Meet Maya Halko | Illlustrator and Musician

We had the good fortune of connecting with Maya Halko and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Maya, is there something that you feel is most responsible for your success?
The most important thing behind the art I make is the support system of family and friends that I have. Also, finding ways to stay connected to other people’s art that I love keeps me grounded and guides me to make my own.

People are always doing such cool things. Something I learned from a few friends is that there are a lot of fun ways to decorate. What works for me is having ‘soup walls’- consisting of a lot of my friend’s art, trinkets, business cards, notes, letters, a poster guide to Yoshi’s Island, CD cover art inserts, just a jumble of things close together. They can be loosely color coded. Making a space comfortable and homey is one step in feeling inspired and surrounding myself with art when I can.

Staying in the habit of carrying my sketchbook around me is another thing that really helps my art practice. I am a messy sketchbooker and treat it as a place to document my day and the things that happen around me. This is where I always start, even if I’m doing a digital piece.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?

I am an illustrator and I make music on the side under the name Maymo. I love to make art that is fantastical, but is also reflecting on my everyday life and finding understanding and care within it. Right now I love to draw gay people, creatures, and plants the most.

I am very lucky to have gone to an arts college, where I studied design and sound. I am full of love for a lot of the people I got to meet there. In 2020, during online school, I was learning about ambient music, like the disintegration loops and synth pioneers like Suzanne Ciani and Wendy Carlos. I had been making some songs with my voice and guitar for a few years prior, but my first sound class completely opened me up to the idea of creating a soundscape- and also you don’t need to be formally trained in an instrument to make something cool, at all! Something I think about a lot is the emotional pull of music, and wondering, ‘what is that beautiful intangible thing that makes songs work?’

A project I’m proud of that I made during this time is my album Take Your Creatures With You. Soft synths, guitars, and vocals overlap in this album as my first attempt at thinking about atmosphere in music. I love the worlds that are created on Japanese Breakfast’s Soft Sounds album, and I was also listening to a lot of Daft Punk and St. Vincent during this time. Being with a group of other musicians and learning together with them grounded me in this new journey.

That’s one thing, to just start on the thing you really want to do if you’re able to, and not let the fear of something needing to be perfect the first time consume you. What is that intangible thing in music? I don’t really know! But I’m gonna keep listening to things I love and trying to figure it out. Why isn’t my drawing working? Okay give it a break, walk around, and come back with fresh eyes. These are things that I try to remind myself when I’m getting frustrated.

I’ve learned that making things for YOU is important, and if you’re going to be an illustrator or artist where you are making things for a client, it’s a successful time if you were able to meet their needs as well as finding ways to put the things you love to do in the piece.

Also if you are a drawer or use your hands a lot, take breaks and stretch often. Maybe even right now. I am writing as a reminder to myself too…

As of now, one of the exciting things I am doing is teaching an illustration/ animation after school class for teens. I am also playing guitar for a band called Rain Garden.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I would love to visit the Monterey Bay Aquarium, I think that would be a very fun day trip. I love the ‘shrimplicity beats to study and relax to’ videos that they have on youtube, where it is just lofi and video footage of a shrimp for 2 hours.

Echo Park Lake seems like an awesome place for walking around in, and there are a lot of lgbt+ tattoo artists I would love to get work from! Hiking and bouldering would be second 🙂

I’ve also been a fan of the Warrior Painters group, who organize meetups in LA and are the largest group of plein air painters that I know of.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Shoutout to the Electronic Music club people! I really grew into myself as a musician and found a lot of community through sound courses at MICA. Learning how to make tape loops, finding my own sound, and hanging out and listening to the things everyone was making during the time really opened my eyes to something beautiful.

Also shoutouts to my parents, teachers, my old lovely roommates and their two cats, animation buds and spending many late nights in the studio together, online friends, and the awesome musicians Miranda and Vincent.

Website: https://halko.cargo.site

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/m.aymo/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLLThGMVbyk

Other: Bandcamp: https://maymomusic.bandcamp.com/ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/7haZJ4do9SWSM1acM7Jojt?si=Ggxdeh8QTSOH_QxuTzavFA