We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Donté Hayes. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Donté below.
Donté, appreciate you joining us today. Are you able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen?
It is a blessing to earn a full-time living from my artwork. This creative journey comes with sacrifice, believing in yourself, and persevering through the hard times and being humble when receiving success. The catalyst to my success was first going back to college later in life. I was encouraged by friends and colleagues at work who saw my creative talents and thought I should apply to art school and not waste my talents working a retail job. Thankfully, I listened. I enrolled at Kennesaw State University in Kennesaw, GA in 2012 at the age of 37 to study painting and printmaking. In 2014 I took a class in ceramics just because I needed the class for my degree in printmaking. I enrolled in Jeff Campana’s Ceramic class and it changed my life. I finished my undergraduate career summa cum laude in 2017 with a B.F.A. in printmaking and ceramics and an art history minor. I then went immediately to graduate school in the fall of 2017 at the University of Iowa to study ceramics. In 2019 I had the pleasure to have a studio visit with Mindy Solomon of Mindy Solomon gallery in Miami, Florida. We had an instant repour and she invited me to show work in an International art fair in London, England. Mindy sold all three works included in the show and then sold 20 works in my studio in two weeks from the initial art fair. I graduated from the University of Iowa in the spring of 2020. In the two years since graduating with my M.A. and M.F.A. my work has been acquired by eight major museums among them is the Renwick gallery of the Smithsonian Museum of American Art, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Newark Museum of Art and the Stanley Museum of Art and others. All of my success would not have happened if I thought I was too old to go back to college.
Donté, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I am a research based artist working primarily in clay. My artwork is informed by researching traditional African heirlooms and initiation rites of birth, adulthood, marriage, eldership, and ancestry which are essential to all human growth and speaks to the greater African diaspora. Along with my interest in history, science-fiction, and hip-hop culture, I utilize ceramics as a historical and base material to inform memories of the past. The handling of clay reveals the process and shares the markings of its maker. By using a needle tool, I create individual marks on the surface of the clay with each strand becoming a collective form. I compare the construction and deconstruction of materials to the remix in rap music and how human beings adapt to different environments and reinvent new identities. The application of repeated texture and patterns on the surface of my sculptures imbue a visual language of memory, ritual, comfort and a sense of familiarity to the viewer. These sculptures are vessels that are turned upside down further symbolizing the crazy world we live in. Ceramics becomes a bridge to conceptually integrate disparate objects and or images for the purpose of creating new understandings and connections with the material, history, and social-political issues. These modern artifacts preserve, empower, and document the past and present to initiate healing and understanding for the future.
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
What drives me as a creative person and artist is sharing the universal experience of being human. My work speaks to my humanity as a black person in this world. I want my art to inspire change from individuals internally, and begin the journey of discovery to loving yourself. When you truly love yourself you can love others and see each person with empathy and compassion.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
The most rewarding aspect of being an artist is having the opportunity to be my own boss and make my own schedule. I enjoy getting up each morning because every day as a creative is exciting and different. On any given day I can be working in the studio, while other days I’m working on the computer responding to emails and other days preparing to ship artwork for an upcoming exhibition.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.dontekhayes.com
- Instagram: @dontekhayes
- Other: Mindy Solomon Gallery, Miami, Florida (gallery representation) Website: www.mindysolomon.com Instagram: @mindysolomongallery
Image Credits
Studio shot: Eric Dean Images of artwork: Donté K. Hayes