Wiley, who painted the presidential portrait for former President Barack Obama: “My first thought was that no one makes it as a painter. I was just looking around at the landscape of contemporary art, which was pretty dry in Southern California during the ’90s. There was no modeling for success when it came to a job in the arts. So I thought that my best option would probably be in arts education. … I just knew that that would enable me to support my art habit.”