Norden-based, award winning mural artist Hayley Garner (aka AYLO), was the artistic director of the Common Walls mural festival in Rochdale.
Hayley was born and brought up in Rochdale, attending school at Oulder Hill, where she often got into trouble for drawing in her exercise books.
That early interest in art has been developed into a career that has involved travelling all over the world creating stunning murals.
Hayley began painting murals as a teenager to hone her artistic skills.
Her artwork now sells for thousands of pounds but the road to get to this point wasn’t easy as for many years she struggled to make enough to earn a living.
Those tough times never dimmed her determination to create art on an epic scale and has brought the acclaim she now enjoys.
When she first started out Hayley says she couldn’t wait to leave Rochdale, but having lived away from the town she then couldn’t wait to return.
Whilst she still travels the world painting, Hayley is now firmly rooted back in Rochdale and said she is “proud to have brought such talented mural artists” to her home town for the Common Walls festival.
Hayley mentors a local mural artist, Jamie Buckley, and also now an aspiring mural artist, Tarah Smith, whose murals you can also see in Rochdale town centre.
Hayley’s ‘Dreams Never End’ mural came fourth in the September poll of the worldwide Street Art Cities awards and qualified for the final in January.
