About Ailene

Not long after starting her artist journey, Ailene bumped heads with her own resistance. The default remedies—forcing through with gritted teeth, slapping on mindset-changing affirmations, or flinging a trendy planner at the problem—are, at best, band-aids that don’t work for long and, ultimately, create more uncertainty and fear.

Instead, visual journaling gives us a gentle, safe, process-based space where we can practise mending our relationship with our emotions. And soon, that translates into not only creating and loving our art, but also seeps into our everyday lives. Today, with the online and offline world increasingly detrimental to our social interactions and minds, Ailene sees creativity being more important than ever—not only for our personal wellbeing but for our communities as well.

Ailene is a certified Visual Journal Studio creativity coach, author of The Faring Light Letters: A Magical Sort of Memoir, and the founder of Old Mountain Art where she creates romantic fantasy fine art. She was a finalist in the 2018 Emergent award at the New Zealand Art Show, a finalist in the Cliftons Art Prize, and her art has won awards at the Light Space & Time Online Art Gallery. Ailene delights in sharing her experience and knowledge with others in fun and easy ways. She has assisted in the hands-on computer labs while at university, moonlighted at a local dance studio for over a decade, presented at company conferences, and built online coaching modules on safe driving topics.

Amongst her menagerie of animals, she has four pet goats who love to chew her gumboots (and her visual journals). She is most often found following faring lights, crossing the wall, storming the castle, or working as a software developer because she also loves being a nerd.