Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Audrey Sayles Staci Beauford. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Audrey Sayles, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. One of the most important things small businesses can do, in our view, is to serve underserved communities that are ignored by giant corporations who often are just creating mass-market, one-size-fits-all solutions. Talk to us about how you serve an underserved community.

Living in eastern Colorado is a beautiful thing. Amazing people, the small town life, people helping people. But life here comes also with making sacrifices and learning to do without, esp when it comes to luxuries as art. In our region, we are serving not only the underserved and also the underrepresented. Folks living here are hard working and involved in everything. Unlike our neighbors in more urban settings, we do not have the boards or the financing to bring large scale parks,recreation, let alone art. Art takes a back seat to things like keeping our grocery or feeds stores alive. Grant money goes to needs not wants which is really a disadvantage esp when 20% of the American population lives in rural areas but less 2% of the National Arts Foundation funding goes to these communities. (Helicon Collective, 2017). Our business has persevered though because part of our mission is to create pieces that represent the spirit of those around us. We love to tell the story of family, the homestead, and living alongside nature.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

Some Girls and a Mural started as part of a community revitalization project. Staci was asked to help create “Heart of Harvest” to welcome travelers into the town of Limon. From there, the business really just began to explode, and we were hired job after job to paint more murals. We are focused on murals, but we have done individual commissions, signage, and graphic design.

There are a couple of things that set us apart as a business. The first being that we are a duo. For many people that can be hard because of differing styles. We work closely together on all projects, bouncing ideas off of each other. Working together it is nice to have someone there who can sometimes do what you’re not able to. Having each other is just more skills in our bag, built in best friends, and so many laughs and maybe sometimes tears. The second thing that sets us apart is that we are working in frontier communities. Art is seen as a luxury in these communities and when they dedicate a space it really needs to be something that they love and feel a connection to. Many of our pieces are of the morals and values of the communities and their connection to the land and agriculture.

We are just a couple small town girls with no formal art training. We were raised to work hard, put the hours in and get the job done. Growing up we drove tractors, bucket fed calves, cleaned grain bins, and were valuable members of the farm. We both feel so fortunate to have parents and grandparents that are pioneers in their jobs, not afraid to step out and try something else, and gave us the courage to do this even if it means quitting our careers. It really has been a change of mindset of how we live our lives. We work seasonally which is difficult for some people to understand, but it gives us time to appreciate and be more present in our lives especially when it comes to giving time to others. We laugh and say we might not be rich in money but we are wealthy in time, which we have learned is so valuable. The 9-5 just wasn’t for us. Becoming self employed can be scary at times but living a life free to be you and to do something that you are truly passionate about. The change of identities has been challenging at times but now we cannot imagine living the lives we had.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

The communities that we work in are so supportive and we knew this as we have grown up here. There are people that have had us paint that have also traveled all over the state to watch us play ball. We never took it for granted growing up and that has carried on with us into adulthood. We are so thankful and blessed with every project and we try to treat our customers with that gratitude. It also helps when we are very vocal about our love for where we live. We have spoken at the CCI conference, the Pro15 conference, and the Rural Philanthropy Days about bringing art into Frontier communities. We want our art to highlight the amazing things happening in these small towns from the values to things like regenerative ag. As the farmers’ daughters we are very passionate about accurately representing life on the plains. We feel deeply that art can help bridge gaps between rural and urban communities especially on the topics of agriculture.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

Well, we kind of fell into that too. When we were painting “Heart of Harvest”, we had numerous friends and family on social media post about this new mural going up and no one knew it was us. We had broken for lunch and got to talking about how maybe this could be a thing and maybe we could do another mural. So we came up with a name, started a Facebook page and posted. Our final photo of the mural reached over 100,000 views which is viral for Limon, CO. Because our art is focused on agriculture communities many newspapers, and ag related magazines have told our story which broadened our audience really throughout the Midwest. We really have not done anything special online other than just being ourselves. We love to share our work but we also try to share art that is going on in our region which is important because part of living out here is helping your neighbor out. Our advice would be to be as genuine as possible, be grateful, and share the love of whatever you are doing!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.somegirlsandamural.com
• Instagram: @somegirlsandamural
• Facebook: Some Girls and a Mural

Image Credits
Stephen Kennedy Photography (the picture of us sitting smiling and in front of “Heart of Harvest”)