One of Haley Kirton’s earliest memories of her growing creativity occurred when her parents handed her a piece of paper and some crayons during a church service to keep her occupied. While many parents do this, Susan and Patrick Kirton recognized that their daughter’s drawings were special.

“I would show them my drawings, and they would always be so excited. I was like, I’m gonna be an artist one day,” Haley recalls. Parental support and encouragement are so very important to a little one.

In the 6th grade, Haley was accepted into the talented arts program at school, which confirmed that she was pretty good at this art thing. She was excited that the types of projects the students were doing were so outside the box and weird and different, “it just sort of made me fall in love with art even more.” One of her TAP teachers, James King, was one of her favorites – always motivational and encouraging. Not a man to mince words, but Haley valued his input and opinions.

Throughout her educational career, Haley learned to work with numerous art mediums. She has always been drawn to portrait work and has spent countless hours honing her skills in oil and acrylic. Today, she is naturally focused on the digital arts. It’s basically painting, but it’s all on an iPad. Haley will not incorporate AI in her work. “I find the artistic process deeply rewarding, and the joy comes from creating something with my own hands and imagination. While I wouldn’t call AI a bad thing, using it (for me) feels a bit like opening a jigsaw puzzle only to discover that all the pieces have already been assembled. Where’s the fun in that? It takes away the experience and vulnerability of putting it together myself.”

She doesn’t need to. Besides, she prefers everything she produces to be handcrafted. She loves the process of creating everything from the ground up.

In her laid-back fashion, she explains that she sketches everything, chooses the colors, and then begins blending. She makes it sound so easy -right? She likes to work digitally “because it’s all in one place. I like being a little mess-free.”

You read that right. Haley is a neat artist, which is almost a contradiction in terms. Being the “neat” artist certainly hasn’t prevented her from achieving incredible success with several projects. One of the most recent is a mural she was commissioned to do for the Airline Drive Walmart.

“They reached out to me one day. I just put my art on this website called Culturalist. It’s like a big Louisiana database for artists. And, like, a week later, they reached out, and they were, hey – We’re Now Art working with the Walmart company.”

Now Art loved her work and asked permission to put Haley on their roster. Haley thought it was a scam and almost deleted the email. Good thing she took the chance that the offer was the real deal. The rest is history.

Haley was also part of the creative team commissioned to produce the huge mural at our new Amazon Fulfillment Center in Shreveport. She found it interesting to see how it evolved from the very beginning. They didn’t know each other very well, and they didn’t know what to expect. But you get six or seven gifted artists together, and something fantastic is bound to happen.

Haley draws her inspiration from several sources. Fellow artists who she follows online, YouTube, and more often than not, her ideas just blossom. It’s a meditative process for her, like putting a puzzle together and seeing how everything will fit.

Haley is sure to have a plethora of subjects to study with her work as the marketing director for the Shreveport Metropolitan Opera.

Now Art loved her work and asked permission to put Haley on their roster. Haley thought it was a scam and almost deleted the email. Good thing she took the chance that the offer was the real deal. The rest is history.

Haley was also part of the creative team commissioned to produce the huge mural at our new Amazon Fulfillment Center in Shreveport. She found it interesting to see how it evolved from the very beginning. They didn’t know each other very well, and they didn’t know what to expect. But you get six or seven gifted artists together, and something fantastic is bound to happen.

Haley draws her inspiration from several sources. Fellow artists who she follows online, YouTube, and more often than not, her ideas just blossom. It’s a meditative process for her, like putting a puzzle together and seeing how everything will fit.

Haley is sure to have a plethora of subjects to study with her work as the marketing director for the Shreveport Metropolitan Opera.

“It’s not something I ever thought I would do. I came in not knowing much about the opera, but I’ve steadily fallen in love with it. I just think it’s so beautiful, and, meeting all of these artists and seeing them do their thing on stage and shining is just really crazy.”

Haley lends her extensive talents to other projects as well. She’s made her directorial debut in a short film that will be entered into the Film Prize this year. You could label her a true Renaissance woman – eager to cultivate everything that interests her and then share what she finds with us through her art.

To see more of Haley’s work, visit her website: Haleykirton.com. You might now consider investing in a piece or two before she becomes a national treasure.

Haley Kirton Archives - SB Magazine

Give a Child a Crayon and Watch What Happens