Meet Adriana Oxford: You Are Life
Adriana is 100% and unashamedly herself 100% of the time- she doesn’t hold back from speaking truth and owning every inch of who she is! She teaches us that no matter what- you have been created to be something- each in our own little corner of the world. I pray her words fill each of you reading with hope and motivation to chase your goals step by step.
Can you share a little of your journey with us and who you are?
Hi! My name is Adriana Oxford, interior designer at Gensler/owner of Adriana Oxford Artwork/creator of the Oxford Comma/yoga teacher/believer/traveler/artist/overall life enthusiast. I can never pick one thing – I want to be them all!
I grew up in an extremely visual home. My mom was always interested in design, changing and moving things around our house week after week, bringing in new art and artists, new furniture, new textiles. Our home was a constant evolution. On top of that, we grew up traveling quite a bit. The world became this lens for my sisters and me to experience culture, experiment with adaptability, meet a wide variety of people, and to come into very close proximity with the arts. So from a very young age, travel and design and art were very dear friends that cultivated my visual eye and interest in crafting beauty.
To be honest, I never thought that design would be my path. I grew up as one of seven, and most of my family are lawyers. On some level, that was the expectation for me too, or so I thought. When I was in high school, my art teacher, Roy Bares, began encouraging me to pursue art in college. At the time, I did not think that I had the talent to pursue fine arts as a legitimate means of income; however, through his encouragement, that’s the path I chose for myself. I painted my way through the University of Texas until I realized that… well… I needed to find a job.
My mom knew a local Austin residential interior designer, Lindsey Arthur, from her various jaunts out to Roundtop’s antique fair. Lindsey and I got connected and plugged into each other’s lives pretty quickly. As a side note, I think it’s really rare when you meet someone for the very first time, and something instantly clicks, like you have known each other before. That’s how it was with Lindsey. She took me under her wing quickly and taught me everything she knew about art and design and construction. Those two years with her were very pivotal for me.
Aside from teaching me the technical, she showed me how design is an access into people’s lives and relationships with them – not just about aesthetic beauty but beautiful friendships and experiences as well. I will always be grateful for Lindsey’s openness, not being stingy with her knowledge. She shared, and she genuinely taught me, and I hope that one day I get to humbly do the same for someone else trying to get their start. After my two years with Moontower and PlayHouse, I realized that my art background was not solely limited to a canvas. I could use what I knew about fine arts and start applying those things three-dimensionally in space.
That whole idea really excited me! However, in order to really get connected in the architecture and interiors world, I needed a degree. I attended grad school to get my MFA in Interior Design at the Savannah College of Art and Design, and I would say that Savannah is where things really shifted for me – where I started to care for the quality of my work, develop an aesthetic, and be able to vocalize how design can physically and emotionally contribute to society.
During school, I was pretty adamant about not going to go work for a large corporate firm after graduating. I laugh at that now-now that I work at one of the largest architectural firms in the world. You never know where a road will take you, and I often think that the things you resist the most are actually the things that are meant for you.
Now that I am at Gensler, I work mostly in commercial hospitality – bars, restaurants, hotels, private clubs, small-scale boutique workplace – ALL THE FUN STUFF! What I enjoy is creating wacky, hospitable, experiential space where people feel welcome and can connect. That’s the goal.
Since being in the commercial design world for a little while now, I am starting to miss the intimacy that is residential design. That is why I have decided to launch a small side business this year focused on artwork in the home. My painting has been put on the back burner as I have explored the interiors field, and I am now slowly coming back to it in hopes that it will bring other people as much joy as it has given me.
2. Tell us about the mission of your brand- how does it empower women?
I have so many brands. Haha! I guess that is what it means to be an artist – to constantly be reinventing yourself in a very dynamic and free way.
Without quoting a mission statement, I believe my brands are about creation and expression. Our world lives so buttoned up. “I have to be this way, I have to say these things, I have to wear these clothes,” in order to be accepted.
To me, the reality is beautiful things are vanishing each day. There has never been a more crucial time to believe in your creativity and your gifts. Art creates hope, it connects, it heals. The artist is not a special kind of person. Each person is a special kind of artist.
I love women, and though, I believe in inspiring and empowering PEOPLE. My hope is that through my work, whatever I choose to put out into the world, allows people to be freed up in the same way – to stay inspired, to stay hungry. Write the damn book. Paint the picture. Take the trip. Put your work in to the world, and use your voice, because we need it now more than ever before.
3. What is the biggest challenge you’ve had to press through as a female entrepreneur? What are the steps you had to take to overcome it?
I tend to operate under the idea that everything that meets you, ease or struggle, is meant to greet you as a teacher. My greatest teachers so far have been:
1. Rejection – Humility: I have heard the word “No” quite a lot early on in my career. I applied to both the UT Art Department and Architecture Department twice before getting admitted to the BFA program at UT the second time around. I got rejected from quite a few jobs right out of school because my work did not fit into a particular aesthetic. I think those rejections have housed for me one of my biggest lessons in life so far — always ask again. Go 100% after what you want, and if the answer is “No,” then you have the exact same answer as you did before you asked. There is no fear in putting yourself out there and asking the question. Getting told “No” on all of these occasions has graciously given me a deeper sense of personal humility and gratitude for those opportunities that were “Yes’s.”
2. Confusion – Clarity: I was always a polymath growing up – I was good at math, I could paint, I was athletic. I do not say that to brag, but to say that I was always confused which life venture was for me. Should I go to business school or follow all my siblings into law? In college, I struggled specifically with whether my direction was to be a full-fledged artist or pursue the design field. It was not until recently, grad school specifically, that I really believed it could be both, and that all of these things can complement each other.
3. Comparison – Confidence: Coming from a family of hyper-successful doctors and lawyers, insecurity ran high in my veins in middle school, in high school, in college. Am I going to be as successful as my siblings? Are my parents going to be disappointed in me if I choose something different? So on and so forth. It was not until I stepped away from home for awhile, moving to Los Angeles and then to Savannah, that I began to own my personal gifts and have confidence in them. Sometimes all you need is a little space for yourself, alone without anyone else’s opinion, to figure out what you really want and to forge that path.
4. What sets your brand apart from others?
As a designer: At the risk of sounding cliche, I’ll start with this, “I want to make everything around me beautiful. That will be my life.” Elsie DeWolfe
My colleagues and clients at Gensler know me as the materiality queen. I am hyper-tactile and have about every single fabric swatch and tile sample that is the latest and greatest at my desk, stored and packed in boxes under my desk. I’m a modern day hoarder!
At Gensler, I design restaurants, private clubs, bars, small-scale workplace, and often times a combination of all these things. That’s where the real excitement begins! I love design because it’s a tactile puzzle. Some resolutions involve finishes, others involve spatial solutions. The goal is to design sensory, hospitable spaces where people feel welcome and known, and I think that’s where my greatest strength comes into play – my empathy.
I love to be able to sit in a room and connect with a client and be able to truly understand what they want without them saying much. It’s about honestly connecting with people, reading their energies and personalities – it’s my favorite part about design.
As an Artist: To be honest, I am just started to claim this about myself. I am an artist, and I am starting my own commission-based art platform. The focus of my business will be on creating emphasis within the home utilizing art focal points. I will paint custom, one of a kind, art pieces alongside personalized design consultation so both art and space are fully integrated. I have always operated under the notion that art and architecture are combined – the experience is homogenous. Art speaks to space, and space speaks to art. What I do not want is for something I create to look out of place, stuck up there on the wall. I am looking for a marriage and an integration.
The reality is that art interventions can have a powerful impact if treated properly. The ways in which we interact with our environment, in both material and immaterial ways, are the ways we form our lives. When art becomes less of an object and more of a trigger for experience, it becomes a vehicle for self-expression and a chance to tell your story. I want to help tell your story.
I have my first couple of clients right now, and our goal is to create purposeful, clear, creative, energetically-filled space. With that said, my services will include a house smudging in order to clear stuck energy out of your home. To be perfectly frank, it is a requirement if I am going to work with you. We all need a clear space to collaborate together! The intention and end goal is to create a space that is integral to your home and fuels your creativity day in and day out.
As a Travel Blogger: For the past few years, Danielle, my sister, and I have gotten text message after text message asking for recommendations from our jaunts around the globe, almost on a weekly-biweekly basis. The business kind of created itself, out of thin air. My sisters and I travel to at least five new places a year, and we have become experts in the incredibly diverse vacation – luxury and grit, activity and calm, Michelin starred dinners and street food. We believe the best vacation walks the line between these two opposites.
There are a lot of travel blogs out there, and most tend to walk one line (ie – the backpackers special, luxury travel for one, etc). Also, a lot of travel blogs are created by people who do not actually have a 9-5 job. As daughters of corporate America, we firmly believe that you can be a contributing member of society and also have time to travel and take pause for yourself. It does not have to be one or the other.
As my two sisters and I start to create the content for the Oxford Comma, a travel blog aimed to provide honest reviews of our travels and custom itineraries for others, we have each taken on our favorite portion of vacationing. Danielle – people and culture. Adriana – paths, hiking, and activity. Gabriella – places and party.
To me, the active vacation is the only vacation. Spending the whole day outside will always, without fail, restore me back to wholeness. Active travelling is a reminder of my childlike excitement and wonder – being in a country where I am ignorant of almost everything. Suddenly, I am five years old again, with open and curious eyes.
Walking the world has taught me that there are no shortcuts to any place worth going. It has instilled in me a deep reverence for our planet – of its cultures, its people, its beauty. The most beautiful places often take a heck of a lot of grit to get to, and it is always worth it. You can never tell what untold secrets any little humble path may lead, if you only follow it far enough.
Together – people, paths, and places – form our reviews. We believe these things create really profound moments and life experience. “Those who dwell among the beauties and mysteries of the earth are never alone or weary of life. You are not separate from the whole. You are one with the sun, the earth, the air. You don’t have a life. You are a life.”
6. What advice would you give to female entrepreneurs in the beginning stages of launching their brand or business?
“And then I realized that to be more alive I had to be less afraid so I did it. I lost my fear and gained my whole life.”
7. Anything else you want to share with our readers?
Just do the damn thing! Great things never came from comfort zones.
Follow me on Instagram:
#adrianasadventures
#walktheworld
Website:
https://adrianaoxford.squarespace.com/
The Oxford Comma – Coming in 2019!
Say Hi!