We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Laura M. Johnson a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Laura M. thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What’s something crazy on unexpected that’s happened to you or your business

I started painting murals while serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the remote mountains of Lesotho, Africa, when several schools approached me to help them brighten up their walls while raising awareness around the importance of education and reducing stigma for individuals living with HIV/AIDS. Many of these communities did not sell the paint necessary to complete these projects. Thus, completing these projects required riding public transportation– crowded public ‘kombis’ (15-passenger vans usually packed with 18 or 20 people, in addition to their belongings, and sometimes even chickens!) to buy the paint at a hardware store, and relying on the kindness of local strangers to help me transport them back to the villages.

I was working on a mural for the primary school in the high mountain village where I lived, and like many other villages, they did not sell paint. It was the rainy season, and travel was especially difficult. Still, I traveled the six hour bus ride through the winding mountains down to the camp town in the lowlands where I could purchase the necessary supplies — 5 gallons of paint and several quarts, as well as brushes, primer, etc.

I loaded all of the paint into the kombi, and as we began the steep climb back into the mountains, a heavy rain began to fall and didn’t let up. The roads became slick and darkness, like the rain, also fell.

We were about an hour away from my village when we approached a spot in the road where we could drive no farther. The rain had become so heavy that it had washed out a section of the road, and where the road had existed hours earlier, now flowed a steady stream of water too fast moving and deep to cross. The drivers decided that we would need to return to the lowlands and attempt the crossing in the morning.

Despite being tired and wishing we could return that evening, I remember also feeling strangely thrilled by creating a mural in an environment where even getting the supplies was such a challenge.

I did reach the village the next day, and working with my community to paint a mural for their school continues to be one of my favorite projects I have ever completed.

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

VALUE PROPOSITION For art and creativity lovers with personal spaces that need an infusion of color and atmosphere, Twin Cities Murals is a custom mural design and painting business that will lead you on a creative journey to develop a custom, one-of-a-kind work of art to transform your space, spark conversations, and showcase your values and personality.

ABOUT TWIN CITIES MURALS
Laura M. Johnson is a Twin Cities based mural artist and the owner of Twin Cities Murals. She began painting murals while serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Lesotho, Africa, and has completed interior and exterior mural commissions for clients such as the University of Minnesota and the City of Rosemount, MN. She has a degree in Fine Art from the University of Oregon, and a Masters in Business from the Carlson School of Management. Johnson strives to play the role of an artistic instrument, a bridge, helping to bring artistic visions into reality.

SERVICES & SPECIALTIES
Twin Cities Murals offers a creative design experience and an exceptional final product, painted lovingly with care.

RESIDENTIAL HOMES: Custom, hand-painted murals for children’s bedrooms, baby nurseries, kitchens, bathrooms, dining rooms, hallways, home offices, etc.

COMMERCIAL & PUBLIC PROPERTIES: Interior and exterior murals designed to highlight the values, personality, and brands using the space.

COLLABORATIVE MURALS: Gather your team, community, or family together for a creative wall or banner that is guided by me but finished by you. Make beautiful memories together and enjoy a wonderful memento to display.

CUSTOMIZABLE & SCALABLE CREATIONS: Full walls, detailed ceilings, playful touches, window displays, and painted objects.

FAUX FINISHES & SPECIAL FLOURISHES: Color Washing. Rag Rolling. Marbleizing. Wall Stripes. Chalkboard paint. Natural Crackle Finish. Stenciling. Wood Graining. Graphic designs.

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

It took my years to build the courage necessary to fully commit to my mural business. After embarking down what I felt would be ‘traditional, stable’ career, I realized I was unsatisfied in my work. I credit several books I read and worked through with helping me breakdown some of the limiting beliefs I held around why I couldn’t pursue the work I felt called to do. The more I introduced time for creativity into my life, first by taking on a more creative job, even though it meant a pay cut, while simultaneously growing my ‘side hustle,’ which was my mural business, the happier I became.

These are some of the most formative books I credit with helping me embrace my creative courage and build a life and business that felt true to me and aligned with my vision for my life:
The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron
Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman.
You Are a Badass at Making Money: Master the Mindset of Wealth by Jen Sincero
Let My People Go Surfing by Yvon Chouinard.

If you have multiple revenue streams in your business, would you mind opening up about what those streams are and how they fit together?

In addition to painting murals, I also offer the option of guiding groups through painting murals I have designed. These team and community-building activities offer a way for me to diversify my product offerings, reach new potential customers, and encourage individuals to pick up a paint brush and do something creative, even if they haven’t painted since they were children! I love encouraging people to get in touch with their creative sides — to help shake them loose from their feelings of being a ‘consumer’ of art to a ‘creator’ of art themselves.

Creating (be it cooking, painting, writing, playing music, etc) is an essential part of humanity and a key to a happy, fulfilling life, and my goal is to help people touch that important component of their natures.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.twincitiesmurals.com
• Instagram: @twin.cities.murals
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/roaralaurajohnson/