Haley Guilfoile
Many of your portraits feel both empowering and deeply personal—who or what has most inspired this direction in your art?
I usually paint my emotions- so that's definitely my deepest inspiration. Typically when I'm starting a piece, it's because I'm trying to process or express something I'm feeling so strongly that is just bursting to come out. It physically pains me when I can't paint and I have something that's emotionally eating away at me! If I don't paint it out I genuinely start to go crazy.
Your artistic journey began with digital illustration and has since expanded to murals and canvas paintings. How has your background in digital art influenced your current work, and what prompted your transition to more physical mediums?
My first real painting was a mural- and I have to be honest, I was so comfortable drawing digitally at the time, but paint terrified me. It's messy and imperfect and drippy… so for that first mural in San Francisco, I designed a piece that I knew I could achieve despite my lack of comfort with paint. I think my style of painting evolved from that digital-first process, but if I'm being realistic, also from that fear of failure and desire to control a medium I hadn't yet wrangled. I'm starting work on my next solo show, “Home" (est. spring 2026), and I want to challenge myself to leave that fear behind, explore new painting techniques, and push the boundaries for my work. I want to evolve so clearly that nobody can deny the level-up, and break loose from any remaining chains I put on myself out of fear of failure.
When you’re creating large-scale murals versus intimate canvas pieces, how does the scale or setting influence your storytelling and creative intent?
I think with canvas pieces I prefer to choose the canvas midway through the design process- and choose a size/shape that best suits what I want to achieve visually. But with murals, context is everything. You're creating an environment- and more often than not that environment involves furniture, foot traffic, sometimes a specific goal. All of that factors in. If it's a commercial space, the client often has a lot of sway (and strong opinions/hard requirements)- but I can plan the space wisely to better tell a story or achieve the goals I have for branding/vibe setting.