Hannah Schmider (b. 1985 in Starnberg, Germany) uses the hard material of wood to create gentle, sensitive and soulful sculptures. Her universe is one of forest animals, humans and fantastical elements. Often, she shows humans and animals interacting in a natural, relaxed way – setting up an ideal of how our relationship to nature ought to be. The earthy colors of her sculptures would blend in as well in the forest as in a modern art gallery, and the focus on the materiality of the wood, with clearly visible chisel marks, makes them almost a part of nature. The gentle, watercolor-like character of her coloring almost brings to mind classical storybooks. However, Hannah Schmider’s sculptures have more to say than a children’s book; their focus on animals that interact with humans, or stand on their own, expressive like a human in their own right, emphasizes just how important it is for us to restore a harmonious relationship with nature.     Holding a degree in wood sculpture from the Schule für Holz und Gestaltung in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, and having studied at the Hochschule für bildende Künste in Dresden for four years, Hannah Schmider has exhibited in galleries all over Germany, Switzerland and Austria since 2011.