Born in Utah in 1921, Hansen began showing his work in 1944. He later moved to Eastern Washington, where he taught at Washington State University for 25 years. Considered one of the Northwest’s greatest living painters, Hansen—and his alter ego, a frontier adventurer he calls “the Kernal”—depicts in his canvases the landscapes, animals, and insects of the Palouse region, where he continues to live and work. Hansen's paintings have been exhibited in museums and galleries in Seattle, Los Angeles, New York, Berlin, Beijing, and Singapore, and are held in many public and private collections.