We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful S&L Mural Co. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with J. Rodney below.

J. Rodney, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Earning a full time living from one’s creative career can be incredibly difficult. Have you been able to do so and if so, can you share some of the key parts of your journey and any important advice or lessons that might help creatives who haven’t been able to yet?

S&L Mural Co. is a co-owned LLC established in 2022 by Memphis-natives and friends, Joe Sawyer and Rodney Leath. This commercial mural and design company was created through the partners’ similar interests, artistic skills, spirituality, and drive to create.

Years before starting the company, Joe and Rodney had followed each other’s artwork through social media. Each had similar styles and had made a part-time career being commissioned for black and white portraits and various artworks.
Sawyer had been a pediatric flight and NICU nurse before transitioning his time to pursuing muralism and S & L. He has a wife, Jesse Sawyer, who works as a nurse practitioner, and a two year old son, Hudson. Leath had been a professional within the home decor industry for 17yrs before S & L and is happily married to his wife, Jackie Leath.

As Sawyer and Leath became more acquainted, random weeknights and evenings became a time for the two to share an art studio and create alongside one another. Through time, prayer, and following God’s voice, S & L Mural Company became a joint venture for the two. S & L is a unique approach to public art.

The company caters interior and exterior murals to the clients’ visions. Instead of approaching artwork as an individual style to be sold, Sawyer and Leath took their experience and knowledge of artwork to create a unified, clean approach to their designs. Their designs incorporate building layouts, color theory, and multiple mediums to allow their murals to flow with existing aesthetics.
The painting approaches used by Sawyer and Leath in S & L are developed to be used to teach others how to approach painting and use artistic fundamentals. A long-term goal for the two owners is to use the company as an outreach and teaching center to be able to influence future artists. The two hope to encourage others to follow God and their passions. In the future, Sawyer and Leath hope to be able to provide a means for emerging artists to pursue public art within S & L for a fair living wage and to set a precedent for artistry to emerge as a viable occupation.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

S & L Mural Company is a co-owned LLC established in 2022 by Memphis natives and friends, Joe Sawyer and Rodney Leath. It began as just a friendship over a decade ago and has, over time, evolved into what the partners have created today through like minds, conversation, interests, skills, spirituality, and the intense drive to create. The partners had followed each other’s work for years prior as the 2 separate styles have always been eerily similar, especially in terms of black and white realistic portraiture. Both had been carrying successful careers in completely different fields for years yet shared the same side gig as commissioned artists for clients all over the country. Sawyer had been a pediatric flight nurse for years and was led onto this path through support from his wife, Jesse Sawyer, who is a nurse practitioner and God. He felt as if he wasn’t in the right place anymore and decided to pursue creativity full time. He will tell you himself that it was one of the best decisions of his life. He will witness to the fact that this journey has changed his perspective in everything around him for the better. The way he sees himself. His confidence. The way he sees others. The way he sees God and the opportunity this has created to not only be successful and joyful about what he’s doing, but also have the real opportunity to guide others.
Leath has been a highly proficient professional within the home décor industry for 17 years and is happily married to his wife, Jackie Leath, who is an accountant for a home health company in Memphis. After he and Sawyer had spent hundreds of hours together in his home studio working on individual projects, the topic of a business started to become a priority in conversation. “Turn the music down and let’s talk business”, pretty much says Sawyer and Leath was certainly there to listen and share his thoughts and prior experiences from within a highly successful business. That’s how it all started.
The next thing the two knew was that they had an EIN, a business license, and more work than they could handle.
S & L is a unique approach to public art. The science of how each design is dissected will always be our secret, but it’s developed based on an end goal of not only beautiful artwork, but more importantly, the science behind what S & L does is developed to lead others. It’s developed to teach. It’s developed to witness. It’s developed to simplify, and it’s developed to give others the opportunity to get involved. The ultimate end goal is to be able to lead younger people, perhaps less fortunate, or those that may not have a lot of chances to feel proud of themselves. The interesting, interested introverts are the ones to be influenced through the mission of S & L. The young people who may not play sports or be presented the opportunity to generate accolades for themselves. We want to reach these types of young men and women and give them those opportunities in another form that they can take with them for the rest of their lives. We want to be able to prove to these young men and women that they can be successful without doing what they believe to be “normal” or “popular” in today’s world and S & L Mural Company is extremely excited about that and highly devoted to achieving those goals many times over throughout their lives.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

Helping People

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

Clients feedback and expression

Contact Info:

• Website: Under Construction
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sl_mural/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SLMuralCo/