Carolyn Daly

(the long story)

Carolyn Daly is the creative mind behind Daly Doodle and Design. She has always loved to draw and write.

Now she’s grown up (sort of) she mostly loves visual storytelling and creating stories about fun stuff and stuff kids do, and sometimes about the serious stuff that worries kids minds.

Carolyn has had a long career doing many communication-focussed roles, but her very first love was children’s stories and illustrations, and getting lost in the worlds that the words and pictures created. She remembers fondly the books and stories she read when she was young and the profound influence they had on the mind of her young self.

Carolyn’s early career as a primary/art teacher really sparked her love of visual storytelling for children. It was this early part of her career where Carolyn grew even more in love with the words and pictures that belonged in the storytelling world - and the lessons that could be learned and the fun that could be had in that world.

As a mother to three beautiful daughters, Carolyn spent her spare time in the girls’ early years being creative; writing stories, funny rhymes and drawing visual stories for them. It was also during this time that Carolyn illustrated her first children’s book - Flowers for Mother Mouse with author Beth Roberts. And it was in these early years that she created educational resources for the Landcare in Education program which was set up on the large rural property of Bangor near her hometown of Dunalley.

Carolyn’s creative career took a U-turn for twenty years when she moved into a fulltime career in the government communications area, and while her writing, editing and organisational skills benefited, her passion for visual storytelling didn’t have much opportunity to flourish.

But there’s nothing like a natural disaster and a few career-ending decisions to haul the artistic passion out of hibernation. So after a bushfire that wiped out a large part of her hometown, and effectively ended her corporate career, Carolyn found she developed a huge itch to return to her creative life.

As no amount of scratching was going to ease the itch, Carolyn picked herself up (with a lot of support) and jumped with both feet into her new creative journey into the world of storytelling and illustrations.

Since then, Carolyn has completed the illustrations for two children’s books - one of which she helped write (all in rhyme). She has completed a variety of commission work and is currently planning her own kids book.

While the traditional mediums of paint, pen and ink, acrylic paint markers and pencils were her first love, Carolyn more recently discovered the world of digital art, and works mainly on the iPad using Procreate.

And so today, Carolyn and Daly Doodle and Design have re-emerged from the ashes, and the storytelling has begun.