natashamayplatt, Author at Natasha May Platt

Rejection is Redirection

Posted on November 21, 2022January 22, 2025 by natashamayplatt

The number one lesson I’ve learned in the past 5 years of being a full time mural artist and running my own business is that rejection is a sign you are on the right track. As an overachiever all my life, I was used to accomplishing what I set out to do, and I took a failed deal or a flower mural that didn’t happen as a sign that I was doing something wrong. But through the guidance of my mentors and also my own observations, I now see a failed deal as a sign that a) something better is coming and b) the mural project wouldn’t have properly met either my needs or those of my client, ie a win-lose situation. Who wants that? Now I firmly believe that win-win deals are the absolute only way to go, and anything less can and should be met with rejection from either side. Though I was once an overly eager young muralist with a “choose me, I’ll do anything!” mentality, I now find myself either doing the rejecting (something I could never have imagined just a few years ago) or breathing a sigh of relief when the client decides to not go ahead with the project. Read on for how this realization has transformed my floral mural business and my life.

The 1 in 10 Numbers Game

When I was first starting my career as a mural artist in New York, I used to cold email restaurants and small businesses asking them if I could do a mural for a small amount of cash and some services exchange. I found it was a good way to spread my flower murals across Brooklyn and Manhattan and become a recognizable artist. But most of the clients I emailed did not reply and I used to get so discouraged. My friend in real estate told me about the 1 in 10 rule–when making bids on a property, usually only 1 in 10 gets accepted. He said for every rejection you get, you get closer to the one that will accept, because it’s literally just a numbers game.

So if I got nine rejections that week, I’m statistically likely to get a mural project confirmed the next week. I found this to be really true. Most importantly, it helped me reframe the rejections as about my ability or worth as an artist, and see them as purely a mathematical fact. As artists, we put our souls out on our sleeve, so we tend to personalize rejections as about our own skills, but this is not actually true. Instead, I started excitedly collecting rejections, because I knew that each rejection took me closer to the statistic certainty of landing a beautiful floral mural project. Looking back, I can see that approximately 1 in 10 murals did come through in those early days. Wow, math works across all industries!

Transforming the 1 in 10 Numbers Game: From Begging to Bossing

My biggest realization about the 1 in 10 rule came just last year, as I turned it on its head, and I became the one doing the rejecting. What a world-view shift that was, to put myself in the position of power! I started getting a lot of requests for my flower murals across New York City, and for a while I was so happy with the abundance of mural work flooding my way. It had always been my dream to be a full-time artist, and now it seemed that there were more floral mural requests than I could even physically handle. I started hiring assistants, and running around from project to project. However, it was only a matter of time before my physical limitations caught up with me—muscle pain, exhaustion, creative burnout from painting the same flowers again and again as fast as humanly possible. That’s when I remembered the 1 in 10 rule.

I realized I was doing almost 8 out of every 10 mural projects that came my way, just because I was so excited that I was no longer on the receiving end of rejections. But I thought—the statistic is off! If I’m getting 8 out of 10 mural projects, that can only mean one thing—that my prices are too low!! Math never lies. 1 in 10 is the magic goal. So I started aiming to achieve that 1 in 10 rate again, by raising my prices and letting the clients reject me once again, or rather reject my price! My goal was to get less work, not more work! What a complete life hack.

Now, I use the 1 in 10 rule to re-evaluate my business constantly. If too many clients accept my price for mural projects, I know I am undervaluing my worth (very common for female artists). This has revolutionized my world, because it puts me in the seat of power in negotiations, as my goal is not always to actually get the project, but rather to have the project show me if it’s worth it. My results—I get clients that truly love and appreciate my work, and value me as I value myself. I have much more free time between projects, and thus am able to put more creativity and energy into the mural projects that do happen, which then makes me a better artist and my clients even happier than they expected. It’s a pure win-win.

What You Lose Will Appear Again in a Better Form

Along the way, of course, there are heartbreaks, projects lost, and dead periods where I wonder if I am on the wrong track as an artist. But over the long course, five years into my career now, I see that everything plays out as well or better than expected despite the hurdles along the way. I grieved certain lost mural projects, only to have them reappear literally two years later, with a nicer team, a bigger budget, and in a better timing for my schedule. I had a mural get cancelled in a particularly heart wrenching manner, but in that particular situation I actually filed a lawsuit against the client and won! I learned so much about our justice system, my rights as an artist, and had the thrilling experience of representing myself in court, and of course, got paid!

Sometimes I have lost a project that I dreamed of doing because timing or budget did not work out, and then I got a better mural opportunity for the exact same week on very last minute notice. I wouldn’t have been able to do that mural if the other one hadn’t fallen through. But so many of these things we see in hindsight. In the moment, we have to go forward with faith and integrity of heart and craft. The only thing we can control is our own integrity—to show up on time, to complete the mural on time, to honor our side of the agreement to the letter of the law, and to do the best work possible. I have learned if we hold ourselves to these standards consistently, good things always follow.

Destiny Calls: My First Mural in Texas

Posted on October 16, 2022July 6, 2025 by natashamayplatt

Sometimes you just have to listen to the call of destiny when you are planning your next mural location. As a full-time traveling mural artist, I almost never know where I am going to be five days from today. I buy flight tickets the morning of the day I am travelling, and I change my travel plans about five times in the same month. Sometimes I plan to be in Mexico on vacation, resting my body and nourishing myself with beautiful nature, but instead I find myself cancelling all my plans and working like a maniac on a mural in some random suburb in New Jersey. Or sometimes it works the opposite way—this summer I went to explore India for a few weeks, and ended up staying for two full months. My work schedule is truly the whim of the gods, and I have to surrender completely and trust that I will somehow manage to be in the right place at the right time. It’s a daily lesson in how little control we actually have over our lives, and I’m grateful that by creating and painting murals, I am also able to practice a spiritual truth.

Meditating My Way to a Mural in Dallas

I just finished my first mural in Texas yesterday, and the story of how it came to be is also connected to the call of destiny. I was about to go into a silent meditation retreat for three days, and my thoughts right before I started the retreat were about how I hoped to work in Texas. I spend so much time in Mexico now, and the commute between New York and Mexico to paint my mural art is beginning to wear me down. I suddenly realized how close Texas is to Mexico City, and how many incredible cities I could paint murals in – Houston, Austin, and Dallas, as well as San Antonio and Fort Worth. I started dreaming of the quick and easy 2 hour flight from Mexico City, and then a few hours later, my silent mediation retreat started and I disconnected from phone and email.

A Surprise Email for Some Floral Wall Art

Three days later, after sitting with myself and my entire inner world in silence, my retreat ended. With a clear refreshed mind and light heart, I opened my phone to check my email and the very first email I saw was from a woman in Texas reaching out for a mural! I knew instantly that the divine will was aligned for me to go to Texas and I had to take the project. I felt so loved and seen by the universe, that even the smallest passing thoughts I had became manifest reality in three short days. It turns out the woman had found my work on Instagram, after interviewing no less than 15 mural artists in the Dallas, Texas area, and she decided she wanted to invest in bringing me all the way down to Texas for my floral mural work, no matter the cost. She was drawn to the way I paint flowers in all of nature’s abundance, with such a vivid and joyful style in my wall art. I am so deeply touched as an artist that this person saw the worth and value of my art enough to fly me from New York to Dallas to paint in her home. Even more than that, I am incredibly humbled at how this benevolent universe knows the inner workings of my mind and soul and has helped me at every step in the path to spread my murals across the world.

You Need to Drive in Dallas? : I Almost Lose the Mural

Of course the mural process was not without its challenges. About two weeks before I was supposed to go to Texas, the client suddenly got cold feet. Because I don’t know how to drive (proud New Yorker!) she panicked and thought I wouldn’t be able to get around the area easily, as her family lives in a small suburb outside of Dallas, Texas. However, I told her I am committed to my work and painting this mural and I will figure out a way—even if Ubers aren’t available, I will figure it out. I can walk! I can find someone to give me a ride and pay them! There are always solutions to every problem. So I was able to convince my client and we went ahead with the mural project. My first morning in Texas, I met a lovely driver named Tina, and I had her come get me every morning and then take me to the airport on the last day. She was a beautiful positive influence on my vibe every day, and I always paid her cash, so it was a win-win for both of us.

Success is a Wall Full of Peaceful Florals

The mural itself was for a newborn’s bedroom, and I used a very soft color palette and simple flowers for the wall art. I wanted it to be gentle and soothing in all muted tones, but also a piece of mural art that the baby could grow up with as she gets older. I think the mural is sophisticated and the client was so happy with the end result and she specifically said she was glad she ended up choosing me and bringing me all the way from New York. I am personally looking forward to doing many more murals in Texas and I’ve asked my Instagram followers to send me recommendations or projects if they come across any. I hope to come back very soon, Dallas!

Painting a 3-Story Floral Mural on a Remodeled Factory in New York

Posted on August 19, 2022January 22, 2025 by natashamayplatt

Painting Flowers through the Snow and the Struggle

Last winter, I painted the tallest floral mural of my career to date—three stories on a formerly abandoned factory building in Poughkeepsie, upstate New York. I was supposed to complete the wall painting in October, when the weather would still be comfortably brisk; but I ended up painting outside in the middle of December, working through Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, with snow on the ground. Somehow even my “easiest,” “most fun,” and “most well-paid” projects end up becoming a sort of heroic feat to complete.

My friend (bless her) came up to spend Christmas with me and we painted together alone in the massive, unheated warehouse. I spared her the torture of painting outside, but still she refers to that time with a mixture of horror and admiration. “You freeze, Natasha!!” she exclaims. “When you paint a mural, you are camping!” She is not far from the truth.

But I wouldn’t trade the experience of struggling through, creating flowers on a wall no matter what the weather conditions, and the sense of joy and fullness that greets me when I step back from the mural and see that it is finally done. The flowers hold a memory of the obstacles through which I fought to make them bloom. In the beauty I have managed to create in my mural, I also see the hardship, the pain, and the perseverance. How could it be any other way?

Chrysanthemums for the First Floral Mural in Poughkeepsie

This particular flower mural was painted for The Academy in Poughkeepsie, NY—an admirable construction undertaking that renovated a huge abandoned car factory in the center of town into a bustling food and drinks destination. I chose to paint large chrysanthemums in the mural, in a combination of yellow, orange, and purple, which gives a flavor of fall all year round. My mural was outside on the side of the building closest to the street, so it is easily viewed by pedestrians and cars passing by, and there were definitely many people yelling their support up to me from their cars as I painted.

I was able to complete the mural in only one week, with the help of my assistant. We had to use a boom-lift to reach the full height, so we were swinging precariously in the orange basket for most of the day. The wind would blow at a tremendous speed at that height, and the location itself was a wind tunnel, so we suffered. But watching the setting sun come down over the buildings, as we were painting our flowers on the wall, was a beautiful daily treat. I started each flower in the mural with spray paint to get a fast sketch and block in the base colors quickly. The floral mural took shape in a matter of a day or two. Then we went back in with paintbrushes and detail colors, cleaning up the lines and adding definition as we went.

My mural style is very colorful, so sometimes I end up using all the colors in all the flowers, and it is hard to keep a flower pure white or pure yellow. I was very careful in this mural to keep the yellow flowers as bright yellow as possible, and the bright pigments of the spray paint definitely helped me create pops of color. The leaves were the most fun to create; because they were so huge, we were able to spray various greens freely and just make a beautiful mess of different green tones. From the ground looking up, the leaves glow with all of the different pigments used. While we painted the mural, there was a very tall metal fence constructed to keep graffiti artists out at night, but once the fence got removed, local people immediately starting taking selfies in front of the flowers. That’s how I know that people were very excited to have a floral mural in their community.

Preserving the Old and Adding Beauty with a Floral Mural

Poughkeepsie is a former factory town in the Hudson Valley, with beautiful and sometimes dilapidated 100 year-old houses, and it is a place best enjoyed in the fall, when the foliage makes a spectacular display of reds and oranges. During Covid, many New Yorkers moved out of the city and found refuge in Poughkeepsie, which drove up rents and house sales to an astronomical level. The Academy was created at a perfect time, just as more people are visiting and living in Poughkeepsie. The developer, Baxter Built, is owned by a family from Poughkeepsie, and I really enjoyed this project because I respect their desire to preserve the historic buildings in their town.

It takes so much more time, energy, and attention to renovate an old building than to just tear it down and build a new one with all the modern construction techniques and amenities. But the grace, quality, and heritage that old buildings possess is irreplaceable and certainly worth preserving. I’m grateful to Baxter Built for including me in their vision, which I find inspiring. This was the tallest floral mural I’ve painted to date, and I hope it continues to give joy to the Poughkeepsie community in the years to come.