Virtual Studio Visit and Interview with Halie Torris

Our “Arts to Hearts Project” is a community led platform for women creators helping them tune their creativity into successful & Money making careers/businesses. To get to the core of what it means to be an artist, we’re stripping out the fluff and focusing on the basics. Therefore we decided to start a studio visit series called Arts to Hearts studio visits. We performed virtual studio visits and talked with many women artists from around the world as part of our series. Charuka Arora, the founder of Arts to Hearts, interviews artists in their studios and shares their work with our audience. All of these interviews are available on our official website, https://artstoheartsproject.com/. This week, Emily A. Mullet is the featured artist for our Arts to Hearts Studio Visits series.

Using oil paints as her primary medium, Halie Torris is an active member of the contemporary art scene. After graduating from Seton Hill University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, she went on to work as a graphic designer. One of the most important aims of her work is to give women an outlet and representation in the arts so that they can openly love whoever and whatever they want, regardless of gender. She is now working on a body of work that explores themes of dualism, feminine energy, and identity.

During our virtual studio visit, Halie showed us around her numerous projects, materials, facilities, and collector’s goods while we were awestruck. We are grateful to have gotten the opportunity to visit her studio, her practice and learn more about her work. Find out more about Halie and her paintings by reading on!

For those who are unfamiliar with your work, please tell us a little about yourself.

My name is Hailey, and I’m a Maryland-based artist that specialises in oil painting. And I primarily paint large-scale portraits of women who are depicted in an empowering light. It’s all a bit unreal. I. With my figures, I like to tell stories and incorporate minor symbols, such as shattered wine glasses or flower pets, into the narrative I tell. Both the bright and the dark appeal to me because they contain beauty. So that’s the bulk of what I do.  

What a wonderful studio you’ve created! Describe it to our readers and tell us how you got to be the proud owner of such a wonderful place.

So basically this is my first ever studio and as you walk in, you can find my primary workspace, so I store all of my print materials here. On the floor, there’s a “cowgirl like me” painting.  There is Packaging with cardboard cutouts. Then there are a few prints that I have lying around. I prefer custom-made prints, but I do have a few extras, like a canvas print, that I may go through from time to time. However, due to a lack of available storage, I erected this massive shelf. So, I’m attempting to maximise the amount of room in my studio. There is also a studio cart with all of my supplies, including media and brushes. I have a glass palette on which I typically work. I also have a tiny map that I made showing some of the nations to which I’ve shipped internationally. So, yeah that’s pretty much it.

Tell us about the most favourite thing about your studio.

The window in my studio, where you can view the ocean’s horizon, is one of my favourite features. So, just like being by the sea and having a tranquil place to paint and enjoy the flora and fauna that visit, this is like a dream come true for me.

Now that you’ve mentioned that this is your first studio, tell us about the studio you’ve always wanted to have.

I would love to have a huge, industrial-style studio. It would be my dream studio if I have a space where I could use my saw and paint, but with really high ceilings, like a large workshop by the coast. Although this studio is located near the coast but it is a small studio, so I believe I’ve made it halfway there and will soon have a studio of my dream.

We learned quite a bit about your studio, so now we would love to know about your sources of creative inspiration.

In my art, Taylor Swift’s music serves as a constant source of motivation and inspiration. What makes her songs so widely relevant to me is that I can instantly identify with the feelings depicted in her lyrics. My art is a way for me to express my love for her music and it also helps me in depicting true emotions of women on canvas. 

So, in terms of your artwork, when we visited your Instagram we get to know that there are many paintings with half or no face.  We’re curious as to why you don’t paint the entire face.

Many people have asked me that. So I believe that Body language, rather than just facial expressions, has the power to convey a message more clearly. There is more room for interpretation in this case and that is why most of my art work does not have an entire face.

In light of your online store selling stickers and paintings, so tell us are there any plans to paint on sweatshirts?

It’s something I’m considering, but for now, I’m more interested in making hats with embossing. As a result, I’ve begun my investigation. I’ll also be creating t-shirts after that. I’m crossing my fingers that these will be made available in the not too distant future.

For our “Arts to the Hearts Project,” we close every live session, studio visit, and podcast with a series of rapid-fire questions. You may also check out our podcasts at www.artstoheartsproject.com/podcast. So, returning to our round of rapid-fire questions with Hailey, Charuka posed the following question to her.

That is genuinely awe-inspiring. We learned a great deal about you and your artistic endeavors from you. Before we wrap up, we’d like to ask you a few quick questions to get a better sense of who you are.

• What is your favourite colour? For some reason, I think blue has been the dominant hue lately. Because it resembles the colour of the sea, it is one of my personal favourites. Everything about it is perfect. I believe so, at least.
• Describe your creative space in one word? One word would be “Ease”. Because When I enter my studio, I want to feel at ease and serene, as though everything is just the way I want it to be. Because having a personal space is important. Also, I believe feeling at ease is great for maximising productivity.
• Price of your products? The starting price of my product is 30$ and then it moves up to 200$ and so on.
• Where can we reach you? I am all on the social media sites like TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook. I share my art and videos on all these sites. I also have a website www.hailetorris.com so you can reach me out there.
• Any advice that you would like to give to the emerging artists? Simply put, be proud of who you are. Embrace who you are and share it with the rest of the world. I’m confident that many people will be inspired by you if you don’t hide your actual self. Your audience interacts with you when you reveal your actual self and don’t hide behind a mask.

So, in our series of virtual studio visits this week, we learned a little bit about Hailey Torris. But the story doesn’t end here. We have a long list of intriguing studio visits and interviews with artists from around the world in the works. Arts to Hearts Project are on a mission to unite women creatives, globally. It is a global contemporary art platform & community for women artists/creative. We curate global projects, opportunities and a safe community for women creatives.

You can get all the details of all our future projects and can connect with us by visiting our website https://artstoheartsproject.com/ and subscribing to our newsletter. So until our next studio visit, keep creating the magic through your art.