Raised in Portland, Oregon, Lin Haak’s earliest art influence was "An artist who lived across the street. I loved him. I was 10..."

Haak became an artist when she realized she "had to". She’s never been able to stop doing art. "Except for family, nothing else has ever mattered to me," she says.

When asked what she loves about art, Haak says that she loves painting as meditation. She loves the smell of the paint, and she loves telling a story with her hands. She works best when she has a deadline, and sometimes paints every day for weeks at a time.

Says Haak, "I try to live a slow life. I imagine the future with hope. My paintings are reflection and celebration. I think of them as stories I tell. I think of them as stories that were told to me."

She feels her work expresses a range of emotions and state-of-being: peace, whimsy, sadness, anger, joy, acceptance.

Predominantly a self-taught artist, Haak studied art at Portland State University for just over a year. Her works have been exhibited in numerous group and solo exhibitions in the Pacific Northwest, and appear in the collections of the U.S. Coast Guard and McCormick & Schmick Restaurants.

View Lin Haak Collection