When Maddie Baker walked through the halls of BYU’s old Harris Fine Arts Center (HFAC) as a curious prospective student, she had no idea that a display of illustrations–artwork she didn’t even have a name for yet–would inspire her future as an artist and storyteller.
“It was like the angels were singing on high,” she said, “I knew this is where I was supposed to be. There was no Plan B anymore.” That moment launched her on a path toward becoming an illustrator.
Even more than an illustrator, Baker is a storyteller, a comic artist, and a Latter-day Saint finding a voice in unexpected places, such as drawing frog comics that explore faith, friendship, and the quiet beauty of ordinary life.
Originally from Boise, Idaho, Baker grew up with a love for art and the support of her parents. Although she enjoyed creating, she wasn’t sure if it would lead to a viable career.
“I didn’t really know if I wanted to pursue art, because they teach you as a kid that art isn’t a great job and that artists live in cardboard boxes,” Baker laughed.
Still, she continued to create in her free time and her high school art classes, developing her artistic skills. It wasn’t until a visit to BYU that everything began to click.
While exploring the HFAC, she stumbled upon a display of illustrations that stopped her in her tracks. It wasn’t graphic design or fine art. It was different and felt magical.
“It was exactly what was right for me, even though I didn’t know that it had existed,” Baker said. From that moment, she knew she had to be in the illustration program.
Illustration–a visual art form that combines storytelling and design to convey ideas–felt like the perfect fit. Baker describes it as “visual storytelling,” where words and pictures come together to tell a meaningful story.
Illustration sparked her passion for art while also offering a more stable and respected career path—one with the potential to make a real impact while doing what she loved.
“It’s everywhere, but nobody thinks about it. There is opportunity, and so I got really excited,” Baker said.
Baker applied, was accepted, and began her degree in Illustration at BYU. Like many of her peers, she was interested in eventually becoming a picture book illustrator or working for the Church’s Friend magazine.
When she returned from serving her mission in Oklahoma, Baker began to question those goals, sensing that the path she had envisioned might not fully align with who she was becoming. She felt unsure about what was missing, but continued to work hard on her degree.
For her undergraduate capstone project, Baker decided to try something different. She developed an interactive historical museum exhibit about the experiences of ordinary women and motherhood in the 1820s, featuring women’s rights advocate Sojourner Truth, Joseph Smith’s wife, Emma Smith, and even some of her own pioneer ancestors.
She had always loved stories about women in Church history and wanted to highlight women’s ordinary experiences that were not traditionally told.
“There are a lot of stories about women that haven’t been recorded well,” Baker said, “And it felt like they needed an extra voice to show how much good and humanity are in stories like that.”
Baker loved exploring the lives of these women, uncovering small, fascinating details–like the fact that Sojourner Truth was six feet tall and loved to sing. She even read letters that they had sent, and illustrated their houses that they had lived in.
After graduation, Baker found herself working with Brooke Smart, another BYU alum and illustrator, known for her illustrations on family, motherhood, and powerful historical women.
“I learned a lot from her, seeing her career and how she empowers women through illustration. It was so fun.” Baker said. Together, they painted murals at the Gateway Mall in Salt Lake for a summer and a half, working for hours while suspended from a lift.
Smart, who began work as a fine artist, pivoted to illustration after becoming a single mom. While taking care of her young daughter, who didn’t like to nap, she found that she didn’t have time for painting and turned to illustration, which allowed her to keep creating.
For Baker, working alongside Smart was an incredible experience. She valued their shared interest in spotlighting women and finding beauty in the ordinary, everyday moments of life.
In the months that followed, Baker continued to explore different career options post-graduation, doing murals, doing freelance jobs for Deseret Book, and illustrating picture books. But it still didn’t feel like the right fit for her.
That changed when she landed a job teaching drawing at BYU-Idaho. Baker discovered how much she loved working with students. “I loved working one-on-one with the students, helping them feel like they can be capable artists,” she said. “They have so much energy and are fun to be around.”
As much as she enjoyed the creative solitude of being an illustrator, it could also get lonely. Teaching gave her a chance to connect with other creative minds and be part of a fun community.
While teaching, Baker met Josh and Sarah Sabey, two filmmakers who publish religious picture books. They hired her to illustrate a book titled The Book of Mormon Storybook for Little Saints, which they had written for their two children, to bring the Book of Mormon to life.
Baker loved this project and felt like the story brought the characters to life and “made them feel so full of humanity.” She meticulously created over 50 paper collage-style pieces for the series in just 7 months, each one carefully crafted by hand.
The two-volume series, written by the Sabeys, retells 50 Book of Mormon stories for both children and adults. Volume 1 covers 1 Nephi to Alma 16, and Volume 2 continues from Alma 17 to Moroni. It was published in 2024.
Although working on the storybook felt meaningful, Baker sensed there was still something more ahead. She felt prompted to do something more: to go to graduate school.
Baker had considered higher education as she worked on her undergraduate degree, but always dismissed it. It wasn’t the best financial decision, and it wasn’t necessary to be a freelance illustrator.
But encouraged by the Holy Ghost and by one of her professors, Melissa Crowton, Baker applied to the Sam Fox School of Art and Design at Washington University, one of six major schools that offered an MFA in Illustration.
One of her friends from her undergrad, Sarah Hawkes, also applied. Both were accepted and became roommates in St. Louis. “It was so cool. I had an incredible experience there, and it was just where I needed to be,” Baker said.
Even far from home, Baker still felt connected to her Church community. Living with Sarah was another blessing, Baker explained. “Having another artist who understood my religious and cultural background was such a gift.”
For the past two years, Baker has been working on her master’s degree at Sam Fox, continuing her growth as both an artist and a storyteller.
A large emphasis in her program has been on researching and writing, and on intentionality in storytelling and illustration, an approach that Baker has found both challenging and deeply rewarding.
Those principles are at the heart of her thesis, Frog Thesis: A Comic Diary. This comic features herself as a frog, and Sarah as a shrew, and covers a couple of days in their lives.
Some cookies mysteriously go missing before a Family Home Evening activity, and the comic features other members of their local YSA ward.
“It’s really silly things, but it was special to be able to write about normal, daily lived experience that resonates with people,” Baker explained. “I was lucky to be in a program that let me make religiously themed work that has Church components in it.”
After uncovering a love for comics in one of her classes, Baker was encouraged to keep creating them, which eventually led to her thesis project.
Through this medium, she has told stories about historical women, like Minerva Teichert, in a comic about the Latter-day Saint artist taking care of a farm, her children, all while painting.
In another comic, Baker recounts her experience as a young adult at a YSA Conference in Kansas City, capturing the weekend’s relatable and funny moments with wit and honesty.
Looking back on her experience in graduate school, Baker feels deeply grateful for the opportunity to explore these stories in an academic setting. “It feels really special to have this rich education, which is an incredible gift and responsibility!” Baker said.
“Growing up, I always expected to follow a certain path–go on a mission, come back, get married, and start a family. Those were, and still are, values I deeply cherish. But I didn’t really have ambitions beyond that, maybe just making a couple of picture books,” Baker reflected.
“Now, after everything I’ve experienced, I see that women have so much more to offer when given the opportunity. It’s added so much to who I am, and I feel like I can truly contribute to the world in meaningful ways.”
Her future plans include creating more illustrations, writing numerous comics, and focusing on the quieter stories of everyday life– those small but sacred moments that often go unnoticed.
At just 26 years old, Maddie Baker is a faithful Latter-day Saint, an illustrator, storyteller, teacher, writer, and comic artist. She is still shaping what that means and where it might lead, but she embraces the journey with faith and joy.
Her journey as an artist is inseparable from her identity as a disciple and storyteller. For Baker, creating art isn’t just about aesthetics, but it’s about connecting, witnessing, and expressing the sacred in everyday life.
And her advice to other Latter-day Saints and artists? “Each person has something sacred and individual to their lives and their experience that no one else can replicate. And oftentimes, that is the story that needs to be told.”
