Today we’d like to introduce you to Traci Adams.
Traci, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
When I was a kid, we had a painting in our dining room that a close family friend had painted. It was of a waterfall in Yosemite National Park. I loved to look at it and discover little details. Because of this painting, and the artist that painted it, I knew being a professional artist was a real career choice. At 9 years old, I decided I would become a professional artist. Because I loved the art on greeting cards, I started making my own greeting cards. I even made up a company name and a logo I put on the back of every card, just like the cards you could buy at the store. My cards were a hit and people could hardly believe I drew them myself. By the time I was 14, I knew that I wanted to go to art school and pursue a career in art. I chose Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA. Fortunately, I had an amazing high school art teacher and a supportive family who helped me reach that goal. In 1994, I graduated from The Art Center, earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Illustration.
The thing is, art school was expensive, especially the one I chose. Just before I started my first semester, my cousin asked me if I could paint a mural of fish on her wall. I did and soon all her friends saw it, and people started asking me to paint murals for them. During art school, I found many ways to make tuition money as an artist; designing and painting custom murals, painting high-end, unique personalized gifts, and hand-painting furniture. The one thing I enjoyed the most was painting murals. At Art Center, we had a special guest speaker one day, an illustration alumni who became a very successful music video producer. It was in his talk that I heard the best advice of my art career: Say yes to every art opportunity that comes your way, as you do each project, you will come to know what you never want to do again and what you truly love to do. Then you can focus on doing just the types of projects you love. I took this advice to heart and in 1996, I started The Dream Painter Wall Murals. Since then, I have designed and created over 5,000 custom murals for schools, model homes, libraries, private residences, retail spaces, restaurants, churches; indoors and outdoors, across the state of California and beyond.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
I live my passion. Every day I draw and paint from my heart and soul. The biggest challenge for me is that there is not enough time in the day to create all the ideas I have inside my head!
Please tell us about the dream painter wall murals.
As The Dream Painter, I make my living by creating custom artwork for my clients in the spaces that they spend the most time in. This requires me to design something they will love and be proud of, not just something I want to paint. What sets me apart in my field is that I am an illustrator. This skill helps me bring the client’s story to life as art on the walls. Every mural I create starts with a story. I love to ask lots of questions and listen and learn as much as I can about each personal journey and then weave that into the mural so that it becomes not only a pretty picture but a personal, meaningful work of art that becomes an integral part of the client’s everyday life.
I am most proud when a child sees the mural I created in their home or at their school and says they want to grow up to be an artist just like me.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
Art is everything to me. I live and breathe art. I just can’t help it. For this reason, what I do for my career is exactly the same as what I do for fun. This makes work/life balance difficult. It has taken me 21 years to finally come to the closest point of balance between my personal art and my professional art, my personal time and my work time. If I could go back to the beginning, I would make a clear distinction between the two from the start.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.thedreampainter.com
- Phone: 805-527-1744
- Email: [email protected]
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/thedreampainter
Image Credit:
All Murals Copyright Traci C. Adams, The Dream Painter 1996-2017
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