About

CLIENTS & COLLABORATIONS
The Nature Conservancy
Scholastic
Bloomsbury
The Burke Museum
Penguin Random House
Orca Books Publishing
Medicine Wheel Publishing
Sealaska Heritage Institute
Tlingit & Haida Council
Cedar Group
Goldbelt Heritage Foundation
Homestream Productions

CONTACT
kelseymata.business@gmail.com
instagram.com/@kelseymatafoote

INTERESTS
Language and culture preservation, education, regalia, video games, science fiction, fantasy, k-pop, and anime.

Kelsey Mata Foote (she/her)

Kelsey Mata Foote (Jaax̱snée) is a Tlingit illustrator, writer, and producer from Ketchikan, Alaska. She prefers to work digitally on a drawing tablet but loves layering in natural textures and watercolor to give her work a tactile, organic quality.

Her art is shaped by her childhood in Southeast Alaska: family gatherings, putting up fish in the summers, exploring the Tongass with her brothers, and moments that celebrated her heritage. A lifelong love of storytelling, from anime to character-driven video games, also influences her practice, bringing elements of worldbuilding and whimsicality into her work. She loves creating and collaborating on projects that preserve culture and honor traditional knowledge, while exploring the question: What does it mean to be Native in 2026?

Her creative work debuted with Celebration! (2022), a children’s book produced by Sealaska Heritage Institute's Baby Raven Reads program, which later received the American Indian Youth Literature Award (AIYLA) Picture Book Honor in 2024. That same year, Kelsey transitioned from her role as Director of Communications at the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center (NIWRC) to pursue her creative projects full-time.

Kelsey and her brother, artist Nick Alan Foote, are currently the lead illustrators for a three-year language revitalization project in partnership with Tlingit & Haida, the Goldbelt Heritage Foundation, Cedar Group, and several language specialists. The project spans nine children’s books and animated shorts in the Tlingit language, beginning with Kuhaantí (2023).

Kelsey has upcoming publications with Penguin Random House, Medicine Wheel Publishing, and Orca Book Publishers, while serving as the art producer for the film The Last Salmon.