Based in a small rural town in New England, Brian Hawkes is a multi-faceted artist working across sound, image, and form. Under the creative umbrella of Grainy Shapes, he explores imperfection, nostalgia, empathy, and patience, guiding principles that run through all his work.

In May of 2026, he debuts his first ambient album interiors, created under his music project meander maps. Centered around tape loops, his compositions unfold as meditative soundscapes that feel intimate and timeless, drifting, decaying, and breathing at their own pace.

His abstract acrylic paintings emerge through a slow, tactile process of layering and reworking paint. Built through accumulation and erosion, the works embrace texture, restraint, and chance, echoing the same quiet irregularities found in his sound practice.

Alongside his music and painting, he captures fleeting moments through Polaroid photography, embracing the medium’s dreamy imperfections, with colors that bleed, soft focus, and chemical unpredictability, as a visual language of memory and emotional truth.

He also creates hand-cut wooden puzzles, individually shaped with organic forms and subtle irregularities, extending these ideas of slowness, touch, and attentive engagement into object-based work.

Grainy Shapes is not just an umbrella for his creations; it is a philosophy. Whether through sound, image, or object, his work invites listeners, viewers, and supporters to pause, reflect, and find beauty in slowing down.