Meet David Kaul

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to David Kaul. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

David, first a big thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts and insights with us today. I’m sure many of our readers will benefit from your wisdom, and one of the areas where we think your insight might be most helpful is related to imposter syndrome. Imposter syndrome is holding so many people back from reaching their true and highest potential and so we’d love to hear about your journey and how you overcame imposter syndrome.

Realizing that missed opportunities hurt way more than messing something up was a big factor for me. The thing about painting is that you can almost always correct your mistakes. Worst-case scenario you just paint it over and start from the beginning, and once you realize that’s an option it really opens you up to making mistakes in a constructive way. While I don’t think that any artist truly overcomes imposter syndrome, the idea that it can be corrected has always made me more inclined to take risks and stretch beyond the capabilities I think I have.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

I’m David Kaul, and I’m the Creative Director of Pulling Paint Murals. We’re a company based in Los Angeles and focused on producing large scale murals, signage, and lettering. I’ve been a mural artist for the past 15 years, but early last year we formalized a company around this practice, and have managed to stay busy ever since painting projects for organizations around LA. Recently we had the opportunity to contribute to the new Compton High School campus by painting the mural on Dr. Dre’s Performing Arts Center, which we’re incredibly proud of. Both to be able to contribute to a project with such an impact like this, and also to be able to paint a legend like Dre.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

Throwing yourself into the fire is so important. Taking risks is the only way you’re going to improve as an artist, so anything you can do to overcome your fears around whether you’re doing the right thing or if what you’re making will turn out correctly, the better. You’ll learn by doing and you can always paint it over and start again.

Collaboration with others is a big one, and honestly one of the hardest things to do when you’ve been focusing on your craft by yourself. Other people have different points of view or different ways of doing things, and this can be a little jarring when you’ve been doing everything your way and yourself, but it’s so important to learn from others.

Finally trusting yourself and your instincts. The flip side of being a solo artist is there’s a lot of self doubt, and that vulnerability can be very helpful when you’re just starting out, but the faster you can start to trust that what you’re doing will work the easier everything seems to fall into place.

What has been your biggest area of growth or improvement in the past 12 months?

My business partner and I over the past year have been very focused on how we grow our mural practice, Pulling Paint, into something bigger than just me as a solo artist. That’s required a lot more collaboration with others and giving up a fair amount of control, which has been a big area of focus for me during that time. But that’s allowed me and my team to paint way more projects for a far more diverse set of clients than I thought possible, which has been very rewarding.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.pullingpaintmurals.com/
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/pullingpaint
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/pulling-paint/