DC MURAL ARTIST 

((Banner:  Walls))
((Reporter:  Anna Rice))
((Camera:  Artem Kohan))
((Adapted by:  Philip Alexiou))
((Map:  Washington, D.C.)) 
((KELLY TOWLES, MURAL ARTIST))
I just want to make people smile.  Literally if I do a mural, hopefully the vibe is, or the thing is, that somebody walks by it, they’ll just smile and be content with seeing something like that.
((NATS))
((KELLY TOWLES, MURAL ARTIST))

I think there’s some little thing that says, like if you have a painting in a museum and you catch the viewers’ eye for more than like five seconds, and they’re contemplating whether they love it or hate it, you won either way.
((NATS))
((KELLY TOWLES, MURAL ARTIST))
When I was a pissed off kid, I was doing graffiti, really crappy graffiti.  I wasn’t really good at graffiti.  So basically, it was an outlet though and it was the first time I experienced like spray paint and stuff like that.  But I had always drawn.  I would always scribble and recreated album covers and like stuff like that.
((KELLY TOWLES, MURAL ARTIST))
D.C. is not known for creative scene.  We’re not known for fashion, at least not until recently.  I mean it’s been coming but, like were not known as these giant like icon monoliths of art and fashion.  So, us to be growing into that phase is really, really amazing.  It’s a kind of a renaissance cool thing that’s happening right now.
((NATS))
((KELLY TOWLES, MURAL ARTIST))
So like everyone says, ‘what’s your favorite mural that you’ve done?  Or what’s your favorite painting?’  It’s like, it’s literally always the newest thing, the next thing I have coming up.  That’s my favorite thing in the entire world because I get to, get to be a little kid.  I get to get excited and hyper and like…..and then go paint and at the end of it, like I’m already thinking about the next one.
((NATS))
((KELLY TOWLES, MURAL ARTIST))
There’s no recipe for it.  If there was that would be amazing.  But, it doesn’t work like that. It’s not like Kool-Aid and you just open it and mix it up and then there you go, and there you have art and people want to buy it.  You have to kill yourself for it.  You have to, like work as hard as you can night and day.  And like, literally, that’s what I’ve done.  I’ve come from nothing.  I’ve done everything I can to make that dream happen.  And if you don’t’ do that, if you work at a job and you don’t like what you do, you’re not failing, but you should analyze that and figure out what you want to do.
((KELLY TOWLES, MURAL ARTIST))
I am putting a message out there.  I’m not peace, love and hippie, but I’m definitely just like two seconds to try to make people happy.  Two seconds to try to think about my community, try to build out and help make the community more beautiful.