We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Andrea Adams a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Andrea, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Have you ever had an amazing boss, mentor or leader leading you? Can you us a story or anecdote that helps illustrate why this person was such a great leader and the impact they had on you or their team?

I absolutely LOVE sharing any of the many stories I have about the best boss I ever had. For a time I had my own interior design company, something I never thought I would do but kind of made sense as I’d been doing set design for a while. A friend of mine referred me to Shonda Rhimes, who wanted a designer who understood how the film business worked.

To this day I remain happy to say that working for Shonda was the most rewarding design experience I’ve ever had. She is one of those bosses who is savvy enough to ask for collaboration when it’s needed and create leadership when that’s needed instead. She would message me randomly saying “I’m just gonna download, do what you will with it” and then she’d brain dump a bunch of thoughts or ideas and exhort me to get creative. I never felt more trusted as an artist and a professional than I did working for her.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

One of the things about my methodology as a college professor is how I came to education, which was through years of working tons of crazy random jobs in the industry. I have always told my students that because I was never in a union, or worked at a studio, that I have a totally erratic and unusual approach to learning. I’ve always been really academic but when it comes to class my favorite way to teach is just that: to keep things unusual, to mash up the traditionally academic and the immediate, to listen to my students the way I’d listen to my art team. It makes the experience new every term, just like working on an industry project is always new.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

I had just finished the event weekend for the 2008 Pasadena Showcase house – a huge privilege for someone with a brand-new company – when my time as an interior designer ground to a brutal halt. Within 2 weeks every job I’d lined up because of Showcase had ghosted as the Great Recession took hold. At a certain point I understandably had to shut it down; I was providing a luxury at that point.

One of the things that can be difficult as a freelancer is knowing when to take a job and when to run for the hills. I’ve made tons of lousy job choices, and several good ones. When my company went toe-up, a friend of mine happened to call me to ask if I could pinch-hit teaching a storyboarding class at the Gnomon School of Visual Effects, because she remembered I’d taken storyboarding when I was at Art Center years before. I was clueless about teaching college, much less college-age visual effects students, but I needed the work, so I did it. It was a huge pivot, but it was one of the good ones.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

There’s only been one book I’ve ever recommended to other artists, to my students, to my friends, and to other business creatives I know, and that’s The Artist’s Way, by Julia Cameron. I did the book as an exercise my freshman year at Art Center when I was horribly burned out, and it one hundred percent worked. It’s ostensibly for artist’s block, but it works for anytime you’re fried, out of ideas, needing to focus and find flow, or just looking to change things up.

Contact Info:

• Website: andreaadamswriter.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andrea.lesley.adams/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Andrea.Lesley.Adams/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrea-adams-8042a13/

Image Credits
All photos and works of art taken or created by me.