ARTIST PROFILE
Laura Jaquays is an artist and author, and a teaching artist with three decades of experience leading expressive arts programs for cancer support, mental health and resilience, hospice, and K-12 education.
Inspired by grassroots work in the arts and health, Laura created ART HOPE, an uplifting approach to wellness that helps people practice creativity for self-expression and self-care. From 2006 to 2025 she founded and directed the nonprofit, ART HOPE, a community initiative dedicated to creative wellness enrichment in collaboration with schools, health organizations, and arts groups in Maine. Now, tireless in her retirement, she volunteers to teach art and origami with her motivational style and the positive mantra - Creativity is for everyone, everywhere, every day. You can do it!
The author’s imprint, ART HOPE Press, is a complement to her holistic work. She authored the inspirational book, ART HOPE The Way To Creative Wellness, and the companion curriculum. The groundbreaking work highlights how creativity is a pillar of good health and a good life. Her painter’s eye and writer’s heart informs the ART HOPE Journal, a work in progress collection of essays published on the creator’s platform that explores everyday ways to create wellness.
Early in her creative career, Laura was a New York fashion consultant and writer, and a contributing lifestyle editor for print magazines. She designed textiles and one-of-a-kind recycled handbags and accessories, and created media and advertising campaigns for international luxury apparel companies.
American, born 1958, the self-taught artist blends her mastery in watercolor with an enlightening and endearing narrative that speaks to art, hope, and what matters most. She paints, writes, swims, and lives in Maine.