We recently connected with Henley Beall and have shared our conversation below.

Henley, appreciate you joining us today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

I knew at a very young age that I was going to be an artist in some capacity for the rest of my life. I was 9 years old when my Aunt Joyce, a muralist based out of San Diego, California, passed away from cancer. Throughout my childhood, she had painted murals in each of my siblings and I’s rooms and taught us how to draw anything we ever wanted. Her passing was the push in my early youth to pursue art. I was inspired by her and wanted to honor her memory through my art career. I’ve always felt very lucky to have known what I’ve wanted to do in my life since such an early age. In the next few years after her death, I auditioned and was accepted into a middle school arts program which taught me multiple styles and mediums and connected me with multiple local artists. I ended up pursuing that program into high school, where I developed my original style and technical skills. With a few art breaks in between and multiple life & art style changes, here I am in 2025 as a full time freelancing artist.

Henley, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’ve been an artist for as long as I can remember. Because of this and the art program I was involved with as a kid, I’ve been lucky enough to be immersed in the art world for most of my life. I started out as a charcoal artist, specifically with dramatic black and white portraits and gradually progressed into working with mainly full color psychedelic acrylic paintings and multimedia. I love using different objects and knacks I find in my art. To me, it represents the chaos and disorder that I feel in my mind. Always multiple things going on at once, just like my multimedia pieces. I always try to keep a surrealistic theme amongst my paintings, no matter the series.

I am almost always accepting art commissions. Other than fine arts, I offer product & lifestyle photography services, as well as graphic design services such as branding, marketing and print production. In my previous job, I was a graphic designer creating custom packaging for cannabis brands across the country. I love using that experience in print production and manufacturing to make it easier and cheaper for my clients to order marketing items, packaging and all they need for their business to stand out from the rest.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

Yes, my first thought goes to the book ‘The Creative Act: A Way of Being’ by Rick Rubin. There’s a specific passage that really changed my perspective on concepts and executing ideas:

“These rhythms are not set by us. We are all participating in the larger creative act we are not conducting. We are being conducted. The artist is on a cosmic timetable, just like all of nature.

If you have an idea you’re excited about and you don’t bring it to life, it’s not uncommon for the idea to find its voice through another maker. This isn’t because the other artist stole your idea, but because the idea’s time has come.

In this great unfolding, ideas and thoughts, themes and songs and other works of art exist in the aether and ripen on schedule, ready to find expression in the physical world.

As artists, it is our job to draw down this information, transmute it, and share it. We are all translators for the messages the universe is broadcasting. The best artists tend to be the ones with the most sensitive antennae to draw in the energy resonating at a particular moment Many great artists first develop sensitive antennae not to create art but to protect themselves. They have to protect themselves because everything hurts more. They feel everything more deeply.”

The way this specific passage changed my view is difficult to explain. I felt more spiritual about my art and my ideas, I rethought my entire process of painting and my timelines. It really made me feel less pressured in my art somehow. Like the concept that comes to me has a mind of its own that will speak to me and end up how it should be. This quote and book also really relates to my spiritual life and beliefs which made it affect me in a stronger way than it would have otherwise. If you’re an artist, I highly recommend giving this book a read.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

The most rewarding part about being an artist is the freedom and the ability to be authentically yourself. It seems as though a majority of people you know and meet in society are forced into certain boxes, whether it be a certain job or lifestyle or different societal expectations. Now this doesn’t mean artists don’t feel these things, but I feel like being an artist and knowing for a fact that this is my path in life almost gives me an ‘excuse’ to be completely myself. Sure, not everyone is going to understand you in life. But having the ability to express myself freely is something that is rewarding on a daily basis. The pure support and interest from others in your personal stories and art pieces also adds to that reward. I’m grateful for seeing things in different perspectives than the norm and being able to tell my story & my deep-felt emotions visually with others. Each of my pieces has a part of my story and is so personal to a specific time in my life. I’m honored that others have felt these times in my life and related through a single piece of art. It never gets old and truly shocks me every time.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.henleybeall.com
• Instagram: @henleybeall
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/henleybeallarts
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/henley-beall-4020a21b0/
• Twitter: None
• Youtube: None
• Yelp: None
• Soundcloud: None

Image Credits

Photo credit on the 4-8 additional photos – Torrie Bordes & Camryn Bowcutt of Lucky Peak Film.