Sittingbourne’s Superbly Artistic Sisters

One of the colourful highlights that litter Sittingbourne’s town centre is the alley known affectionately as ‘Hanson Alley’. Reason being that the majority of the aesthetically-pleasing artwork on display is that of the Hanson Sisters.

As part of the brilliant Chalk It Up Festival, where artists are encouraged to cover Sittingbourne in their designs armed only with chalk and creative-flair, the Hansons turned the alley into a nightmare-ish wonderland.

The three sisters used the alley as their canvas to pay homage to their favourite film director, Tim Burton, to marvellous effect. Speaking of why they chose this design eldest sister Mel told CommunityAd “We all love his movies, especially The Nightmare Before Christmas. We also wanted something bright and colourful that little ones would love”.

The Sittingbourne and bred arty Hanson litter consists of Louise, a secondary school art teacher, Nazine, a second-year art student at Bournemouth University, and Mel, who is the woman responsible for a good share of Sittingbourne’s tattooed population, inking them up out of her acclaimed and very well-reviewed ‘Mel’s Tattoo Studio’ in Milton High Street. Her passion for art has always been apparent “Even as an infant I was always making things and drawing. I’m now a tattoo artist so I get to be creative every day”.

Mel has your street art inspired any tattoos? I.e has anyone walked in and said ‘love what you did in the alley can I have that on my back’? (well, not the whole thing, they’d have to be massive)

I have done a lot of Nightmare Before Christmas tattoos! It’s a very popular theme among the tattooed and alternative community. I haven’t had anyone directly say that’s what inspired them to get them done but I do often get lovely comments about it, I also have a large print hanging on the shop.

Tell us why are events like Chalk It Up Festival so good for artists of Sittingbourne and why is it important that children have access to the arts?

It’s a great way to let off some artistic energy. For many of us creatives it’s not often we get to work on such a large scale. It’s been there years and is still talked about and admired. It is important that kids get involved and let their imagination run free. Not everyone is an academic and any children, especially those with natural talents, need to explore. Now I’m a mother I feel much more connected to the community than I ever have before. Something about children just brings people together.

The Chalk It Up Festival for this year is yet to be confirmed but CommunityAd spoke to the organiser Dean who is pursuing funding and will let us know ASAP. For now though, Hanson Alley lives on.

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