Artist Maya Hayuk

I just learned of this great new Artist named MAYA HAYUK. You must check her out! She paints bubbly bright, acidly colorful, paintings and murals. Her work is fun, exciting, and definitely uplifting. Each piece is a joyful play-date with color, pattern, and shapes!

In the videos below Maya discusses how her Art is spiritual in that she never knows exactly what the finished piece will look like and that she is always open for where a mistake will take her. I love that! How many of us place so much emphasis on getting our Art to look like something…the object we are trying to portray, a style we really dig, the perfect sketch we mustered, or a vision we have glued in our minds. Let’s take a cue from Maya and start making Art that flows from us…and let’s open our hearts to the possibility that there are NO mistakes…just expressions of our truest self!!!

Second, Maya paints HUGE murals in neighborhoods that are suffering spiritually as a physical entity. When she called this her “environmental work” it really got me thinking. There is so much wonderful focus now-a-days on the environment. Which, you know, I’m all in support of! But what about those other environments that are more society driven then part of the natural world. We all see those neighborhoods that are neglected and abused either driving through them, on tv, or possibly you are someone making a difference and actually working in them. These places are environments also. When an urban neighborhood suffers it impacts everyone–even out to the “safe haven” of the suburbs. I love how Maya does her part to help the environment by adding her painting love to the distressed landscapes.

I hope to show these videos to my students because it really illustrates how Art does make a difference in everyday life, and also, that not all Art has to “look like something” to be incredible and important. Sometimes our mistakes and our honest pursuit to enjoy ourselves in the act of creating is enough to satisfy the value of our work. Maya’s work and Artistic mission reminded me that Art is about having fun and sharing that bliss with others….we all need to be reminded of that from time-to-time!!!