Meet Anami Hayes | Visual Artist, Creator & Humanist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Anami Hayes and we’ve shared our conversation below.
Hi Anami, what is the most important factor behind your success?
As mediocre as it might sound, having a good attitude and staying in peace despite everything is the true success. Many times in my life, I’ve felt very insecure or doubtful about how difficult situations will turn out and it’s very easy to be discouraged. However, I made a commitment to myself that no matter what happens I choose to be happy and to stay in peace. Over the past few years from starting college, graduating and life outside of college I took an astronomical amount of risks from throwing myself into modeling, meeting different people, pushing my art out even though it was uncomfortable, working two to three jobs to maintain and even using every last dime just to chase opportunities. At the end of the day, life has never ending hardships no matter how many great things occur but to stay in peace and have everyone look at me thinking “man, he makes success look easy” then i’ve won.
Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
The way I see my art is the way I see myself as well as the people around me, it’s all connected. After going through art school, (SCAD) it taught me the skills and discipline I needed to understand about art, but what makes me a great artist is my own personal development. Truth is, it was extremely hard to finally step outside myself, look beyond the skill and realize that art is affected by your mood, thoughts, maybe the music you listen to, the people you’re around etc. It is your soul that speaks. I truly believe that is what separates me from others is that I see art as a whole, whether it be music, film, fashion etc. I will never forget these two quotes that stuck with me from different professors, they said “You know art is handmade when there are flaws” and “If you can draw, you can paint”. It stuck with me because what holds most people back, along myself for a long time, was perfectionism, I truly want everyone to know that you can be whoever you want and still be an artist. You can work at retail, be a server, work at a corporate job and still be an artist, still find that creativity in anything. Oftentimes, we only want to see the result of what art can do rather than learning to appreciate the process of it. For me, I was not even close to being the best in school, some of my peers didn’t accept me into their projects, but now here I am my art being featured in Vogue London Exhibition, SCAN Magazine, my modeling career is blossoming and about to have my own Animated TV Show that is coming up and I’m extremely happy to make the announcement very soon.
If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
It definitely varies on the person but I think I would actually take them to the Centennial Park walk around on a sunny day. Look through the Coca-Cola Museum and check out the CNN Center. Then during the week we could head down to the Georgia Aquarium see all the many sea-life and the penguins there are extremely adorable. For myself, i truly like to go hiking and see nature, there is this little trail not far from the city called Doll Head Trail and it feels extremely cryptic which I personally love. Arabia Mountain is such a hidden gem that not many people know about it and the whole place feels like you’re on the moon with tumbled rocks and beautiful horizons. At the end of the day, its the people that are around me that make the time worthwhile no matter where I go.
Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I’d like to dedicate a huge shout out to mainly my friends, family who have always been there for me and the underground creative scene in Atlanta. Mainly everyone in my life has impacted me in small but very big ways, the different people i’ve encountered whether it was a brief conversation truly taught me a lot. I’d like to dedicate a huge applause to Lotus Rosery & SHRUGS Atl for truly treating me like family and always has been a pleasure.
Website: www.anamihayes.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_illuminami/
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anamihayes/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/wavyanimator
Image Credits
Credit to Savannah College of Art & Design for personal photo.