Can you hear in color? Geri Hahn can…she tastes in color, too!

A mixed neural ability, makes her a “synesthete” and gives her a super power.

By way of introduction let me present a Vineland High School classmate, Geri Hahn. We knew each other but didn’t really hang out. She was a couple levels above me in brain power. A woman who’s father was actually a rocket scientist.She was exceptionally bright and stood out among our class. What I didn’t know is she has an unusual super power, which I will let her explain in her own words below.  

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Geri Hahn, synesthete with one of her pieces Miles Davis Sketches of Spain Concerto de Aranjuez Adagio

by Geri Hahn

People “come out” from whatever closet they are in at various times, for different reasons with different truths.  My truth was that I was an artist, and I finally “came out” in 2014, at age 69. I began showing my work, and later that same year, my first solo show was at Ramapo College. In these intervening years, my work has been exhibited in the US at museums and galleries, as well as internationally.

I spent most of my life as an environmental activist and long-range planner for churches, community groups and non-profits. I advised kids on the college admission process, and I was a community volunteer. My minor was in Forestry, and I had input into the NJ Pinelands legislation. Oh, and I gave birth to six children.

I  now work full-time on my art, 5 to 8 hours a day, having drawn and produced art privately for as long as I can remember. I have had the good fortune to have more time, combined with friends, professors, artists, and curators who pushed, encouraged, and urged me to go public and continue on this path. My work now sells in the thousands of dollars. Not bad for a career that started at age 69.

I am a “synesthete” and I have thirteen different flavors  of this mixed neural super ability. This is not mental illness but a genetically inherited brain wiring – Three of my children and two of my grandchildren are also synesthetes. As a result, I am good at pattern recognition  Strongest in my  cross-neural wiring, is that I  see visual patterns in my sensual responses to daily pleasures and pressures.

Above left) “Another Cold Night” 20”x20” silk on silk, hemp floss, cotton thread, glass beads. The way I experienced the 29-degree (right) “Everything Changes and the Seasons Go Round and Round” 38”x38” silk on linen, cotton and metallic thread and floss A New Years reflection 2021/2022.

I draw and hand sew images of sound, language syntax, emotions, air temperature, physical pain, emotional memories, the taste of food and political issues, or whatever I am experiencing or brooding about.  (Wikipedia has a good article about Synesthesia)

Oh, and as a synesthete, because I can taste combinations of food in my head/mouth just by thinking,  I co-authored in 1973, the very first nationally published (Doubleday)  500 plus page “no sugar, high protein, low carbohydrate” cookbook.  Sorry it is out of print.  Now it’s trendy, but I was using soy products and cauliflower in place of starchy vegies back then.  After publication, I lectured extensively on the issues of  too much sugar in the American diet.  But that was a different life ago………………………….

(L) Too Much, Too Much – Get Me Out of Here 20”x20” silk on silk, hemp and cotton thread, hemp and metallic floss, and melted plastic bag. Created after a week in Las Vegas with too much sensory overload. (r) “Don’t Stop Me Now I’m having a Good Time-Thank You Freddie” 30”x30” silk and linen on silk, cotton cord and thread, metallic and chenille floss. After an afternoon of organizing my studio and listening to Queen

 Because all letters and numbers are in color, I see and always have seen, a tickertape of colored words under the chin of anyone speaking to me.  And I literally see every single sound I hear. All sounds are composed of timbres, pitches and volumes that have shape and color and exist in time and space in the richly visual landscape of my mind; thus, I never lack inspiration. Imagine this, if you will, as a natural, omnipresent high, similar to how those who take psychedelic drugs talk about their experience.

Vice Media filmed interview with me about my synesthesia.  They spent 8 hours filming me to create a short 4.5 minutes of YouTube, “What It’s Like To See Sound -10 Questions”

In my world of over-stimulation, it is like being in a sandstorm. The act of producing art, the physical connection with materials, provides a dimmer switch.  It provides comfort, an escape, a personal place, or zone, of lovely quiet.

Because what I see are super-saturated colors, my work is brightly colored. When hand sewing fabric, I prefer the textures of silk and linen with elements of shiny metallic floss and thread.  The tactility, structure, and sheen of the fabric and thread form an integral part of how I engage with my senses and emotions.

My art has been exhibited at the Trenton City Museum, the Montclair Art Museum, New Britain Museum of American Art,  the Noyes Museum, in galleries at New Jersey, NYC,  Rhode Island and Connecticut, and at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, the Ramapo College of New Jersey, Seton Hall University, Saint Elizabeth University, Lafayette College, University of Granada, Granada Spain, Brunel University-London England, and the University of Oxford - Somerville College, England

“Wait For the Summer – Fleet Foxes”19”x26” silk, metallic thread and floss, cotton thread. The tribal vocalizations and rhythms of Yeasayer snake through my brain in sparkling iridescent patterns

My hope is that viewers who see my art can experience some of the joy that my art making provides to me.

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See more of her work at her website https://gerihahn.com/

Thanks for sharing Geri. Very, very interesting. What it must be like to experience life like you do. Fascinating.