Twenty years ago when I launched this business, I really had no idea what I was getting myself into! Ha! I think about how my urge to grow in my creativity was what led me to leave the corporate world and bet on myself. To this day, I make it a point to seek inspiration from people, things, places, and everyday life and if I can be a creative inspiration to someone then I’m doing what I was meant to do!
All that said, it’s funny how certain things in life come together. We’ve had our ISP Studios home (an old tv station) in Irving for 10 years and have been blessed with a lot of amazing clients. While the inside of our studio was decorated to our liking, we had never really worked on the outside. We knew we wanted to bring something beautiful to our little Irving neighborhood and thought a mural would be a perfect way to express our creativity and bring visual interest to our block.
We had just had an art contest and our winner, Nick Williams, was awarded a scholarship and internship. His preferred way of expressing his art was through photography. When he heard about our idea to paint a mural, he said he knew just the right person to ask for help. Little did we know the guy he was bringing us was Dallas-based artist, Carlos Donjuan, whose murals can be seen around Dallas and whose artwork can be seen around the world, in Dallas, Italy, Spain and more. If anyone knows how a mural can change a neighborhood, it’s him. He grew up in Oak Cliff, painting walls that were once tagged by gangs. Donjuan knows that a little color on a wall can change the dialogue in the neighborhood and that’s what we planned to do with our Wall.
The Wall has the aesthetic of Donjuan’s signature work; a colorful style with Mexican paletas (popsicles) come to life, and playful characters, but with an ISP touch. For me, the Wall
When I see the wall today, I see a mix of my Mexican heritage and the journey I’ve taken over the past 20 years building this business. It also reminds me how important it is to mentor people and how without our intern we’d never have met this amazing artist who helped us create something wonderful that everyone can enjoy. I believe in blooming where you’re planted. Just like our business and this wall, I want to continue to blossom in the community that has supported us for so long.
