Congrats to Hannah Louisy!

Once again, we received some incredible applications for our Mini-Comic Bursary for Black and Indigenous Creators. This $1000 bursary for developing and emerging creators was established in 2020, in solidarity with anti-racist protestors fighting for crucial change against systemic racism. The bursary can be used towards any expense the recipient feels will help them create a mini-comic.

We did things a bit differently this year–instead of selecting the bursary recipient internally, we invited our previous bursary winners (Talysha Bujold-Abu, Jazz Groden Gilchrist, and Jordanna George) to choose our 2023 recipient. We’re so grateful for their work.

I know it was a difficult decision, as always, but the jury unanimously selected multi-disciplinary artist Hannah Louisy as our 2023 recipient. Congrats Hannah!

To celebrate, we’re going to introduce you to Hannah, Q&A style!

MEET HANNAH LOUISY

Conundrum Press: What do you want people to know about you?

Hannah Louisy: I’m a Queer 25-year-old multidisciplinary artist from Montreal QC. I recently got my BFA at Concordia University. Asides from comics and drawing I’m also involved in video art, new media installation, and perform bass and vocals in a punk band called Durex. I love comics so much, they are my favourite thing to read, and I am so grateful to have this support in the making of my first actual comic book. For any inquiries you can contact me at hlouisy38@gmail.com or @han_5000_nah on instagram.

CP: What drives your creative work? What themes do you tend to focus on?

HL: Much of my work is emotionally driven and informed by the events of my life. I find that I frequently use images to portray unnamable things and feelings that I have trouble putting into words. I’m currently inspired by the notions of ghosts, the afterlife, and “heaven on earth”. There are so many varied beliefs of what happens after death around the world, and it’s interesting how our beliefs on death can inform the ways in which we live our lives. There’s a lot of life and longing in the stories we tell ourselves about the afterlife.

CP: Your entry was based on your Visions work–can you tell us a bit about that project and what it means to you? And where it will be available?

HL: Visions is a story about two friends who while going on a walk discover a ghost and spend the rest of their day looking for it. I came up with the story while we were deep within the pandemic after finding out my ex-best friend had passed away. I was dealing with that but also dealing with a lot of frustration I was having with my body because of a developing disability. So I was thinking a lot about ghosts, and how they can go wherever they want, free from the limitations of an unreliable body. I was thinking about how the ghosts of people and animals we’ve lost could still be out there, floating wherever they want like little wisps in the wind. I like how something like a ghost leaves so much space for creative liberties. They can really be whatever you want them to be.

So I wrote this story, loosely based on my own experiences, of two friends who have this supernatural encounter with a ghost, and spend the rest of their day searching for it. Though the drawings in this story appear friendly and light hearted on the surface, these are themes that I work towards in Visions through symbolic and visual storytelling. The comic will be available either at my online shop (hannahlouisy.bigcartel.com) or by getting in touch with me via instagram or email.

CP: What will the bursary help you accomplish?

HL: I intend to self publish Visions, so this bursary will go towards the costs of printing and the materials required for hand binding. I will bind the comic with red thread, because it references the red thread the characters use in the story. It will also go towards covering the costs of tabling at local zine and comic fairs, and the copies I plan on giving to local independent bookstores and public collections.

Learn more about the Conundrum Press Mini-Comic Bursary for Black and Indigenous Creators.

Contact Hannah Louisy at hlouisy38@gmail.com or @han_5000_nah on Instagram. 

For media inquiries, contact Sal Sawler at sal@conundrumpress.com.