By Malcolm Butler
Grace Tucker has a different perspective on life after college than most recent graduates.
In fact, the 22-year-old’s mindset is downright atypical when asked what’s next following her graduation from Louisiana Tech University in May.
“My goal in life is to never use my degree,” Grace said with a laugh.
Wait, what?
Grace doesn’t mean that as a knock on her mass communication education. Rather, it’s simply an honest reflection of the dream she’s been chasing for years.
“I want to be a full-time artist,” said Grace, who grew up on a farm in Horatio, Arkansas — a town of 920. “That’s always been the dream. The communications degree was important, but my goal has always been to make a living creating art.”
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After transferring to Tech following one year at Ouachita Baptist University, she initially pursued studio art before realizing she wanted to spend more time creating the kind of work she loved rather than producing assignments for grades.
“I realized I was spending all of my time making art for classes instead of making the art I actually wanted to make,” Grace said. “I wanted more time to build my portfolio and paint murals.”
Instead, she switched her major to mass communication, allowing her to continue pursuing her artistic goals while earning a college degree.
“My parents always told me, ‘Get your degree. You can do whatever you want after that,'” Grace said. “I wanted to honor that because they’ve supported me so much. The communications degree was my way of keeping that promise while still chasing my dream.”
That dream has already begun taking shape.
From downtown Ruston to classrooms at A.E. Phillips Laboratory School, churches and businesses, Grace’s colorful murals have become part of the landscape of Lincoln Parish. Last summer, that dream carried her across the country to Oregon, where she completed another large-scale mural project.
Along the way, she has discovered that murals are about much more than paint.
“I really enjoy making things lighthearted and joyful,” Grace said. “I want people to enjoy looking at them. You don’t have to pay money to go into a museum to experience art. A mural is something everyone gets to enjoy.”
Grace admits her artwork hasn’t always reflected the bright colors and cheerful themes that have become her trademark.
“Part of what got me into art in high school was that… high school’s hard on everybody, but I was real sad in high school, angry, you know, real emotional,” Grace said. “I was using art all the time to express how I was feeling.”
She said much of her early work was “very sad, very depressing, very dark.”
Today, however, her philosophy has changed.
“Even though life is tough, I’m always trying to bring positivity,” Grace said.
Whitney Causey, a professor in Louisiana Tech’s School of Design, remembers Grace volunteering her own time to help paint one of Tech’s early mural projects at MedCamps of Louisiana even though she wasn’t enrolled in the class.
“She was really interested in doing murals,” Causey said. “She volunteered her time and came out on days when some of the other students weren’t able to be there. She was donating her time and trying to learn from the process.
“She’s a really driven person. If something piques her interest, she goes for it, and she’s not scared to ask for help and learn from someone else. That’s everything I ask for in a student.”
A perfectionist in some ways.
“She was always seeking outside advice and wanting feedback on her own work and mural designs,” said Causey. “That’s just a rare find in students nowadays.
“It takes extreme self-discipline and a drive to put yourself and your artwork out there constantly. You’ve got to get face time with people in the community so they learn your name and think about you when they think about art.”
That advice may explain what happened next.
“I knew in the summer of 2025 that I wanted to paint something in Ruston,” said Grace. “I wanted to get my name out here somehow.”
Rather than waiting for an opportunity to find her, Grace went looking for one.
“I would be skateboarding around campus, and I kept skating past the studio,” said Grace. “You could just see through the windows, and there was all this artwork inside. I kept skating past and skating past. Finally I said, ‘I just need to go in there. I don’t know what this place is.'”
Local artist Loretta Owens remembers the day Grace walked into her downtown gallery after repeatedly driving past the building and noticing a large blank exterior wall.
“She just came in off the street,” Owens recalled. “She told me she liked to do murals and had been looking at that wall. She asked if I’d ever thought about putting a mural on it.”
Owens had thought about adding a mural for years but had never found the right artist. Grace came prepared.
“She said, ‘I’ll draw you up some things. You can tell me what you’re interested in, and if you don’t like what I do, you can tell me,'” Owens said.
That straightforward approach immediately impressed the longtime artist.
“I really thought she was a gifted young woman, and she works hard,” Owens said.
The two collaborated on a design celebrating Ruston’s history and Louisiana Tech. During the process, Owens suggested the mural needed more color. Rather than resisting the feedback, Grace embraced it.
“She went back out there and added some more color,” Owens said. “She worked hard on it. She did the correct preparation of the wall, and that’s just as important as what you put on it if you want it to last.”
As Grace’s portfolio continued to grow, so did the variety of projects she was entrusted to complete.
A few of those brought her to A.E. Phillips Laboratory School, where most recently third-grade teacher Alli Smith had only a rough concept for a classroom mural.
“I gave kind of a very amateur mock-up of what I thought my students would like, and Grace took my little idea and turned it into something bigger than I ever imagined,” Smith said.
Smith said Grace’s creativity extended far beyond simply recreating the sketch she was given.
“She took our school colors and different elements from the school that I hadn’t even thought about or never dreamed of, and she just brought it to life,” Smith said.
For Grace, every mural eventually becomes part of someone else’s story. One project, in particular, changed her perspective. After traveling to Klamath, Oregon to paint a mural last summer, she realized there was a good chance she might never see it again.
“When I was putting the last touches on it and taking pictures, it really hit me that I may never see this piece of artwork ever again,” said Grace. “All I have are the pictures I took. That was really bittersweet. I was thinking about that whenever I was flying back, that it was one final goodbye.”
Instead of feeling disappointed, she found the thought surprisingly meaningful.
“That is my mark that I left, and I hope it brings joy to people,” said Grace. “That was the whole point — that it educates people a little bit and shows them what Klamath has to offer. And then I just had to say goodbye.”
The mural would remain long after she had left, becoming part of that community’s story just as her work has become part of Lincoln Parish.
“I want people to feel happy when they see my work,” she said. “If I can brighten someone’s day just by painting a wall, that’s a pretty amazing thing.”
Those interested in following Grace’s work or inquiring about a mural project can reach her by email at gracetucker.art@gmail.com, follow her on Instagram at @ggpaintbigwalls, or find her on Facebook under Grace Tucker.
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