"I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say any other way - things I had no words for." - Georgia O'Keefe
"She was a beautiful dreamer. The kind of girl, who kept her head in the clouds, Loved above the stars and left regret beneath the earth she walked on." -R.M. Drake
Hayley Helsten
Illustrator
Hayley grew up painfully shy but full of wonder. Her adorable parents and seven crazy siblings brought her love and laughter, but she rarely spoke outside her home until she was a teenager. She did, however, find plenty of opportunities to express herself, dancing everywhere she went and drawing on every surface she could find. She fought every day to be happier, healthier, and weirder.
Hayley has grown (slightly) taller and wiser since those days, but she still believes life’s greatest joys are dancing in public, laughing until you cry, and eating chocolate chip cookies for dinner.
She now enjoys a semi-nomadic life with her sweet, sweet husband and two precious kids, Calie and Luna. She hopes her kids will be just as strange and twice as happy as she is.
Art & Portfolio
All of my drawings, no matter how great or how poor, are like the insides of my heart trying to come out. My work often features or is influenced by the people and things I find the most magical in life: my family, my friends, animals, nature, hot air balloons and butterflies, fairies and unicorns, and little kids. Art has often been my voice for me, and while I’m grateful to have found myself and learned to speak for myself as an adult, I still feel that shy little girl inside me. My illustrations are her way of showing the world her heart. I hope they make you smile.
