Living in our society can be tough and most of the time we have to make the best of it. A wild imagination can take you so far, but at the end of the day we need to realize and observe the world around us. And the world around us is where I find my inspiration to paint. Colorful paintings that contain hints of whimsy and realism that tell a story of inner thoughts and personal issues that sometimes go unheard.

Being born and raised on the South side of Chicago, IL, only ignited my love for all things art. Seeing the struggle and the support from the community made my work evolve to a concept that is personal to me.  I continue to further my technique, and creativity in my field in order to paint a beautiful picture of a new world for those around me.

How we experience the world as a child versus an adult is drastically different. As we grow, our worldview changes, and more often than not — it is our experiences that dictate our perspective.

Chicago native and lifelong South Sider Kayla Mahaffey has a true affinity for infusing childhood with adult experiences.

“My work has a hidden element,” says Mahaffey. “It’s hidden behind the cartoony-ness and the fantasy of it all. I want it to represent a sense of life through a child’s eyes, it seems colorful to us, but things are happening all around us – messed up things, but we're like, ‘no, I’m a kid, I'm having my own experience.’”

As a young adult that was a big fan of cartoons, Mahaffey was certain that she would become an illustrator.

But the more she learned about the process, the more she knew it wasn’t for her.

“I feel like with illustration,” says Mahaffey. “That it would be more one note because essentially it wouldn't have been my idea, and even if I would have wrote it, it still would have to go through editors and everything else.”

Come 2017 Mahaffey nailed down the narrative of her work and began to take it seriously as fine art. With children as the focal point, they’re the perfect way to blend her style and voice.

“With fine arts it comes from a deeper place,” says Mahaffey. “I feel like with the kids, it's where we all started from. You might not know about the social or the race narrative in some of my paintings, but y'all were a kid once. So we can all have that in common. And once I got the narrative down pat, got the visual of what I wanted to paint, and successfully put it onto the painting, I just knew, ‘okay, I feel serious about this.’”

The consistent growth and changes in Mahaffey’s work is symbolic to her primary subjects.

“I like to keep my work balanced and have a certain type of chaotic organization,” says Mahaffey. “Keeping a sense of cleanliness — clean lines, smooth paint — I want the composition organized enough to where you know what's going on, and you can take from it what you want, but it doesn’t need to be so glaring. Just a little bit of change in expression or position, can go a long way.”