We were lucky to catch up with Elizabeth Craddock recently and have shared our conversation below.

Elizabeth, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What do you think Corporate America gets wrong in your industry? Any stories or anecdotes that illustrate why this matters?

I believe corporate America gets it wrong that art is not as valuable as other industries, such as finance or medicine. It is always the first department to have cuts, and there is often not the same amount of headcount allotted, so creatives are always doing extra jobs and working long hours for less pay. Ask any creative person in a corporate role and they will tell you their job security feels tenuous and they feel undervalued in comparison to other professions. In America we value left brained roles over right brain roles, and it shows in our paychecks and the size of our teams. Many people in corporate creative positions have side hustles to make the difference or are working what should be two or three roles. You would never see anybody in tech or finance with a side hustle trying to advise people about money or their computers on the evenings and weekends just to make ends meet. It feels frustrating and unfair that the arts are not seen as as valuable despite design being an integral part of society, creating value for people in countless ways. I don’t believe that art, design and creativity should be seen as a frivolous add-on’s only when there are extra funds or resources to be allocated. I think it should be treated with equal levity as all other professions and teams in corporate America. A prime example of the value of arts and culture being fairly championed is in South Korea, where the government invested money into cultural identity and turned into an exportable commodity and now it is one of South Korea’s largest exports.

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.

I have loved painting since I was a child, my favorite days in elementary school were art days. My father always laughs about how I would spend hours and hours on a project for school creating the visual aspect on those tri-fold white boards and then quickly create a few paragraphs to accompany it. I always thought of myself as “an artist” but I really didn’t create that often. During covid I deleted all of my social media and with my extra time started intentionally doing more and more water color paintings. I asked my friend if I could paint his parents garage wall because it was the largest white space I could find and I thought it would be a fun project for me. It was really therapeutic to plug into music and get lost in my world of colors and shapes, making a vision come to life. Ever since I have continued to create murals, in my own bathrooms or in friends and clients bathrooms, a hair salon, a tavern, and a clients full living room. My friends like to joke that a bathroom is a “great place to experiment”, but really a restroom is a great place for a mural as you can have a vibrant or cozy theme and not have it feel overwhelming visually. It is also a great time for me as a muralist, as wallpapering is coming back in style and people are being more creative and bold in their homes. I really want to get into doing children’s rooms, with jungle or space or forest themes. There is so much room for creativity and vibrancy there. I especially love painting nature scenes, as it feels like I am bringing an appreciation for the outside world into the four walls we tend to inhabit as creatures of comfort. I want to remind people of the scenes outside of their homes, to inspire them to go on a walk or a hike and visit those natural places and regain a sense of peace away from screens, work, and other modern day stress.

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

I have chosen for the past three years to not have any social media and to promote myself in a more traditionally way by word of mouth, business cards, and my website elizabethcraddock.com. Many people and friends have encouraged me to get an Instagram just for my murals, and I go back and forth about wanting to rejoin that scene. I felt that when I had social media, there was a pressure to exploit myself in a sense, especially as a female, in order to “make sales”. “You should put your face in more posts”, “you should put on a cute outfit and then do a video of you painting”, etc. I find this attitude challenging, as I don’t hear my male artist friends getting this same pressure, their art is enough as it is. I recognize marketing is branding yourself, but I struggle with feeling like I am intrinsically a commodity. I also gained a ton of free time back when I left social media, as I no longer spent time scrolling or perusing those around me and comparing myself to them. It was really freeing for me mentally and gave me space to create and feel like my art was enough, was valuable, without constantly worrying if people would “like” it. I was free to paint for a client and be happy when they were thrilled with the product, and the client who commissioned me was truly the person who carried the most valuable opinion as they have to live with it every day in their space. I recognize the value of positive and constructive feedback, but I think it can be damaging with social media as humans naturally tend to only focus on negative feedback even when there is a majority of positive feedback. I am still battling with what is the best option, as I would love to build my muraling clientele and have more work doing this consistently.

What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?

My mural and illustrative work has been hugely impactful in me finding my dream full time job. I currently work on the Print Design Team at Nordstrom corporate. I truly believe my murals are what got me hired, as my manager and her manager both mentioned they could understand the skills I had by seeing my brush strokes and how I place elements spatially on the wall. I’m getting paid by a corporate company to help create artwork, and not a lot of people can say that, so I feel incredibly lucky and grateful. I am getting more and more clientele for my murals as well, and I love spending my time on the weekends doing them. One of my favorite quotes is by Ezra Croft – “People need art in their houses. They don’t need Bed Bath and Beyond dentist-office art. They need weird stuff.” Obviously everyone doesn’t want really wild stuff in their living room, but a mural to feels like a good compromise of something really impactful and beautiful, unique and personalized.

Contact Info:

• Website: elizabethcraddock.com / elizabethcraddockmurals.com
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabethhcraddock
• Other: [email protected]

Image Credits
All photos taken by me