Moira Hahn says: I was born in Boston and earned my BFA degree at The Maryland Institute College of Art, in Baltimore, Maryland. I moved west at 19 to attend California College of Arts and Crafts (now California College of the Arts) in Oakland, California. In my 20s I studied animation at CalArts, in Valencia, CA and later worked in the animation industry and illustrated books and magazines for The Pushpin Group, an artists' agency in New York. I studied Japanese art in Hawaii and Japan for several years and later taught studio art classes at several colleges and universities in Southern California. I have exhibited my fine art throughout the US and Japan for two decades.

Hedonistic and naturalist impulses guide me. Gardening, hiking, swimming, dancing, birdwatching, astronomy, antiques, animation, coyotes, cultural anthropology and comparative religions interest me and often inform my work. Although I enjoy reading for pleasure, I reserve most of my time for studying and producing art.

In Asian art, I'm inspired by Persian miniatures, Tibetan Thanka paintings, Japanese Ukiyo-e prints, Indian animal drawings and Chinese guardian figures. In Western art, I'm magnetized by the documentary art of Explorer/ Scientist painters including Martin Johnson Heade, John James Audobon and Karl Bodmer. Contemporary artists I admire include Bob Anderson, Hilary Brace, Chuck Close, Henry Darger, Daniel Du Plessis, Don Ed Hardy, Tim Hawkinson, Jess, William Kentridge, Tom Knechtel, Sarah Perry, Hisashi Tenmyouya and Thomas Woodruff. I show my work with Koplin Del Rio Gallery in Los Angeles and Roq La Rue Gallery in Seattle. Next year I will also show at a few other galleries (details and dates TBA).