About
About Lake Effect Studios
The name comes from lake effect snow. If you grew up near Lake Ontario, you know how it goes: a storm rolls off the lake out of nowhere, buries everything, then leaves the world quiet, bright and still. All force, then calm. It turns out that's how the work gets made here, too.
Art
Hanna Arnold grew up outside Rochester, New York, where winters bring close to 100 inches of snow. Those winters taught a simple rhythm: the storm, then the stillness. You'll see it in the work. Every piece starts with a feeling. Painting gives it a shape, and prints, downloads and gifts let it travel.
That's Hanna at age two, on one of Rochester's rare snow-free days, deep in an experiment with a bottle of bubbles. Blow one, watch the light bend across it, see it disappear, try again. The tools have changed since then, from brushes to video cameras to watercolor cards, but the habit hasn't: notice something small, then make something from it.
Process
Hanna earned an MFA in painting, then pushed the practice off the canvas into digital video and installation art. Teaching at several universities came next, followed by years at global companies including The LEGO Group, Schneider Electric and BAE Systems, getting creative, IT and marketing teams to actually work together. It's not the usual path for a painter, but it taught her something most artists learn the hard way: a good idea only matters if it can get out into the world. Every organization, every project, the job was the same: make how things get made a little better. The studio runs on that same thinking today.
Innovation
Today the studio is based in Lowell, Massachusetts, just north of Boston. Hanna still helps organizations of all sizes streamline their marketing, technical and creative operations, and runs the studio the same way. That means original watercolors, printable digital art, made-to-order prints and a growing gift line, starting with hand-painted watercolor holiday cards. Less busywork, more painting, and things you'll actually enjoy owning.
We're launching in stages. Want to see the first pieces before anyone else? Get on the list.
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