Today we’d like to introduce you to Delilah Martinez.
Hi Delilah, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I am a Chicago girl, born and raised. I’ve always had a passion for art growing up, and my mother and grandmother have always been creative, and my grandmother was also a community leader and a person that loved to give back.
When I turned 20 years old, I moved to San Diego California. While living there, I grew a passion for being a self-employed entrepreneur. I can remember in high school a teacher of mine named Miss Hutchins made the newspaper for being one of the top entrepreneurs. I was always inspired by her and held that close to my heart. It became a goal of mine. The reason why it stood out to me is because she was the only woman of color in the photo. That photo made me believe that I myself could be an entrepreneur.
While living in California, I had various jobs. My first small business was web designing. I’ve always had a passion for creating designs for businesses and helping take them to another level.
When I turned to 28 years old, I made a decision that I really wanted to grow and move back to Chicago and start a new business. During that time, I started to try new things and even tap into painting and creating art. I started to become so addicted to painting I organized my own art room in my apartment and started to create pieces. Because that’s all I wanted to do, I knew that was a type of business that I would need to open.
So I decided to move back to Chicago, where I am from to open my first business, which is a Painting and Sip called VIP Paints.
When I first moved back, I started in my apartment and quickly started to become overwhelmed by having a lot of people in my tiny apartment. My landlord even got upset with me because the residents in the building thought I was hosting parties with a lot of people, but I was really hosting paint parties.
That led me to find my first art studio to host my paint parties. It was really special to me because it was located in Pilsen Chicago, which is where my father is from. I found a really cute studio a couple blocks from where he was born and raised, and that was the beginning of my entrepreneurial journey.
About five years and I started to promote and manage local visual artists. That led me to opening up an art gallery called Vault Gallerie. I started to host monthly exhibitions, showing different logo, and I’m a local artist from all over.
During that time, I decided to move in the same area and get a completely brand-new space. I was so lucky to be able to do a complete build-out on my space. It was so exciting, and the vibes and the atmosphere was exactly what I needed to elevate my art business.
After the build-out about a year later is when Covid pandemic started. I was completely brokenhearted because I had to stop hosting Art exhibitions and paint-and-sip events. I really did not know how I was going to make it. I thought it was the end of my whole career and I was gonna have to throw in the towel.
Because everything was shut down and I couldn’t work. I started to volunteer for my community. Organizing food pantries protests community engagement events, etc.
Since I knew and managed artists, we started to volunteer by beautifying underserved communities with murals that signified black and brown unity along with supporting the message of Black Lives Matter.
While we were putting up murals nationwide, one of her Murals got vandalized, which fill my fire to continue.
That was the birth of my nonprofit called The Mural Movement.
The Mural Movement is now 230+ Murals nationwide still supporting the message of unity, focusing on beautifying underserved communities and representation for people within those communities.
My nonprofit has grown so much in the past few years. We’ve partnered up with some amazing sports teams, such as the Chicago Bulls. Chicago White Sox and have gained support from PepsiCo. Tampico, Obama Foundation, and many more organizations and brands.
Personally, my focus is to always help people in need. I feel like my purpose in life is to beautify communities with art, culture, and representation. I want to make people feel beautiful, heard, noticed and to help the underserved communities get the resources that they need.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It most definitely has not been a smooth road. There’s been several times that I felt like I was going to lose everything. During Covid, I fell six months behind on my business and personal rent. I always describe entrepreneurial and philanthropy work as a roller coaster. It’s not consistent. Besides the financials not being consistent it’s really hard for sometimes my family or friends to understand why I’m not always so available. I think the biggest misconception of being an entrepreneur is that you have all this free time but in fact the complete opposite. When things get rough, it is completely all on you. This life is definitely not meant for the week for anybody that has looking for something that has a stable foundation or consistency. There has been times I wanted to give up and go find a job.
But the more I pushed myself to get past those hurdles the stronger I became. I am now at year 10 of my journey, and I’m starting to focus on embracing the hard times knowing and believing that the sun will come out soon.
Although it has been really rough, I wouldn’t change one part of it. Everything I do is part of who I am, my purpose, and what I believe in. Life is hard, but the harder the hurdles the stronger you will get. The key is to believe in yourself and stay true to what you were passionate about.
If you give up, then that will be the end, so the key is to not give up and to push yourself.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I specialize in creative directing, curating, managing, and community engagement. I am known for organizing community engagement, events, and organizing Murals in communities.
I’m super proud of myself for pushing through and continuing to focus on what I’m passionate about which is beautifying and serving communities.
I am a super empath and I feel that is my superpower. Because I have that superpower, I am able to feel the pain of others so I can know how to help them heal. When I was a young girl, I was bullied for being a darker-toned overweight Latina. Because of that when I was younger, I used to hate the color of my skin in the way that I looked, but what I didn’t know is that would also be part of how I would help others heal in the future. Because of that, I feel like I’m super intuitive with people’s feelings, and I love to make people feel noticed, beautiful, and empowered.
My empathy helps me tap into communities, focusing on people’s needs, and making sure that the art and culture represent those people to make them feel empowered, and noticed through art and culture.
I am super proud of myself for overcoming so much and not allowing my traumas to define my future. I am very strong and I have met my goals with hard work and determination.
What’s next?
I never know what the future brings because I wake up every day with new ideas and wanting to do more and more. I definitely do see my business and my nonprofit continuing to grow. I am considering maybe one day, moving out of the country and taking my nonprofit to a global level.
Contact Info:
- Website: Themuralmovement.org
- Instagram: @themuralmovement
Image Credits
TAKEOFFFILMS
