We recently connected with Krista Hill and have shared our conversation below.

Krista, appreciate you joining us today. Alright, so we’d love to hear about how you got your first client or customer. What’s the story?

I had been traveling and working remote for the last few years when I started sensing I needed to make a shift in my income and work style. I had reached my glass ceiling at the company I was working with and really desired to transition from product design and branding back into painting, a medium I hadn’t touched in years. I began dreaming of painting murals and traveling all over the world to do so. Within a couple months of that first thought I was laid off from my remote design gig, curious what I could dream up.

I was in Tulum, MX at the time and decided that rather than freaking out and trying to control the outcome of where my next check was coming from, I’d ride it out and see what the universe presented. I’m so thankful I did. I put aside the fear and stayed open. When I hit Phoenix, I was staying in a hotel, working on a project in the lobby when I encountered a nice gentleman who was an executive at the office next door. We began to chat and when I ran into him in the lobby the next morning, he handed me a business card and told me he needed a few walls painted. Hiding my excitement, I assured I’d reach out later that day.

I met him a couple days later in the space to realize just how huge of a blessing this interaction was. They had giant blank walls and were ready and able to hire my expertise to design their office. It took all of my power to hold back my excitement as I began to dream about the transformation of this space and my lifestyle right along with it.

I spent the next couple month traveling and creating imagery to paint on their walls. I drew my first large scale mural series galavanting across Greece and Italy, sketching on ferries and hotel balconies while staring at Mount Vesuvius and other ancient beauties I had learned about in my art history classes. Talk about an actual dream coming to life!

When I got back to Phoenix in July I got started on my first big gig. It was a little terrifying since I hadn’t painted a wall to that depth for at least 15 years, but I knew I’d nail it. The artwork flowed effortlessly. Now, almost a year later, this is still my biggest job to date. Thanks to the variety of murals needed and the income they provided, I was able to build my portfolio and launch the business of my dreams.

Krista, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

DreamBox Art is the name of my LLC, but is really a concept that encompasses my always present creativity. I’ve been an artist my whole life and have had a difficult time restraining my creativity to flow into just one artistic pursuit. Since I love to create in so many different ways and creativity is the thread that ties my existence together, I decided on the name DreamBox – a proper representation of my brain, heart and soul culminating as a rainbow of innovative expression.

After about 33 years of consciously creating in so many different mediums, my heart is still calling for paint. I absolutely love large scale mural painting. This is where my flow state is most present, putting me in a dreamlike haze as I scale up drawings and climb on ladders to paint them into dreamy portals. There’s a level of comfort in creating large scale that feels like I’ve been here before – like it’s a version of home I couldn’t wait to come back to, and I’m so thankful I’ve arrived again.

Since my journey has carried me through many creative endeavors – from cake sculpting to building out entire brands while designing the products within them, I’ve flexed my creative muscles in so many ways I could practically be a body builder. I am well equipped to offer a variety of mural designs at different price points to accommodate each clients unique needs. I love designing original illustrations and concepts to enhance the beauty of a space. I’m able to evaluate a brand and present a design solution to summarize them on a wall. My experience with color in so many different mediums allows me to design an exciting palette that can evoke a mood within itself. And my deep love for what I do helps me pour gratitude and excitement into my work that stays with the mural and impacts its viewer. I LOVE what I do, and when you work with me, I’ll give you a thousand reasons to love what I do for your space, too!

I also still love creating illustrations, custom art for businesses and homes, products, packaging, brands and logos. I’m always honored to create something beautiful that my client gets to fall in love with over and over again, and will forever be excited when these opportunities present themselves.

My journey has lead me down many roads – creatively, physically and spiritually – and I absolutely love to share the inspiration I’ve collected along the way through my artwork. This is the only thing I’ve ever imagined doing with my life. When you’re ready to put my 30+ years experience diving head first into creativity to work for you, you’ll feel my excitement and gratitude throughout the entire process, and in turn, you get to keep a piece of it for yourself.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

My journey is a perfect illustration of resilience! In my 18 years as a professional I have created self driven income from a multitude of media. Right after high school I built a massage therapy business while juggling creative pursuits to see which direction I wanted to go. I tested out mural painting, custom cake crafting and all mediums of illustration. I created portraits in charcoal and landscapes in acrylic and carved alligators in cakes. I sculpted sand on beaches and designed tattoos. I built a little business out of cake crafting and considered opening a brick and mortar, until I realized I’d be a slave to events held on weekends, early mornings, endless dirty dishes and one, concrete location. This is so unaligned with my personality it was clear I had to leave it behind.

Shortly after; I started college to learn the digital side of art and continued my hustle along the way, sometimes maintaining up to 6 income streams to keep myself afloat. I also traveled as far as I could through all of this, which is likely why I worked so much when I was home – but it was worth every penny. After graduating from Ferris State near where I grew up in Michigan, I decided to test my wings and head to Arizona, where I quickly fell head over heels for my new home. I love it here! I got my first “official” design job designing junk mail. It had benefits, a salary and a cube… and was my first attempt at being anything other than an entrepreneur. I had to try it! Over the next 15 months I headed committees, wrote a performance review, won a couple awards, and decided I’d rather risk starving the rest of my life than work for anyone other than myself. I kindly exited the corporate world and hit the road back to Michigan to teach myself how to sell my artwork in festivals. Plot twist!

I had attended the Tempe Festival of Arts a few months before making that decision and fell in love! I thought, I could totally do this. So I did! I also worked remote for my old company since they offered me a freelance position so I could stay with them. That didn’t last long but it opened my mind to contract work, and I found a fun part time gig designing products like cards and party games. It was fun! I also began to build my Etsy site and worked toward selling my art online as another income stream. About 6 months in Michigan and the winter hit causing me to hop back in my trusty old car and return to my chosen home in a desert paradise. I applied for shows, often getting turned down. However I managed to find quite a bit of success at the Gilbert Art Walk and the Tempe Festival of Arts, and am so grateful for those connections. They are still fueling my creative pursuits! Eventually I found another contract gig that was supposed to be full time work. When I asked the founder if he was open to remote contract work, he kindly accepted and met my requests. I spent the next three years helping creatively build that company – from products like pool floats, giant yard inflatables and puzzles, to kids toys, photoshopping product photography, designing storefronts, logos, ads and branding guides, and really anything they could possibly throw at me creatively. It was an incredible opportunity. I was able to work as much or little as I pleased, informed them when I was taking time off, and traveled far and wide designing adorable things across America and the globe. I loved it, until I didn’t anymore. And that’s when the transition back into murals began.

Now I find myself in the building process once again. Since last April, I have painted windows, walls and signs, designed logos, packaging and instagram posts, and created anything that’s come my way. My desire is to be a full time mural artist with a steady stream of local as well as global clients I can travel to. I’m so thrilled to be here, building yet another dream I’ve designed with me in mind.

The resilience it takes to build a life full of love is so worth working every muscle possible to get there. This is the most noble pursuit of my life. Pursuing my dream life is the only way to fully engulf myself in the radiant love I wish to share with others. It’s the gift I give both myself and the world every single day I’m lucky enough to be alive.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

Throughout my journey, I had to unlearn that making money is hard. I came from a family of 6 with two entrepreneur parents – where do you think I learned the hustle? They also have a thick professional journey following their creativity. They taught me a lot about hard work, and in turn also made work seem like it had to be hard. They were both manual laborers – my dad a builder and my mom a painter – and did all they could to give us a comfortable life. I admired how hard they worked for us. This impacted me to believe that if I wasn’t working hard I didn’t bring value. It’s not that I disagree with hard work, I just had to unlearn that making money is hard. When you find what it is you love to do even physically demanding jobs like mural painting are no longer hard because every day spent creating is magical. My artwork adds immeasurable value by bringing beauty and emotion to once empty spaces. What I create influences others’ inspiration, comfort and happiness. It doesn’t feel hard, it feels rewarding, worthy and aligned with providing me a life I love. Money does not have to be difficult to attain because you choose to pursue what makes your heart sing. In fact, this should be what makes it come more easily!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.dreamboxart.com/
• Instagram: @dreamboxart
• Other: [email protected]