Chevy Chase native Alexa Meade went from a future in politics, and being one of the youngest interns on Capitol Hill at the age of 15, to painting all over the world.
When Meade graduated from Vassar College, it was perhaps every parent’s worst nightmare.
Her parents, Linda and Phil, sent their daughter to one of the most expensive universities on the planet to get a degree in political science. She wanted to be a politician.
“Growing up in Washington, D.C., I was obsessed with Capitol Hill,” said Meade.
At the time, her dream was to someday run for office. But, that all changed one day when she started playing with paint in her parents' basement.
After graduating with honors and a job offer, she told her parents something they'll never forget.
“She said, ‘dad, I want to be an artist,’ said Phil Meade, Alexa’s father. “[my wife] went ballistic."
At the time, Meade had no art experience. By going into her parents’ basement in Chevy Chase, Maryland — she created a whole new art movement. Instead of painting on canvas — she started painting on everything else.
“She was painting all over the walls of our basement, her backgrounds, and I'd go down there and it would be like — (gasp),” said Linda Meade, Alexa’s mother.
“She painted food,” said Phil.
She actually put paint on a fried egg and a grapefruit. Then she started painting the furniture.
“There was a lot of times where my mom would say, ‘that's too beautiful don't get paint on it,’” Meade said.
Today, Alexa Meade's art is exploding onto the world stage. It's so new, so different, people are often confused by what they're seeing.
She now lives in Los Angeles and sells prints of her work. She's also storing the furniture and everything else she's painted…and will one-day sell "that art" as well.
Today, she's jetting around the world — in hot demand for her art.
“By covering the whole three-dimensional world in a mask of paint I can make it look like a two dimensional painting,” Meade said.
Her subjects become the canvas.
“She's really accomplished an amazing amount,” said Linda. “I can't believe it.”
Meade sometimes puts her painted subjects into the real world.
“There's no Photoshop there's nothing going on,” said Phil.
“There's so many places this could go which is really exciting,” said Alexa. Essentially the whole world is my canvas.
“I really want to paint an entire building,” she added. “The outside and the inside.”
Her ideal painted building would lead you through a world completely made out of paint.
“You walk into every room and its painted you open the drawers and there's painted objects inside of it,” she said.
Linda and Phil Meade are now happy their daughter followed her passion.
“The thing we're most happy about is that she's self-supportive,” said Phil.
And, for Alexa Meade she's happy she never went into politics.
“I think I like this life as an artist,” she said.
