(MATURE content in the video:  if you're watching this with your child, be prepared to answer some questions about female body parts.)

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(music by Barry London, The And Group, Hold Me)

Muralist, photographer, painter, music video creator... Maya Hayuk prefers to simply call herself an artist, because under that moniker she has the freedom to work in whatever medium she wants at any given time.

Growing up in Baltimore, Maya learned the art of traditional Ukrainian handicrafts from her family. Her parents, both professors—one geography, one psychology—traveled extensively with the family during her childhood and bought Maya a camera at an early age to document their adventures. In high school she started shooting bands and getting attention for her work. After attending Massachusetts College of Art's SIM (Studio for Interrelated Media) program, Maya became interested in environmental art, wherein murals work in collaboration with the surrounding architecture, as well as the community who lives with the art long afterward. Maya also studied comparative religion, which has infused all of her work with a spiritual aspect ever since.

Maya has painted murals around the world, and her work has been featured in magazines, album covers and ads campaigns. Her improvised style and bright colors seem to be part of a new resurgence in psych-folk art that is pinned to a higher consciousness: one that inspires good vibes. Maya says that with her murals, "the narrative can be as simple as 'I like those colors'" and it doesn't have to go deeper than that with her audience. Maya's work has become something more than a precise painting on a wall.  It's a part of people's lives, and a living thing that people interact with and tell stories about.

Last spring Maya headed to Braddock, PA to work with Braddock Active Arts organization to help revitalize a once thriving steel mill town, now part of the forgotten post-industrial landscape of America. Sixteen different artists from all over the world gathered to contribute environmental art that ranged from the functional to the inspirational. With the help of the teens from the Braddock Youth Project, these artists added a little life and hope to this depressed town.

Although Maya makes part of her income from licensing her imagery and painting murals, her bread and butter comes from selling rock posters, t-shirts and books of her designs. Maya's work will be featured at the upcoming Democratic National Convention (Bright Future, pictured below) and at the Mahan Gallery in Columbus, Ohio this fall.