{"id":773081,"date":"2026-05-04T17:48:35","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T17:48:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/773081\/"},"modified":"2026-05-04T17:48:35","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T17:48:35","slug":"see-work-by-local-muralist-on-phoenix-waymo-cars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/773081\/","title":{"rendered":"See work by local muralist on Phoenix Waymo cars"},"content":{"rendered":"

The late afternoon sun cast long shadows across the storefront as Nicole Poppell stood on a ladder with a paintbrush in hand, adding the final details to a butterfly\u2019s wing. It was October in Phoenix, cooler than the brutal summer months, but still hot enough to make the work demanding. Mosquitos swarmed around her as she painted, leaving her arms dotted with bites she\u2019d discover later. But Poppell barely noticed. She was focused on getting the asymmetry just right.<\/p>\n

The mural, which spread across the side of Buena Vida Bodega in Phoenix\u2019s Garfield neighborhood<\/a>, wasn\u2019t like her typical work. Where her other pieces often featured clean symmetry and bold geometric patterns, this one deliberately broke Poppell\u2019s own rules. A butterfly sits at the center against a backdrop of earth tones, browns, greens and muted oranges that felt more grounded than her earlier bright pinks and sherbet color palette. Across the middle, a phrase her friend Jackie Garay had written: \u201cYou are alive on Mother Earth. Take care of her, you and each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

Poppell chose the Arizona sister butterfly specifically because Garay, her best friend from college and the bodega\u2019s owner, was like a sister to her. And this mural, painted just before Garay sold the business, would remain as a testament to their friendship, and to something else Poppell was still figuring out about herself.<\/p>\n

At 30-something, Nicole Poppell has become one of Phoenix\u2019s most recognizable muralists. Her abstract patterns and organic shapes appear on the sides of offices, homes and, most recently, on the Waymo autonomous vehicles<\/a> that started cruising through Phoenix in 2020 and are now rapidly expanding to many other cities nationwide. But behind the vibrant public art and growing business success lies a deeper journey, one of an artist discovering her own identity while helping transform Phoenix into the art city she believes it can become.<\/p>\n

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Poppell never intended to be an artist. Growing up, she doodled constantly in her notebooks, influenced by her father, a graphic designer. But like many creatives of her generation, she internalized the message that you couldn\u2019t make money as an artist.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThat wasn\u2019t really big when I was younger,\u201d Poppell says. \u201cI feel like I was told often that you can\u2019t make money as an artist. You can see how true that is now.\u201d<\/p>\n

So she took what seemed like the practical path, studying graphic design and then interior design at Arizona State University. After an internship at the architecture firm Gensler in San Francisco, she was offered a job right out of college. She moved to the Bay Area, ready to launch her career.<\/p>\n

\u201cI realized as soon as I started how intense just sitting at a computer all day was,\u201d she says. \u201cThe lifestyle was really hard.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

One of Poppell\u2019s Waymo designs.<\/p>\n

Courtesy of Grant Johnson<\/p>\n

Her husband, Christian Poppell, an architect who met Nicole at a Gensler company party, watched as she navigated the corporate world.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor her, being in corporate America was not the right fit,\u201d he says. \u201cI think for many people, going from the corporate world to out of that, it\u2019s kind of like going from a safe place to an uneasy place. But I think for her, her safe space is outside the corporate setting.\u201d<\/p>\n

After Gensler, she moved to a company that created large-scale sculptural pieces. Then came COVID-19 in 2020, and with it, the push Poppell needed. In 2021, she and Christian moved back to Phoenix, and she officially launched Mural Mates, her mural business.<\/p>\n

\u201cPhoenix is a much easier place to start a business,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s a more affordable place to live, compared to San Francisco, so it felt less scary to start a business here.\u201d<\/p>\n

To understand Poppell\u2019s approach to art, you have to go back to her first year at ASU and a notoriously demanding professor named Andy Weed. In the design program, Weed is something of a legend for being a difficult professor. Poppell, characteristically, sought him out.<\/p>\n

Weed\u2019s teaching philosophy centers on simplicity and precision. He had students paint squares that had to be exact within a millimeter. It sounds straightforward, but as Poppell discovered during countless all-nighters, it was anything but.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was incredibly hard,\u201d she says. \u201cBut it was the most fun I think I\u2019ve ever had learning.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

For Weed, the exercise was never about precision for its own sake.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about being simple,\u201d Weed says. \u201cThe opposite of simple isn\u2019t complex, which a lot of people think it is. When you\u2019re making something simple, the slightest anomaly is going to be visible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fifteen years later, Weed still sees those lessons in Poppell\u2019s work, particularly in her sophisticated understanding of color theory.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what strikes me, is that she\u2019s still aware of those things we worked on a long time ago,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\"\"One of Nicole Poppell\u2019s Waymo designs.<\/p>\n

What distinguishes Poppell in Phoenix\u2019s growing art scene isn\u2019t just her talent, it\u2019s her ability to bridge the worlds of art and business. Her background in design means she can speak the language of corporate clients, translating their brand identity into clean, modern murals.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m able to communicate and translate their specific vision,\u201d she says. \u201cThere aren\u2019t a lot of artists that specifically do that, and I think that\u2019s what might make me ideal for businesses.\u201d<\/p>\n

Most of her clients find her through her website or by seeing her work around the city. Word spreads organically. Garay notes that Poppell moves through the world with a \u201cquiet confidence\u201d letting her work speak for itself, rather than constantly self-promoting.<\/p>\n

Nicole\u2019s artistic presence is \u201ciconic around the city,\u201d says Garay, who owned Buena Vida Bodega until the end of October. \u201cShe lets the work speak for itself, truly. And I just really admire her.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Muros, a Chicago-based curation company, reached out last year about designing wraps for Waymo\u2019s autonomous vehicles, Poppell hesitated. She\u2019d built her reputation by carefully choosing clients whose values aligned with her own. Robots in cars made her think.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think all of us have reservations around robots in general, and so I had to really think about it,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Her conclusion?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the core, I see nothing wrong with Waymos if it\u2019s well-intentioned,\u201d she says. As an avid cyclist, she said she feels safer around the autonomous vehicles than human drivers in Phoenix.<\/p>\n

\"\"Nnuzzo is a name that Poppell uses in conjunction with her art.<\/p>\n

Courtesy of Grant Johnson<\/p>\n

For the project, she created two designs focused on the feelings of riding in a Waymo. One featured a bird, representing the freedom to daydream and zone out. The other, a collage of Arizona wildlife and patterns, captured being the observer, watching the world pass by without the stress of driving. She wanted viewers to discover new details with each look.<\/p>\n

The first time she spotted her design on a car in the wild felt magical. Friends across multiple cities like San Francisco, Austin and Los Angeles began sending her photos.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While Poppell excels at client work, she\u2019s increasingly drawn to exploring her personal artistic voice. This past year marked a turning point.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI never really understood where I felt like I fit in,\u201d she says. \u201cI think I just never fully felt like I fit in. A lot of that history just didn\u2019t get passed down, and no fault to my parents.\u201d<\/p>\n

A DNA test two years ago revealed Indigenous ancestry Poppell hadn\u2019t known about. Growing up in Phoenix with brown skin, raised in a white suburb and never learning Spanish, she\u2019d always felt caught between worlds.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s something interesting about knowing her background, how she says she\u2019s finding her identity, because it just feels more rooted in the natural landscape and those Southwest tones,\u201d Garay says.<\/p>\n

Despite her success, Poppell wrestles with questions many artists face. She\u2019s begun incorporating more of her personal style into client work, curious to see how it might shift her clientele. Most importantly, she\u2019s thinking about sustainability and scale.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy brain is wired half loving business and half loving art, and that creates a perfect combination to have an art business,\u201d she says. \u201cBut not everyone has that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

She\u2019s passionate about educating other artists on running businesses, protecting themselves from exploitation, and understanding their worth. Lately, she\u2019s been pushing herself to bring more of her own identity into her work, curious how that shift might change the kinds of projects and clients she attracts. That means continuing to bring public art to Phoenix through grant projects, painting new murals in neighborhoods like Sunnyslope, and letting her personal voice show up more clearly in everything she makes.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Poppell\u2019s art can be seen around Phoenix.<\/p>\n

Back at Buena Vida Bodega, Poppell finally climbed down from her ladder, the butterfly complete. The mural will outlast Garay\u2019s ownership of the space, remaining as a permanent marker of their friendship and this moment in Poppell\u2019s artistic evolution.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like this childlike curiosity just lightens up with both of us,\u201d Garay says about spending time with Poppell. \u201cMy favorite time ever is just really hanging out and sharing space with her and being able to witness her and her talents, and then be able to just play alongside her, like two kids in the playground would.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Poppell, art has always been about more than aesthetics. It\u2019s about breaking up the mundane, inspiring thought, creating moments of joy and whimsy when you turn a corner. But increasingly, it\u2019s also about something more personal. It\u2019s about finding belonging, understanding her roots, and expressing an identity she\u2019s still discovering with each brushstroke.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like for once I\u2019m not really planning 20 years down the line,\u201d she said. \u201cI am happy with where I am right now, and I think you can learn so much about yourself when you just take that jump.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The late afternoon sun cast long shadows across the storefront as Nicole Poppell stood on a ladder with…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":773082,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5131],"tags":[5229,5643,1587,1589,11642,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-773081","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-phoenix","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-arizona","10":"tag-az","11":"tag-phoenix","12":"tag-public-art","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-united-states-of-america","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","17":"tag-us","18":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116517569755498624","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=773081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773081\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/773082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=773081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=773081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=773081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}