We recently connected with Ally Frame and have shared our conversation below.

Ally, appreciate you joining us today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

I don’t know that there was one definitive moment where a lightbulb went off and I knew I should be an artist. There were more-so lots of small moments that led to my decision. My parents did foster creativity growing up which definitely helped. We always had an abundance of coloring books, paints, and even our own work bench to build with wood. In preschool, I remember winning a coloring contest and thinking for the first time “oh, I’m good at this”. Small instances like that continued to happen as I grew up. For example, I would put so much effort into designing and decorating my class projects just right because it was fun and I had a vision and other students would make remarks about how impressed they were with what I presented. I stood out amongst my peers because of my creativity and that became ingrained in who I am as a person. When it came time to pick out a college major, art was the clear choice. No other subject had captivated my interest my whole life like art had.

Finding my way to painting professionally took a bit longer. I started off as a graphic designer because it was a creative outlet but seemed safer financially. It was fine but I was never ecstatic about what I was doing. The routine of waking up just to drive to a windowless building to sit all day was draining me and then I got laid off due to budget cuts. It was the biggest blessing in disguise. It gave me a chance to think about what I actually wanted. I set up a little art studio in my apartment and started painting while working part time jobs. Painting late at night with just my lamp, a giant window with a view of the moon, and a cup of hot tea felt like the most delectable slice of heaven. I had never been happier and I knew then that that is what I wanted my life to feel like.

Ally, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I earned my Bachelor’s of Fine Arts in 2016 and had a brief stint of working at a design agency, a coffee shop, and a behavior analysis clinic before I started listening to what my heart was telling me – you should be making art all of the time. In 2020, I used the lockdown as an excuse to quit my job and spend my newfound limitless time to create. While I have been drawing my whole life, I consider this the start of my professional career. I started to earn an income from art by selling family portrait drawings. These allowed me to practice drawing while getting paid and grow enough of a following for my community to view me as a professional artist.

My recent artwork has been largely focused on both public and private murals, as this large-scale painting feels like a natural fit to bring audiences into the magical worlds I create with my bright pastel color palettes, bold lettering, and colorful characters. I fell in love with the way a mural can encapsulate one’s vision, transporting them into another world. I have now painted over 25 murals throughout Iowa. Because of my design background, I’m able to create murals that fit a business’ brand while still fitting into my style. I think that’s why I’ve found so much success with murals, because the business gets a unique piece of art that still reflects their values and aesthetic.

Along with murals, I also create children’s illustrations. I am eternally in awe of the limitless imagination of children and aim to bring that sense of wild imagination that 10 year old me had into what I create now. I have specific memories of children’s books that fascinated me growing up and want to be able to provide that same sense of intrigue and joy to kids now. I have illustrated one children’s book for a self published illustrator titled “Sit, Stay, Play” and am currently working on another book.

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

I have had an idea for a graphic novel for so many years now. It’s one of those projects that I’ll work on every so often but then put away because I need to work on paying projects so that I can afford to live. I attempted to pitch it to agents for several years and kept getting crickets in response. One day I had an idea to apply for a grant so that I could pay myself a little to work on it, hire an editor, and pay to have it printed. The state of Iowa does an amazing job of supporting creatives and offers multiple art grants each year. The first time I applied, the committee in charge of dispersing funds gave me a hard no. I did not articulate the project or goals clear enough. I applied again the next year and again received a no -this time because they didn’t like the proposed budget. The next year I applied for a different grant and got yet another no. This year I decided to try one more time and ended up getting a yes! My project is funded and now I’m able to spend a significant amount of time on it. I waited five years for some sort of yes, for some sort of confirmation that other people want this project to exist in the world.

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

I wish that I would have learned about the business side of art earlier in my career. I think universities do a disservice to art students by only focusing on the creative process. You come out of college knowing how to make work but not how to sell that work. Or even if you do sell work easily, there’s so much more to know like taxes, grants, business plans, budgets, and probably more that I’m not even aware of yet. One of the biggest things I would’ve liked to know about earlier are RFPs, or Request For Proposals. You can find current ones by just doing a google search. But entities put these out when they have money for a specific project and are looking for an artist. I have found several of my mural projects by applying to RFPs and getting selected. Knowing that these exist was an absolute game changer in my career.

Contact Info:

• Website: allyframe.com
• Instagram: @allyframeillustration