Hannah Jones

Blessing in the Skies

Watercolor Monoprints by Hannah Jones

This series began with a quiet, familiar question that I often replay in my mind: What am I reaching for, and who told me I couldn’t reach it?

Using watercolor monoprint techniques, I paint directly onto gum arabic on acrylic plates, letting the images live briefly before pressing them onto soaked print paper. This process—intuitive, delicate, and fleeting—mirrors the themes that run through the work: memory, limitations, resistance, and wonder. 

The blessings themselves are nuanced and dreamlike. Sometimes humorous, sometimes aching. Each print features a woman’s hand, often in prayer-like gestures, sometimes reaching for a fish: a symbol that swims between survival and mystery, sacredness and absurdity. The moon is present too, still and observing. Are we underwater? In the sky? Somewhere in between? 

The title “Blessing in the Skies” comes from a misheard phrase—a YouTube comment that rewrote “blessing in disguise” into something brighter, more magical, and more optimistic. That joyful mistake stuck with me. It reminded me that even our misunderstandings can hold wisdom and that what we’re taught to suppress might actually be the thing we’re meant to embrace. 

This work is about reclaiming permission, softness as a form of resilience. It’s about being told no and reaching anyway.