Making the City a Gallery | Ana the Artist -📍Vancouver, WA

Muralist Ana Gabriela (Ana the Artist) shares her journey from photography and portrait work to creating large-scale public art and murals across Southwest Washington. In this episode, she talks about what it takes to paint at such a large scale, build a sustainable career, and use public art to create connection, dignity, and beauty in shared spaces.

🗺️ Visit her at anatheartist.net

• Instagram
• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• Or see her murals in in person at all around the county

👀 For pictures, video, and more, visit the episode page.

🎉 This episode also celebrates:

• Hill Kent
• Michael Walker
• Vancouver Downtown Association
• Jennifer Williams
• Open Studios

This episode is sponsored by Oregon Children's Theatre's Summer Camp. Learn more here!

Transcript

Making the City a Gallery | Ana the Artist -📍Vancouver, WA

Adriana:  The other night I went to dinner with my family at La Fiesta. It's a restaurant on the corner of eighth and Maine in Vancouver. Side note, if you haven't been there, it's really, really good, you should totally check it out. But before I went in, I looked up to the outside of the building right above La Fiesta and I saw a beautiful mural called The Heart of Vancouver.

There's a big yellow heart right in the middle with tons of beautiful flowers all around it, and down in the bottom right corner are the three words: Ana the Artist. 

This is one of those people you meet who you know is going to change lives. In fact, when I first met Ana the Artist I walked away thinking, my God, that woman is going to change the world.

During our interview, I got to hear about how she thinks about the entire city as her gallery. She's painted 61 murals and counting.

And yes, lots of people are amazed she’s done so much already. She's 25. But her age is probably the least interesting thing about her, because this is a person who is throwing down a gauntlet to her community.

Ana wants to bridge the gap between young artists and older artists. Between those represented in galleries and those not showing art in traditional ways. She wants to bridge the gap between the housed and the unhoused. Between the city and its citizens. She wants us all to see beauty everywhere we look because she knows the world is hard, and she knows her art can make things just a little bit better.

She also knows that to be an artist, you need to make money, and this is one savvy business woman. 

Ok. So let’s jump right in to my conversation with Ana Gabriela, also known as Ana the Artist.

Welcome to, I’m Into This Place, your deep dive into the local arts culture, and heritage of Clark County. From fabulous new restaurants to quirky art installations to the historical sites you never even knew to look for, we’re inviting you along. Whether you're a Clark County connoisseur or just starting to get to know her, get ready to fall head over heels for this place we call home. I'm your host, Adriana Baer, and I'm into this place. Let's go. 

Adriana: Ana, thank you for welcoming me into your home studio. 

Ana: Oh, of course. 

Adriana: I'm so happy to be here with you today and to talk all about your studio art, your mural art, your community work. It's just great to get to spend time with you. 

Ana: Oh my God, I'm so excited.  

Adriana: So a lot of people know you as Ana the Artist. You have murals all over the county and a lot of people have seen your work and not even known that they've seen your work. You have a map of all the locations of your murals on your website and we are gonna link to that in the show notes. 

Ana: Yeah, it's all my murals and any public art I have. 

Adriana: Yeah. So make sure to check those out. And we'll have pictures too on our episode page and the link to that is in the show notes. Okay. Let's get into it. 

Ana: I love it. 

Adriana: So let's talk about your journey as an artist. You shared with me earlier that you knew that this is what you wanted to do forever. 

Ana: Oh yeah. Forever. I think I was 10 years old when I told my parents that I wanted to be a full-time artist. I think I've just always felt that way. I've always felt like an artist. I've been very creative my whole life and at first it was I wanted to be a photographer like my mom. And then later it was turning into I wanna be a full-time artist. I wanna paint, I love to draw people.

And in my room I was able to create my own little studio. At the time, like, exposed brick walls were like the thing, and I wanted that in my room. But obviously like we had like a modern house, there was no exposed brick. So my mom, she gave me a bunch of paint and I was able to paint my first ever legit mural.

And I painted this like exposed brick pattern on my wall. And I don't know, just the freedom to look at a space and say, I want it to be different and make that change almost instantaneously felt so freeing and so exciting that I knew that that's what I was supposed to do forever. And that being on the wall was one thing.

But then also, I think I was about 11, 12 when I started drawing actual pretty realistic portraits. 

I just fell in love with it. I love how different people look, but then also everybody has a baseline in terms of where your ears should match your eyes and where your lips should match your nose and anatomy that I was just fascinated by.

But then finding the uniquenesses in everyone's face through finding different faces to draw was so exciting for me that I just dove straight in. After high school, I moved to New Zealand for two years. I went to trade school while I was in high school for hyperrealistic portraiture and figure drawing. And my professors at that school, they were like, you could either stay here another year and get your trade degree or move to New Zealand.

So I left for two years, mostly did photography over there, which really helped me get an eye for the things that I really like to paint and really like to just sit in my studio and create. And then when COVID happened, kind of shook everything up.

While I was back home in 2020, I was at a mentor's house and they sat me down and they're like, yeah, so this is what you're doing. You are going to start a website tonight. They really gave me that push to go like, no, you're good at this. 

Adriana: Mm-hmm. 

Ana: Do it. 

Adriana: Yeah. 

Ana: So I did and a year later I went full time. 

Adriana: So I think publicly now, you're probably most known for your mural work. But originally it was fine art and photography. So how did the murals come out of that? 

Ana: Growing up in Vancouver and going to downtown Vancouver all the time, my mom remembers when I would point at the murals and say like, “I wanna do that one day.”

When I came back in 2020, I had no contacts, no network. How are people gonna trust me? So I realized it would be way easier to get my mom's friends to hire me to take photos of their kids and their family and pay me for that than it was to get commissions for studio work or large scale murals.

So I started really focused on senior photography, family photography, and wedding photography. 

Because I've always understood: you have to get paid. I have bills, I have rent, food, art supplies, things that need money to do. And if I wasn't able to make the rent and make my monthly bills with what I wanted the dream to be, which was murals and fine art commissions, I needed to find a different way to do that.

And for the first year, I would say 90% of my business was photo. And then I got a coffee shop job was still doing photo and art.

And then while I was at that coffee shop, I picked up my first digital design client and they covered all my bills. So within two months I quit that coffee shop job and went full time. So it was great because this design job didn't take more than two to three hours a day. So I spent the rest of my hours going downtown, talking to everybody, and just seeing who owns businesses and what do people need and do they need photography? Do they need art? And I just talked all the time. 

And then I was able to get connected to Michael Walker with the VDA and kind of the launching of my artistic career was doing the banners for the City of Vancouver.

Michael was super excited about my work. He saw potential in me, gave me the opportunity to design the Ginkgo leaf Banners uptown, and I ran with it. And after that he brought me another project, which was all the bird banners in downtown. And during a meeting we were having about that, he gave me my first large scale mural.

Adriana: Wow. 

Ana: It was insane. 

Adriana: And which one is that? 

Ana: That is the Heart of Vancouver. So it's above, um, La Fiesta on Eighth and Main. I think it's my 13th mural that I ever painted, but it was my first one on such a large scale, on a second story of a building. It was so cool. 

Adriana: Let's talk about the, the practice of mural painting, I can't paint something that's, you know, on a three by five card, and you're painting things that are like 200 feet, long and 20 feet tall. And so let's just practically talk about, what it's like to create, design, and then physically paint something of that scale. 

Ana: If you're in it, it doesn't feel that crazy. But when you step back and you feel how much your body aches and you understand all the work you've put into it, it is like a next level construction job. It's very time consuming. There's a lot of planning. Um, so the whole process kind of from start to finish is either a client reaches out or you submit your portfolio for a proposal. And then say you get the job - start designing.

And then once that design is done, you just kinda wait until the paint day. And prep before the paint day is getting the right paint supplies, getting brushes, getting lifts, getting ladders, safety equipment, PPE, all the different things that you really need to understand beforehand, getting your permits with the city. 

And then you have everything ready. You've got all your lifts, all your permits, all your paint. You just show up and you get it done. Basically go in, prime the wall, paint the base coat, then do the sketch,  and then it's straight into the mural, which is always a lot. But it's so much fun. 

Adriana: Yeah. What do you love most about it? 

Ana: Well, with a mural, it's way less scary sometimes. Because you've already spent months designing it. You are so familiar with the design.

It's like how you know the words to your favorite song. It's the same thing. So you just go up and you're like, “Okay, just doing it bigger now.” And it's kind of meditative. So I'll have my headphones on.

I'm listening to a podcast or music. And I'm just painting, which is all I've ever wanted to do with all of my time. So I just sit there and I think of how lucky and how grateful I am that this is my career and this is what I'm known for, which is crazy. And I just get to do what I do best and I get to do it for eight to 10 to sometimes 14 to 15 hours a day.

And this year I'm gonna see how it goes. I'm trying to do two days on, one day off, two days on, and only painting four days a week so that I can spend a day in the office emailing clients, taking meetings, and spending time with my partner.

Because some days I'm on the wall 10 hours, 12 hours, then I go home and do two hours of email and then I crash. 

Adriana: Yeah. That's a lot. 

Ana: Mm-hmm. 

Adriana: What do you think that murals and public art can do for a community? 

Ana: They do everything. I need to find this study 'cause I talk about it all the time, but there was a study somewhere, that when a city invests in public art, you can see that their economy will rise because it helps the community feel pride in their place that they live.

It helps the businesses be visited more because people are going outside to see this work. It helps people slow down, because instead of walking super fast past an area because they think it feels a little sketchy, they're actually intrigued and interested in what's happening. It helps everybody in the community, whether you are in a houseless camp or you have the most money in the world, be able to feel like they have a sense of humanity because the art is not just for people who can afford to be there.

It's for everybody. It allows people that sense of dignity to know that like my community cares about me too, and there's no barrier for entry, which is what I love about public art and why I feel like I will do it until the day I die, is because of that. I have met so many amazing people while doing different projects that have just sat next to me and told me their stories, and I would've never met them, because normally they don't feel as welcome and don't feel like they can approach people.

But when you're sitting there with like 50 gallons of paint. People feel like they can talk to you. And I love it. It sometimes makes the project last a week longer, but I don't care. It's why I love to do it. I love meeting people and hearing their stories, and especially with those who are carrying their life in their backpack. And they're so grateful that people are putting in the effort to make something beautiful for them and that means the world.

And I think that is what public art does. It helps people feel a sense of place and feel like that their community cares about them. And that's so important. 

Because you also don't know what people's days are like. And there's so many billboards that are filled with like anger and sadness and tragedy, and we need to be aware of what's happening in the world. But you don't know if someone's dad died or dog died, or best friend died, or something else tragic happened. 

I don't want my art to make people feel worse. I want it to touch them and say, “It'll be okay.” You know, like you can look at beauty and it'll lift your spirit because that's what's so important in the public space, is that you can either use your power to lift people up and bring people together, or you can use your power in the public space to make things more divisive. And I'd rather make people come together and help them feel better.

…

A quick shout out for today’s sponsor, Oregon Children's Theatre. I’m so excited to share the news that OCT is bringing its acclaimed education programs to Clark County! As part of OCT's new mission of creating welcoming and imaginative spaces across Oregon & SW Washington, they are offering a brand-new, two-week, musical theater performance camp in Camas this summer. Students will sing, dance, and act, and perform for friends and family.

Theater camps are a great way for students to learn performance skills, collaboration, empathy, and creativity all while building confidence, resilience, and connection. Check out the link in the shownotes or visit octc.org to sign up. 

…

Adriana: So as you are also inside of all these different groups here in Clark County, you're connected with a lot of different artists, what is the community like here and what do you wish for for art and artists in Clark County?

Ana: I wish for so much. The community is lovely. The people here are so kind and so willing to share their knowledge. It took me a long time to find it, though, which was really hard for me. I started full time at 21 years old, and when I was running around, talking to people and meeting everybody, I brought my portfolio to all the galleries and got rejected, which is fine.

That happens. So, which is kind of where murals came in. And I just was like, well, if I can't be in a gallery, I'll guess I make the city my gallery. But then through that, because I wasn't in those spaces or allowed in those spaces, I wasn't able to meet the other artists, ‘cause we all tend to be a bit introverted.

We're in our studios, we're doing our stuff, we're making things happen, but we're not always out and about. That I wasn't able to meet most anyone in the community outside of via Instagram until I got the Emerging Artist scholarship with Open Studios. And through that and Jennifer Williams, it was amazing.

I was like a door opened and all these people appeared to me and I was like, “Oh my God, you guys are all here? I had no idea, like, let's hang out, let's talk.” And that was huge. 'Cause once I was able to get into the space, I realized how amazing the community is. So I would love for there to be more of the awareness of how to meet the people, more gatherings for artists to like get to know each other. 'Cause it took me four years to find it. 

Adriana: And you were actively looking for it. 

Ana: Actively all the time. And it was just so hard to figure it out, especially as a young artist. 'Cause it's in the Open Studios, the artists aren't 21. I'm 25 now, but I'm still the youngest in those groups, which is totally fine.

I love it because they have so much more experience than I do. But I think we need to find a way to bridge that gap between the older artists and the younger artists. Because the younger artists don't know what to do without that guidance.

And the older artists don't know how to stay relevant without the younger artists telling them how to be on Instagram, how to be on TikTok, what's important. Because the older artists could be making so much more financially if they were aware how to be online. And the younger artists could be making so much more financially if they knew how to frame a canvas and send it off.

There's so much knowledge that needs to be shared within our community and that age gap needs to be breached. 

Adriana: Let's talk about your portrait work. Your fine art work. 

Ana: I'm a trained fine artist. I studied how to do portraiture, Renaissance-style paintings. 

In my studio, unless it's a portrait where I'm taking a picture and I'm wanting it to look exactly like that photograph, everything else kind of starts with an idea and then flows from there. 

I love taking florals and making them a little more whimsical, a little more my style. So that they're not exactly what you would see in a photograph, but they're how I interpret them. Stuff in my studio isn't always story based. It's feelings based. It's what I just feel like creating. 

My studio stuff is either trying to get a finished product that will turn into a series that hopefully a gallery or pickup or clients online will buy. Or it's me practicing something that I wanna get really good at. 

Adriana: When somebody's commissioning something from you, what are they usually asking for? 

Ana: Yeah, for a commission of a portrait, it's normally loved ones who have passed. Sometimes it's a cute, like  old photo from like doing a fun trip together that they wanna give to their parent or something like that. So it's normally very sentimental type stuff. And then I do get a good amount of commissions for pet portraits.  

Adriana: So I was peeping at your website. And I noticed two other things that we haven't talked about yet. Mm-hmm. One is that you do consulting work. 

Ana: Yes, I do. 

Adriana: So what's that? 

Ana: Yeah, so I do creative consulting, which is so much fun for me, because most of the times people don't know how to hire a muralist. Because that's a once in a lifetime thing that people do.

So I go in and I help them with the whole process from start to finish.  I sit down with them, I understand their vision, and then I help them make a pipeline plan so that they can follow it from start to finish. They can be able to assess what supplies, what kind of artists they need, what kind of timeline they need in terms of dry time and prep time and paint time and all of that.

'Cause if you're gonna spend 10 grand plus on a mural, you don't wanna have to worry about it being done wrong. 

Adriana: That's super cool. The other thing that I peeped at on your website, which I think is kind of new, is your blog.  And you're sharing with us the stories behind all of your murals, and that's also a series that you're putting on Instagram, right? 

Ana: Yes. I am so excited about my blog. I was looking back and reflecting on the last four years of doing this full time, and I was like, “Wow, I've painted 61 murals.”

Adriana: Wow. 

Ana: Which is insane for one human to do that, that much in four years. So I was like, you know, I could do a blog about that. They have all the supplies that I used for those projects and the links to all of that so that if a muralist is looking for recommendations on what supplies to use or a DIYist is looking for recommendations, it's the right there for them. It's super fun and people have been really loving it.

I'd say a big goal for this year is to get that viewership and readership up so that people can actually just learn the stories and see how mural work is not only fun, but it is very hard work, and help them be educated on why it costs so much and how artists can make a living without having to worry about the starving artist mindset.

And I'm writing two guidebooks. One from the perspective of a client reaching out to hire a muralist, and then the other one is a muralist looking into how to make a mural happen. 

The biggest gap in people hiring a muralist is the knowledge of how to do it and understanding why it's so expensive. And if you're able to just read through and understand, I feel like that's gonna alleviate a lot of stress from people. 

Adriana: I love it. I love it. 

So as you know, I always ask everybody at the end of our episodes to shout out another local artist or creative person. 

Ana: Yes. 

Adriana: Before you do that, I'll remind everybody listening that we have a weekly newsletter where we share behind the scenes photos and videos of our guests, and we share upcoming events that are happening and all kinds of goodies. You can sign up for our newsletter on the website or in the link in the show notes. It really helps us to help get the word out about I'm Into This Place and word of mouth is how we grow. 

Alright. Would you like to tell us who you are really into these days? 

Ana: I am super into my friend Hill Kent. Her work is so insane. It's whimsical, it's beautiful. It makes you think. And it's all made with natural pigments, which I think is insane 'cause she has the patience that I don't have to make them. And she's also getting into tattooing, so you need to follow both of her accounts. 

Adriana: This was so delightful. Thank you for welcoming me to your home studio and talking to us all about just what it's like to be a real artist in the real world. And I can't wait to see what comes next. 

Ana: I am so happy we did this. Oh my God, thank you so much for coming and I'm kind of excited to see what's next too. We'll see what happens. 

Adriana: And now is the time when we get to hear from you. This is our Community Voices segment where you call in and let us know your favorite places in local arts culture, and heritage.

Community Voices is sponsored by Johnson Bixby, their financial planning and portfolio management team combines technical expertise with genuine care, helping you make informed confident decisions at all stages of life and plan for life's possibilities. Advisory Services by Johnson Bixby, SEC, registered. Securities through private client services member Finra, SIPC.

Guest: Hi, I'm Emily, and I am into the Vancouver's Downtown Association. They are a nonprofit that supports downtown Vancouver being a vibrant, clean, beautiful place for people to live, work, and play. 

Guest:  Hello, this is Molly G. I'm shouting out Terrain. My hot take is that they are the best coffee in Vancouver. Shout out Marty at Terrain. You guys make the best latte. Best vibes, best location. 

Adriana: We'd love to hear from you. What are your favorite spots in Clark County? Who really deserves a shout out? Give us a call and leave a message or send us a voice note via email. All the details on how to do that are in the show notes.

I’m Into This Place is produced and edited by me, Adriana Baer. Engineering and mixing by Shawn Lee Martin.  This episode was recorded at the home studio of Ana the Artist. You can find out more about us - and her - at imintothisplace.com.  See you out there!