Renda Writer’s website is, of course, rendawriter.com.

You can find his most up-to-date happenings on his instagram @rendawriter.

Check out his World Peace Mural Tour — so far 70 murals in 8 countries.

Here are some great takeaways from our conversation:

1. There are so many things that can inspire your art. Look at your background, at the music you listened to, at your hobbies during school to inform what you might like to do today. For Renda, he listened to hip hop music, and began to compose his own poetry and then to write his poetry on found objects.
2. Your passion for what you do should make you always feel like you’re just getting started and you have a lot to conquer.
3. When trying something new, like the first time he did a big mural, approach it from a point of having no fear. Just do it and enjoy the process.
4. Doing any kind of live art making will have the potential for getting more work opportunities. People like to see artists do their thing, and you may find that painting a mural outside in public, for example, will attract onlookers and more clients. You may not get the job that day, but it may come in the future because they remember the conversation they had with you when you were painting.
5. Think of everything you do as a long-term investment for your future. You may not see the work coming to you right away, but if you keep going, you will see it in the future.
6. As an artist, you need to be able to part with your work. Remind yourself that you’re an artist, not a collector, and when you have an opportunity to create your art, you go for it then move on to the next piece.
7. When Renda is writing a word or phrase over and over, he is bringing awareness and energy to those words. He’s found that after writing something hundreds or thousands of times, the meaning, feeling, and result of those words comes to him. It works like a mantra that you say over and over. He can attest that mantras work when you want to bring positive energy to yourself. As he says, words effect change, and you can write things into existence.
8. One key thing you need to be available for when projects come your way is to be prepared. That will mean different things for each person. For him, it probably means being flexible with his time when he books a mural somewhere. Because if he’s not stuck in a schedule where he has to leave right when the mural is finished, he can stay longer if other murals come his way.
9. If you’re doing live art that’s open to the public, be sure and tweet out your location or put it on Instagram so your followers can come out and see what you’re doing.