Scott Hanson-48 Plates

48 Plates

Travelling the Unites States with his family and visiting its vast array of beautiful sights compelled the artist Scott Hanson to capture those fond memories in a meaningful way. As Scott and his family journeyed from state to state they loved how they would often see licence plates either pinned up or artfully displayed in some way or another along fences or upon the sides of barns as they traveled the roadways. This lead to a hobby of collecting licence plates from each state they traveled to. As any collector likes to do, Scott displayed each unaltered plate on a wall within their home approximating their position within a rudimentary representation of the United States. This went on until they had collected a plate from each state.

Seeing all the plates presented together upon the wall led Scott to come up with the idea of cutting each of the plates into the shapes of the states they represented. He furthered learned stained glass window techniques so that he could apply a beautiful silver border around each state binding them together while showing off their individuality. After experimenting with a variety of canvases he finally settled on cold pressed steel which served as a beautiful and elegant contrast to the soldering used throughout the piece. Once he presented his gift to the family the first "48 Plates" became a beloved and permanent fixture in the home. As time went on and more of Scott's friends and colleagues would drop by the house and hint that he should share this with the world.

Hence forth from a labor of love was born the first ever representation of the United States in the form of licence plates and after being sold across the globe and represented in multiple museum collections for nearly two decades the 48 Plates still remains the only one made entirely of metal. Since then the artist has produced other popular incarnations including the 50 plates, California the Golden State and even other countries such as the Canada Plates. What has made the 48 Plates so successful is that it represents what Scott initially set out to do and that was to capture fond memories with his family so when he makes one for someone he tries to capture the meaningful aspects of each plate such as an iconic image or a memorable tagline from each state so in essence he achieves telling a narrative. He also likes to have a nice mixture of vintage and newer plates to give the composition history and a fun anecdote the artist likes to share is that collectively with each one made the owner will have a piece that has had on average of five million miles driven on it.

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