NARRATOR: This is Hannah Hart.
Hello.
NARRATOR: If you watch YouTube, you probably know her.
In 2011, she started her series "My Drunk Kitchen"
and since then has starred in feature films "Camp Takota"
and "Dirty 30," published a cookbook in 2014,
and in 2016, a memoir titled "Buffering" and also posts
insightful and funny and punny videos of many types
to her channel MyHarto.
And she has a brand new and really awesome
show on Food Network called "I Hart Food."
This is her new and very nifty studio space
which has this very well-equipped kitchen.
Which I hopefully will do work in soon.
NARRATOR: There's also a lovely sitting
area with a magnificent artwork, too.
It's the impressions of the posteriors of Hannah
and her friends and frequent collaborators Grace Helbig
and Mamrie Hart.
What is this show about?
I've forgotten.
I'm Hannah Hart, and these are five
of my favorite works of art.
This work by Hannah Gelb.
Hannah Gelb is one of my oldest friends.
We've actually been friends for over a decade now,
which is astonishing, because I feel like it was just yesterday
that we met while studying abroad in Japan.
NARRATOR: So what does little by little mean to you?
Little by little means that sometimes the changes
are so small and incremental, you don't really notice them.
But they're still happening.
On here we feel a bunch of vines and pomegranate flowers.
I don't know, something.
But there are also, like, flames coming out of them, maybe.
It's a pretty cool work.
But when a vine is growing or when a plant is growing,
you may not notice it each day.
But then some days you look, and suddenly, you're
like, oh, a bud.
And it seems to have appeared from overnight.
I think it's a really good reminder of how
the changes that we try and make in ourselves
might seem small at first, but then all of a sudden,
you're going to have this moment when you
realize how far you've come.
NARRATOR: How did you come to own it?
For New Year's Eve, Hannah sent me this work.
And it's the original, and it's the only one that exists unless
you buy it as a print at dftba.com/hannah.
The video "Why Trust is Worth It."
So this video is by Ze Frank.
I've only actually seen it recently,
though it's been on the internet for a long time.
It is a collaboration with Cirque Du Soleil and, I think,
a piece--
a thought that Ze put together about trust.
And it's beautiful.
It's like poetry.
It's like a mix of words and motion.
NARRATOR: Actually, it's precisely like this.
Alia says that trust is like a fork-- not one way, many ways--
physical, emotional, and maybe something else.
I almost imagine trust as these invisible hands
that we stretch out into the world looking
for someone to hold on to as we walk into the unknown future.
The two performers in it work with Cirque Du Soleil,
and so they have to trust each other
to accomplish their goals.
And I feel like at this point in my life, that's really
something I'm conscious of, is trying
to figure out where and how to lean
to support a greater balance.
NARRATOR: So why do you think this has been watched
more than 3 million times?
Was that all you?
Maybe it's because they're two really fit people gyrating
against each other.
I'm going to go ahead and guess it's probably that.
But whatever it is, it really worked.
"Biwa Lake Tree Study, Number 2" by Michael Kenna.
The image is a film photograph.
So he took it on film.
And the fact that it's on film--
that exposure is insane.
You can't see anything but white.
And here you have this tiny tree.
I keep trying to picture where he took it and visualize
what's around it, and I can't.
And I love that.
I think about it metaphorically, and I feel like that metaphor
changes over time.
When I first saw it, I was actually
in a really difficult time in my life.
And this solitary tree really stood out in isolation to me.
It seemed like a very isolated image.
And now when I think of it, I think
of all those elements-- like thinking about, wow,
this tree is in an environment.
We just can't see it.
Where does this tree exist?
And that, for me, has some significance.
NARRATOR: So Hannah has a big book of photos by English
artist Michael Kenna, but this is
the one that really stood out to her, so much so that she
bestowed it with the highest honor
any artwork can aspire to--
laptop background status.
This image I kept on my desktop
from my laptop as a background, the wallpaper, for years.
And at the time, I was really good about keeping
my desktop organized.
Right now on my desktop, ever since I learned how
to screenshot, it's--
yeah.
My girlfriend can't even look at my desktop
because it's so upsetting.
It's just thumbnails.
So there's no art behind there now.
It feels very cluttered.
Maybe it's about creating space.
Yo.
Art.
This print by Cory Godbey.
I saw this image online on Etsy.
And it was back in the early days of Etsy.
And it's the first piece of art I've ever bought.
And I think that, in and of itself,
is pretty special to me.
NARRATOR: So what are we looking at here?
It's an image of a girl walking through the woods.
And it's Little Red Riding Hood, and she's
got a lantern with her.
And behind her are these trees, these very tall, thin trees.
And behind the trees is a massive wolf.
You can see the figure completely,
but its eye really stands out, which
is the same color of the light that the little girl is
walking through the woods with.
So I have really attached a lot of meaning to this.
For me, I use it as a metaphor for my own mental health
struggles or my own mental health
victories, which is about learning
to walk alongside your wolf.
Because we can see in the bottom of it that the paws are lit.
The light is there.
She can see his paws.
So she knows the wolf is right there,
and she is walking through the night alongside it.
So it's a metaphor, to me, about not running for your demons--
or from them.
Running for them-- I mean, unless they're doing a 10k.
Any poem by Mary Oliver.
I think I first came across Mary Oliver
when I was living in San Francisco.
I had just graduated from college,
and it was like-- the market had just crashed.
And I've always been a fan of poetry.
I studied under Robert Haas, who was
the poet laureate at the time, or a former poet laureate.
NARRATOR: Yep.
Robert Haas was Poet Laureate of the United States
from 1995 to 1997.
He has also won the National Book Award and a Pulitzer
Prize, among other accolades.
As much as a fan of poetry as I am,
I'm also only really drawn to specific kinds of work.
And I feel like that might be true for everybody.
Because I've heard a lot of people say, I don't get poetry.
I don't connect to poetry.
And I'm like, there's a poem out there
that you will connect with.
There is.
You just haven't found it.
NARRATOR: So what is it about Mary Oliver's poetry, then?
For me, Mary Oliver's poetry has this kind of groundedness,
but at the same time, ephemeral quality to it, I guess.
A lot of her poems talk a lot about nature, and animals,
and the woods, and just general observations on nature
and its life and death cycle.
NARRATOR: We'll give you an example
here from her collection, "1,000 Mornings."
I go down to the shore in the morning,
and depending on the hour the waves
are rolling in or moving out, and I say, oh, I am miserable.
What shall-- what should I do?
And the sea says, in its lovely voice, excuse me.
I have work to do.
It makes me feel really connected to the Earth
and like I am a part of the planet.
And that makes me feel beautiful, too.
NARRATOR: Any final thoughts?
The type of art that usually resonates with me is something
that catches me off guard, like I didn't even know I
was about to be exposed to something
that was artful and beautiful and hit me in the chest,
kind of like with music, like when
you hear "All Night" by Beyonce, and you're just
like, this is beautiful and perfect.
And it clicks.
I don't know.
You know it.
You feel it.
You know when art is doing something.
It's just-- it's not even between you and the artist.
It's between you and the work.
It's like that work is speaking to you,
and you are allowing yourself to listen.
Thanks for coming on the show, Hannah.
Thank you so much for having me and.
If you guys want to hang out more and talk more,
you can find me across the board on the internet at Harto,
H-A-R-T-O.