helayna's portfolio

Hi, I'm helayna :)

I am socially engaged artist, illustrator and storyteller, who creates fun, imperfect and satirical creations based on the world around me and from this, the consequent construction of new visual worlds.

Working with museums, libraries and archives and leading workshops, I use a mixture of analogue and digital techniques, such as drawing, printmaking (especially etching), film and virtual space, to create rich and immersive visual stories. I enjoy including subtle, partially hidden messages into my work, that encourage social commentary through humour and deconstruction of social conventions.

Recent collaborations and exhibitions have been held with the historic Portico Library in Manchester and an Internship with Manchester Poetry Library for the project ‘Stories of Care’, where we are creating resources for schools and institutions to use, in order to utilise the wonderful stories and poems created by participants of the project.