Safety Meeting: Cool People, Doing Cool Sh*t, featuring Bianca Lago
Hello! Welcome back to #SafetyMeetings, our new-ish series where we talk to cool people doing cool shit. This week we have Bianca Lago, a fine artist, muralist, womenās rights advocate, podcast devotee (read for her top picks!), and all-around #coolpersondoingcoolshit

Youāre a cool person doing cool shit. Whatās your name and where are you located?
Oh, well thank you so much! Iām Bianca Lago and Iām located in San Francisco.
And what kind of cool shit are you doing?
Currently working on an MFA [Master of Fine Arts] at the San Francisco Art Institute. I also started a mural painting business last year which is starting to take off. So those are some of the cool things Iāve been doing lately.
Where can we find some of your murals?
There are some that are hanging out in The Mission in San Francisco. I think the one at the Sycamore got tagged, but thereās one outside of Slate Bar, thereās one in Union Square and then there are others that are in peopleās private residences. I got hired to paint a preschool.
When did you realize you wanted to become a full-time artist?
I think when I was fourteen.
And what was your āAha!ā moment?
Iāve had a few of them. The two that stick out the most: one was in 2015 when I decided to switch my major from Environmental Science to Art. I was at Humboldt State University, going into their art department to fill out the paperwork and they had such a cool hallway covered in art and I was like, āYeah, this feels rightā.
The second time was when I was invited to a baby shower for a friend. It was in the middle of the woods in Humboldt on this super remote property and I met this woman who was one of the top 100 hyper-realist painters in the country. Like, what are the odds? We totally hit it off and sheās like, āAre you looking for a job?ā ā and this is right when Iām switching my major.
Thereās been a lot of those synchronistic moments reaffirming, āYep, thatās what you should be doingā.
How do you get into the right state of mind to paint and/or feel creative?
When Iām working on murals I really like to work with an assistant because itās just so much more fun that way. But when Iām in my studio, working on originals, I really like being alone. Iāll put on house music on my headphones ā or a podcast. I like to start with music to kind of get in a trance-state and then Iāll bust out maybe like 3 projects at once and kind of rotate between them. I like for one thing to be drying while I move on to the other and then that way it keeps me with a fresh eye because it can be easy to turn blind to the things that youāre painting if youāve been working on it for so many hours straight.
Okay, we have to know⦠what podcasts do you listen to?
Okay, IĀ loveĀ Art Holes, oh my god! Everybody please listen to that. And I also have to plug my homies fucking awesome podcast, Lighter and Tighter. I really like Historical Figures, too.
Last question: How do you unwind after youāve had a super long day in the studio? Whatās your ārelax routineā, if you will?
I donāt really have a ritual for unwinding, I kind of just, like ā come home, roll a spliff, write in my journal, and just hang out.
FollowĀ Bianca (opens in new tab)Ā where you can visit her virtual art gallery, see her dressed like a clown, or simply appreciate the beauty and complexity of her work in the comments.


