our losses and wins of the week, and goals to accomplish before the next meeting date. The consistency of this has grounded and inspired me, creating more movement in the year that we’ve known each other, than the two years I spent trying to do it all on my own. It is best knowing there are people who “get it”, in your corner. The entertainment and creative world can be so overwhelming, unpredictable, surprisingly rewarding, and deeply disappointing. As much as I feel supported where I lack (especially in the business aspect of things) by other beautiful people in my life such as my romantic partner, Elijah Jerjerian, there’s just some things he won’t get without having experienced it’s impact. These friends hold a richness to their shared cultural background. Their unique personalities and giftings, push me to find my own voice, my own through line as well. It is one of the most humbling and life giving things to be invited into their circle. Surround yourself with people you feel equally uplifted and challenged by. It’ll rock your world.

Some of my favorite poets: Tess Guinery’s “The Apricot Memoirs”, Rupi Kaur’s “Milk and Honey”. Both of these women spoke to me out of their boldness, their fearlessness to involve fear in their words. The way they thought and wrote and spoke, made me feel less odd to do so myself.

Some of my favorite books: John Mark Comer’s book(s) “Love-ology” and “Garden City” shaped my outlook on life, purpose, and love. “The Two Princesses of Bamarre” by Gail Carson Levine was a book my sister and I read together. It launched me into my love for imagining myself within stories. I believe it seeded my love of acting.

Some of my favorite movies: Arrival, Emma/Pride and Prejudice, Fantastic Mr. Fox/The French Dispatch, Star Wars/Lord of The Rings/Harry Potter.

Website: https://hannahsulak.wixsite.com/actress

Instagram: https://instagram.com/hannahsulak

Other: IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm9380304/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1

Image Credits
Nikki Romo Photography James Depietro Photography