Keiko Hayner + ILLUSTRATION ARTIST
Hello! My name is Keiko Hayner, an illustration artist based in Austin TX. I am originally from Osaka, Japan.
Since I was a little girl I have loved drawing and creating. If there were
a pencil and paper, I would spend hours doodling and traveling my
imaginary world. Naturally I wanted to go to an art school for college
and obtained a bachelor's degree in Graphic Design from Osaka
University of Arts in 2004.
I wasn't quite sure how I would make a living with my art and design
skills and techniques that I learned from school. Although my dream was always becoming an artist, it seemed to be such an unknown and impossible dream. I kept drawing here and there as a hobby during those years. When the Covid-19 pandemic happened, I was let go from my previous job in childcare and it was the time a light bulb lighted up over my head that "I need to take this chance now to change everything. Otherwise I will never catch another train to be an artist!" It was surely an irrational decision and enormous change during the pandemic, but I have never regretted to make this transition in my life and looked back since then.
I gathered everything that I drew and painted and started selling at local pop-up markets and art shows. It was really scary to show my work in public first, but I have also learned what I needed to improve and received a lot of compliments to feed my confidence over time.
Currently I am dreaming to be a children's book illustrator and have been learning more about this field. Even though it felt like a long detour, now I see two dots of childcare and art are finally connecting as a children's book illustrator as my emerging career for myself.
Thank you for your time and interests in my work! Hope we will work together in the near future!