When Creation Becomes Compassion — The Art Journey of Paulette Hayes

Paulette Hayes is an artist whose creativity touches every part of her life.

Since purchasing her Falcon2 40 W laser engraver in October 2023, she has found new ways to blend art into her daily routine.

She creates instinctively for the people she loves — wooden toys for her grandson, engraved Dungeons & Dragons tokens for her son, delicate fairy houses for her daughter.

For hospital staff and local friends, she makes personalized gifts and thank-you pieces, from butterfly boxes to tiny wooden brooches.

At home, she designs earrings that match her outfits, cutting and painting them in minutes before dinner.

“Sometimes I just run down and cut something quickly — and I love doing that,” she laughs.

After floods struck her town, she joined a local kindness project, hiding small engraved tokens in public places to lift spirits.

Each piece she makes carries the same intention: to bring comfort, connection, and a moment of joy — for others and for herself.

A Caregiver’s Journey Through Art and Light

Behind Paulette’s radiant creativity lies a life shaped by both compassion and responsibility.

Trained in psychiatric nursing, she has always understood the emotional weight that people carry — and how art can lift it.

Balancing that demanding role with her creative drive is not easy, yet design and art remain her grounding force.

“Creating keeps me balanced,” she says. “It gives me purpose and peace.”

Even when time is limited, she finds moments for art — sketching, painting, and now laser engraving — as a way to stay connected to herself and others.

The Turning Point in Her Creative Journey

Paulette’s creative journey took a transformative turn when she discovered the Falcon2 40W laser engraver.

She had first seen a laser machine in her final year at university, but never imagined owning one herself.

Later, inspired by her son’s Creality 3D printer, she decided to expand her own toolkit.

Once the Falcon arrived, she installed it quickly and began learning through experimentation.

“It’s so easy to use, reliable, and steady,” she recalls. “I can just turn it on and it performs exactly how it’s supposed to.”

With Falcon’s precision and speed, she moved from fragile paper pieces to lasting wooden artworks — unlocking new creative dimensions.

The switch from Cricut cutting to laser engraving freed her from material limits and tedious manual steps.

“I’m making these women stronger,” she says of her art, where wood now symbolizes endurance.

Honoring Lives Through the Women’s Memorial Series

Paulette’s Women’s Memorial Series stands as the heart of her artistic mission.

Begun in 2019 during her final year of university, the project honors women in Australia who lost their lives to domestic violence since 2012.

Her first memorials were delicate paper houses, each representing one woman and decorated with symbols of how she died — knives, bottles, or syringes.

But she soon realized that audiences, particularly men, tended to overlook the fragile materials.

“They only looked at the wooden ones,” she says.

That realization shifted her focus from paper to wood — from ephemeral to enduring.

Now, each portrait in the Women’s Memorial Series is laser-engraved on timber, layered with color, pattern, and strength.

She has created nearly 1,000 engraved portraits, each one representing a real woman.

Paulette reads coroner’s reports, redraws, repaints, and engraves each face, turning grief into remembrance.

Her work gained public recognition through exhibitions such as The Serpentine Art Show, where rows of women’s faces glowed under warm light, their quiet power transforming sorrow into collective empathy.

Members of Parliament have also expressed interest in displaying the complete series at Parliament House, amplifying its message nationwide.

Beyond her memorials, Paulette continues to design pieces for charity and her community — from signage for shelters to small, joyful tokens that carry messages of kindness.

Through her art, she gives back in every sense.

Creation as Healing

For Paulette, the process of making art is both meditative and restorative.

She often works with a podcast playing, batching images in LightBurn, tracing outlines, formatting names and ages, then aligning and cutting.

The hum of the Falcon has become part of her creative rhythm — steady, familiar, almost companion-like.

She can hear when the wood warps slightly or when the lens needs cleaning — a subtle change in tone that tells her what to do next.

“When you’re making, you get in that zone and time just disappears,” she says.

In that focus, creation becomes a form of healing — a dialogue between heart, hand, and machine.

Even while staying home to care for her husband, art keeps her mind free and her spirit steady.

“Art keeps me sane,” she says simply. “It’s what keeps me happy — because I’m creating.”

Looking Toward the Future of Creation

After recovering from knee-replacement surgery, Paulette is once again ready to create.

She plans to experiment with three-dimensional structures, combining wood, fabric, paint, and even light.

Recently, she has been exploring ways to bond fabric onto plywood before cutting, giving her works more texture and depth.

She also hopes to rebuild her website and bring her Women’s Memorial Series to galleries and public spaces, ensuring that the stories of these women are never forgotten.

Through it all, the Falcon2 40W remains her trusted partner — reliable, intuitive, and ever ready to translate her imagination into reality.

In Paulette’s hands, light engraves not just wood, but time, emotion, and conviction.

Through her art, she heals life itself — and her Falcon laser gives that healing a tangible form.

The End

Through her Falcon2 40 W laser engraver, Paulette turns light into compassion, crafting art that remembers, heals, and connects.

Each piece she engraves carries empathy in its lines and purpose in its form.

From honoring women’s stories to creating small tokens of joy, her work shows how technology can serve humanity.

In every cut and glow, Paulette transforms creativity into kindness — proving that true artistry begins where care meets creation.