Today we’d like to introduce you to Dani Romay.
Hi Dani, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My path to becoming a muralist was definitely not a straight one. I spent nine years as a high school English and theatre teacher. I have a degree in English Education and a master’s in leadership, and while I loved teaching, creativity was always a huge part of my life.
During COVID, while I was teaching from home, I was also going through a really difficult time in my personal life. I started drawing again as a way to heal. At the time, I wasn’t thinking about becoming an artist or starting a business. Art was simply an outlet. It gave me somewhere to put what I was feeling and, in a lot of ways, helped me find my way back to myself.
When I eventually left teaching, I started selling pet portraits. It was really the first time I allowed myself to consider that maybe art could be more than something I did for myself. Then a friend invited me to a mural meetup, and that completely changed the trajectory of my life. I discovered this entire world of muralists and public art that I didn’t even know existed.
I had experience designing and painting large-scale sets through theatre, so there was something about murals that immediately clicked. I fell in love with the scale, the challenge, and especially the idea that art could completely transform a space and become something an entire community could experience. I started taking on mural projects, learning everything I could, and saying yes to opportunities that pushed me outside of my comfort zone. Little by little, those opportunities turned into a business.
Tony came into the picture a little later, and that’s when the business really started becoming what it is today. We met online, and when I needed someone to come with me to a job site for security, I asked him to tag along. Tony had his own creative background as a former tattoo artist, with an incredible eye for linework, lettering, and detail. It didn’t take long before “coming along” turned into helping, and helping turned into creating together. We realized pretty quickly that our strengths complemented each other really well. Eventually, he became my full-time creative partner and, somewhere in the middle of all of that, my fiancé.
Today, we travel together creating large-scale murals and public art for cities, businesses, schools, developers, and communities. Our work is bold, colorful, and centered around storytelling, but more than anything, we want to create art that brings people joy and makes them feel connected to the spaces around them.
It’s funny to look back because none of this started with a business plan. It started during one of the hardest periods of my life, with me picking up a pencil because I needed somewhere to put what I was feeling. Art helped me heal, and somehow, along the way, it also gave me an entirely new life. Now Tony and I get to use that same thing to bring color, joy, and connection to other people’s spaces, which feels pretty full circle.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It definitely hasn’t been a smooth road. I think when people see what we do now, they see the colorful murals, the traveling, and the finished projects, but there is so much that happens behind the scenes to get there.
One of the biggest challenges for me personally was leaving teaching after nine years and essentially starting over. I had spent most of my adult life building one career, and suddenly I was trying to figure out how to make a living as an artist. I knew how to create art, but I had to teach myself how to run a business. Pricing, contracts, proposals, marketing, insurance, equipment, taxes, managing clients, and even figuring out how to get hired for projects were all things I had to learn as I went.
There has also been a lot of rejection. Public art can be incredibly competitive. We can spend hours researching a project, developing a concept, putting together an application, and submitting our work only to hear no, or sometimes hear nothing at all. Learning not to equate rejection with the value of our work has probably been one of the biggest lessons. You have to become comfortable putting yourself out there over and over again.
The work itself can be challenging too. Murals are physically demanding. We work long days, sometimes in extreme heat or cold, high up on lifts, and often far from home. There are weather delays, equipment problems, walls that behave differently than expected, tight deadlines, and plenty of moments where you have to solve a problem on the spot.
Tony and I have also had to learn how to be partners in just about every sense of the word. We work together, travel together, create together, and build a life together. Learning where each of our strengths are, when to lead, when to step back, and how to disagree creatively without making it personal has been a process. But I think that process has ultimately made both our relationship and our work stronger.
There have definitely been moments when I’ve wondered if choosing the more traditional or predictable path would have been easier. It probably would have been. But every challenge has forced us to grow, and every project has taught us something that we’ve carried into the next one. I think that’s a huge part of how we got where we are today. We didn’t have everything figured out before we started. We just kept figuring it out as we went.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
We specialize in large-scale murals and public art, working with cities, businesses, schools, developers, and organizations to transform spaces through art. Our projects have taken us all over the country and internationally, painting everything from restaurants and schools to community spaces and massive exterior walls.
Stylistically, we’re known for bold color, strong linework, and a Pop Art and comic-inspired aesthetic. Our work is usually bright, energetic, and full of personality. Tony and I also bring very different strengths to the table. I tend to gravitate toward the overall concept, storytelling, composition, and color, while Tony has an incredible eye for linework, lettering, and detail. Our styles have naturally blended over the years into something that feels very much like us.
I think one of the things that sets us apart is the amount of thought that goes into what we paint. We don’t want to create something just because it looks cool on a wall. We spend a lot of time learning about the people, businesses, neighborhoods, and communities we’re painting for and figuring out how to tell their story in our style. We want our work to be recognizable as ours while still feeling like it belongs exactly where it was painted.
But I also think what sets us apart is simply us. Somewhere along the way, this stopped being just my art career and became something Tony and I were building together. We’re partners in our work and in our lives. We travel together, design together, paint together, problem-solve together, and spend an almost ridiculous amount of time together. Luckily, we actually really like each other.
As we’ve grown, I think that relationship has started showing up more and more in what we create. We’re two people who are very much in love, who genuinely love making art, and who get to travel around doing something we love together. There’s a lot in the world that can feel heavy, and our contribution doesn’t have to be complicated. We can make something colorful. We can make someone smile. We can create a place where people want to stop, take a picture, or spend a little more time.
That’s probably what I’m most proud of. We’ve created more than 100 murals and have gotten to paint in places we never imagined this career would take us, but the numbers aren’t really the part that means the most to me. I’m proud that we’ve built a life around creating together, and that the thing we put out into the world is overwhelmingly positive.
I think the direction we’re moving in is actually pretty simple: we’re two people in love, painting what we love, and trying to leave a little more love behind wherever we go.
What makes you happy?
Honestly, the people I love make me happiest. Tony, our family, our dogs, and the people we’ve collected along the way. I love being around people who make me laugh and being able to make other people laugh. I think I’ve learned that the little moments usually end up being the best ones.
Creating makes me really happy too. There’s something incredibly satisfying about starting with nothing and watching an idea slowly become real, whether that’s a giant mural, something I’m drawing at home, or some random project I’ve decided we absolutely need to do.
I also love traveling and experiencing new places, especially when Tony and I get to do it together. Our work has given us an excuse to see places we probably never would have visited otherwise, meet people we never would have met, and build a lot of really great memories along the way.
I think, ultimately, happiness for me is pretty simple. It’s being with the people I love, making things, laughing a lot, seeing new places, and building a life that I’m genuinely excited to wake up to.
Pricing:
- Every mural is custom quoted based on the scope of the project.
- Pricing is influenced by size, design complexity, wall condition and surface, location, equipment needs, travel, and installation requirements.
- We work on projects ranging from smaller commercial murals to large scale public art installations.
- We’re always happy to discuss a client’s budget and develop a scope that makes sense for their space and goals.
- Custom proposals and estimates are available by contacting Dani Roma Murals.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://daniroma.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/daniromamurals/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61587322679568
