By trade, I am a house painter and I truly love what I do.  What I find so fascinating about the work is that in the quiet moments, once all of the furniture is cleared out, the picture frames are taken down and the nail holes filled in, a distilled calm enters my mind and I enter the Zen of painting.  By moving my paintbrush back and forth along the edge of the wall and ceiling with a steady hand the muscle memory triggers the nostalgia of being alone in my bedroom as a child with nothing but a blank sheet of paper and an HB pencil.  Facing the beginning of a white primed wall is the same feeling of approaching a new canvas or sheet of paper.  This is the beginning of inspiration for me.  As an artist, I am not a painter but rather work with digital media to produce video and interactive installations.  I chose this medium because of its ability to show time and its engagement with the viewer.  Time is the great leveler, everyone is subject to it, and no one can escape it.  From childhood, everything we learn and all that happens to us affects the choices we make, as we grow older.  The influence of peers, family and the impact of society and culture shape and mold us like the potter's clay.  When I'm standing at the top of a ladder, I ponder my own experiences and perpetually ask myself questions related to "why am I here at this moment?"  "What was the difference between me and every other kid whose dad left them or who grew up poor or who claims two cultures and two races as his own?"  "Why am I so fortunate while other are not?"  In my body of work I am intent on exploring these questions.  Through use of video compositing I am able to morph the environment into an idea that presents itself as a physical setting.  I use video to represent a continuous moment in time whether past, present or future.  And above all I seek to answer my own questions related to my personal chemical make up.  Through research and artistic expression I encourage the audience to think on what separates them from, and what connects them to, the most and least fortunate among us.

Contact Info:

Torlando Miles Hakes

Email: torlandohakes@gmail.com

812.219.1537