D. YAEL BERNHARD was raised in New York’s Hudson Valley and began painting at the age of 13. Her education is a mix of independent study and formal art training at the Art Students’ League of NY, the School of Visual Arts, Purchase College, and Empire State College.

     Yael’s artwork explores both personal and archetypal imagery through contemporary techniques. Her themes include birth and mothering, healing and transformation, animals and nature, family and community, myth and dream, ritual, prayer – and more.

     Yael is the illustrator and/or author of numerous children’s books – including fiction and non-fiction, natural science titles and multicultural folktales. She brings a variety of influences to her work, including a lifelong passion for West African music and dance, Eastern and Western religion, nutrition and cooking, and the natural world. Her experience as the mother of three children and as an arts-in-ed teacher has also shaped her creative work.

     Yael paints in gouache, acrylics, and water-based oils, and also experiments with natural materials such as birch bark, rice paper, and hemp fiber to create unique painting surfaces. Her artwork encompasses several different styles, and has been published on everything from book and CD covers to business logos, brochures, websites, and educational textbooks. She has also created logos and illustrations for midwives and healers, musicians and storytellers, and religious and environmental causes.

     Yael lives in the Catskill Mountains of New York with her family. When she is not drawing and painting, she spends her time gardening; cooking; working part-time as an integrative health & nutrition coach; foraging for wild plants and mushrooms; dancing and drumming. She also writes an art newsletter, Image of the Week, and a nutrition newsletter, The Art of Health, both found on Substack.