Maddie Baker

Maddie Baker is an illustrator and comic maker living in St. Louis, with an MFA from the Sam Fox School’s Illustration and Visual Culture and BFA in Illustration from Brigham Young University. She loves cannellini beans, Jane Austen, and collecting unwanted scraps to use for art projects, and you can find her five inches deep in cut paper scraps and paint stains. The goal of her work can be summed up by designer Jessica Hische who once said: “There need to be people who show us that the world is a beautiful place worth saving.” Maddie’s work is about the loveliness and humor of everyday life, especially stories about women. Her favorite projects are those with deeply relatable flawed characters, and a healthy dose of playfulness.

What was your favorite book as a child?

When I was very young I loved Click Clack Moo, Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin. I found the farm animals demanding a higher quality of life from their disgruntled farmer to be very entertaining and clever!

What is your favorite food?

Any kind of Thai curry! It’s simply the yummiest combination of spices and flavors and its perfect for a pick me up anytime.

Who or what inspires you the most?

The thing that inspires me the most is when I take 10 minutes to stop and look—really look—at whatever is around me. Whether it is the beauty of world around me, the ingenuity of human invention, or the smile of the person next to me—I always feel like there is such a wealth of good and interesting things to pull from.

What cool travel spots would you most highly recommend?

Redfish Lake near Stanley, Idaho, nestled in the Sawtooth Mountains. It is stunningly gorgeous in the summertime, and holds a lot of nostalgia for me. Also the Johnson Shut Ins in Missouri are amazing. It is a series of cool rock formations with water flowing through, perfect for swimming and exploring.

If someone made a potion to summon you, what would go into the cauldron?

For me it is Thai curry, Enya’s Watermark CD, bright pink paint pigment, the smell of citrus, and freeze dried Milk Duds.

What do you love to do for fun?

I love reading Agatha Christie and Jane Austen out loud with my husband, and thrifting at the St. Louis Goodwill bins. I once found a gorgeous hand dyed area rug in all my favorite colors for $5. That is a dang good feeling.

Creative Process:

I am an idea girl. I love exploring lots of possibilities, visual ideas, and research before settling on a course, and even then—I like to leave room for things to shift and grow throughout a project. I never like to let any one project get too stale, so I try to set myself a new challenge for each to get outside of my habitual patterns, whether that is a new tube of hot pink paint or a specific layout of panels for a graphic novel page. I love the mistakes and happy accidents that occur when I am using analog media. I always find that there is some neat, unexpected outcome that way, and I try to implement that analog feel even when I am working digitally.

Awards and honors:

Young Professionals Scholarship (Society of Illustrators Los Angeles 2026)
Graduate Speaker at Sam Fox School Recognition Ceremony May 2025
Rose O’Neill Award For Distinction In Illustration from Sam Fox
School Society of Illustrators LA Bronze Award
Bill Tara Scholarship (SILA) 2025
Association for Mormon Letters Special Award in Children’s Literature

Published books:

The Book of Mormon Storybook Volumes I and II (self-published and authored by Josh and Sarah Sabey, 2023)
The Bible Storybook: The Old Testament Volumes I and II (self-published and authored by Josh and Sarah Sabey, 2025)
The Bible Storybook: The New Testament Volumes I and II (self-published and authored by Josh and Sarah Sabey, 2026)