Artists and creatives face innumerable challenges given that their career path often doesn’t come with a playbook, a steady paycheck or any form of safety net. It’s definitely not easy and so we asked a few of the artists and creatives we admire to talk to us about why they chose to pursue an artistic or creative career.

Charlotte Jackson | SevvTheArtist, Singer/Songwriter

I’m pursuing an artistic career because I’m an artist. I love music, I love putting together sounds and creating melodies. It allows me to be vulnerable, and true to self, while also connecting with other people that can relate. Read more>>

Haiqi Liao | Interior Designer

By nature, I am hypersensitive to my surrounding environment. Lighting, material, texture, sound, color, and other elements of a space affect the way I feel and think. This led to my fascination with observing how spaces are designed. It fuels a desire to innovate within existing structures, and to create spaces that evoke unique emotions. Read more>>

Michael Parks | Paint Contracror & Visual Artist

My journey into the creative realm, still in its infancy, has been shaped by a series of defining moments, each one guiding me to its inception. It began with a deep-seated yearning for something more, a desire to invest my heart into a pursuit that my professional life alone couldn’t satisfy, a craving only a passion-driven endeavor could fulfill. Read more>>

Asha Helaire | Actress, Singer, Writer & Inspirationationalist

Growing up as a child, I would always express myself through creative art whether it was writing, singing, acting, drawing or dancing. I think it’s in my blood. Like it’s a part of my destiny or my soul’s journey. Read more>>

Ignatius Jonathan Sugijono | Digital Compositor

I pursued an artistic and creative career because, despite graduating from a top STEM high school in my hometown, Indonesia, I discovered a profound sense of fulfillment and freedom in creative journey. While my academic background exposed me to the rigorous world of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, which I am glad that I learned all of those subjects, I found that engaging in creative activities allowed me to explore a realm where I felt a genuine sense of passion and personal connection. This realization became even more pronounced as I got into the field of visual effects (VFX) as a compositor. Read more>>

Olivia J | Director, Cinematographer, Video Editor

I have always had a love for art and performing arts. I naturally gravitated towards these fields as a child. I’ve been doing some form of creative endeavor since I was able to walk and talk! Read more>>

Karine Dieuvil | Actress and Creative Strategist

The most powerful realization I have come to is learning that there is nothing more reverent or admirable than submitting to your calling. I have somehow found myself amid this humbling ecosystem of ancient storytellers and at this point, I have a duty to serve that calling with the respect it demands. My name is Karine Dieuvil and I am an actress, producer, and creative consultant. I’ve always been hungry to maximize my impact while continuing to work in a dynamic environment that demands versatility. As a servant leader, I wanted to consistently interconnect my work to the growth and development of my team, and the world around me, through a purpose-driven mission. From establishing and funding non-profit organizations, to project managing the market launch of brands’ top-selling offerings, I made a steadfast commitment to exploring the lengths of my analytical and technical skills while stretching the use of my creativity. And resoundingly, I still found myself yearning to do more (guess that is at the heart of why I chose entrepreneurship, a 24/7 job). When I couldn’t find the perfect space to stretch the multiplicity of my skills, I just had to create it. Running a full-service creative consulting agency and media company is about balancing the driving digital motivation for lead generation and client development, optimizing the company’s online interface for maximized visibility, and aligning the brand’s media assets and identity to the company’s quantifiable objectives and mission. I love love love the dimensionality of the work, how narrative-driven the execution of my projects evolves, and how it honors my gifts as an artist in strategically distributing content that calls to me. Read more>>

Wavess Da Artist | entertainer, recording artist & tv personality

Majority of my family are artists or have a musical background and you can say “it’s in my blood” I was always told I was always going to be a performer! music is my passion and I couldn’t see it not apart of my life. Read more>>

Saytue Saye | Author, Artist Manager, Poet, Medium

As the manager for Liberia’s international musician Friday the Legend, alongside being a poet, author, and medium, I believe creativity has always been intertwined with my essence, perhaps a mutual choice. My life has been a tapestry of artistic endeavors, from poetry writing since the age of 10 to abstract painting, music, blogging, and hosting my own radio show, “Mixture of Arts with Saytue Saye.” Introduced to poetry by my sister Sylvia, I found a natural aptitude for it, often crafting verses for friends and participating in poetry clubs. Music, ranging from various genres like trap, gangsta, crunk, and more, deeply influences me, although I lean more towards poetry than rapping. This inclination led me to blend poetry with music, resulting in my album “Lee Nefu e Dii a,” which translates to “that girl” in the Liberian Dahn/Mano language. The creation of a spinal cord injury awareness coloring book stemmed from a personal journey, inspired by my sister’s tragic passing due to a spinal cord injury. Initially intending to support through advocacy, divine intervention guided me towards creating a therapeutic and awareness-raising coloring book titled “Wheels of Happiness: Spinal Cord Injury Awareness Coloring Book.” Its impact became evident when the Shepherd Center in Atlanta, Georgia, purchased 25 copies for their gift shop. Thus, my artistic and creative career path was illuminated by my sister’s presence, revealing my inherent talents and gifts. Read more>>

Derrico Alston | Director/Cinematographer

Creating something out of nothing is very satisfying; knowing that others can benefit from what I’ve created is in itself a reward. Being creative was a huge part of my childhood. For some, it’s the only way they know how to express their feelings and emotions. For me, it’s the freedom of transforming everyday struggles, passion, joy, and thought into a digestible creation and the thought of a story. Visions or creations influencing and shifting ways of thought is what drove me in the path of directing music videos, short films and promos. Read more>>

Summer Ranaldson | Actress & Real Estate Agent

I pursued an artistic and creative career due to the profound impact of performing monologues at the S.T.A.R.S. program’s annual competition, the Black-and-White Ball, in Mobile, Ala., during my formative years. The joy derived from those experiences motivated me to enroll in a filmmaking degree program, providing a platform to delve into my passions for acting and writing. Read more>>

Stephen Smith | National Recording Artist & Saxophonist

I chose to be an artist because I love music. Each chord, each melody, each phrase, each rudiment is a language. That language can speak to, and help inspire someone I’ve never met. Those emotions bring us all one step closer to God’s love. No matter the triumph, or tribulation; as a creative, it is our calling to positively impact others, educate the next generation, and shine our collective light to uplift the beauty of humanity. That in itself is pretty cool, and a lot of fun. Read more>>

Anne Aurand | Art Educator and Artist

Growing up, I always found joy in creating. Whether it was drawing in my sketchbook on long car rides, creating a comic book on the bus with a friend, developing film in the dark room while anticipating the resulting images, or even just laying out an aesthetically pleasing tri-fold display. I knew I wouldn’t be happy with a career that required me to sit in a cubical. When I went to college, all I wanted to do was take art classes– all my parents wanted was for me to find a major that would lead to a stable career. Luckily, I found the best of both worlds with Art Education. Read more>>

Abby Brembs | Illustrator

Hi! Thank you for welcoming me to the platform, it’s truly an honor to share my story! My name is Abby Brembs, I grew up in northern New Jersey in Roxbury Township. There, I was mainly in nature, drawing with chalk, catching butterflies, or doing fun arts and crafts. I have always been close with my family, being the oldest out of 3 siblings I very much have a maternal side looking after them. From the earliest days of my childhood, I naturally became interested in art, creative thinking and the world around me. I was a sensible child with a big imagination who was drawn to creative activities so much so that I would doodle on the white board and test papers in school. Early in my life though, I was diagnosed with ADD and I’ve always struggled to keep pace with traditional classroom learning which led to prolonged feelings of insecurity and self-doubt for a very long time. Still, I often struggle with remembering names, trouble with math, misplacing my tools, dealing with a short attention span for things that don’t pique my interest and sometimes by accident I’ll be dipping my paintbrush in my coffee. These challenges sometimes lead people to perceive me as disengaged or careless, which couldn’t be further from the truth. In reality, I’m deeply invested and attentive in the things I love to do. Having ADD has forced me to find alternative ways to showcase my strengths. I participated in numerous extracurricular activities and made hobbies such as cheerleading, ceramics, spring track, theater, photography, painting, drawing, and choir where I flourished with honors. In high school, I would bounce back from the art room to the auditorium for choir practices with paint still splattered on me, then to the football field for either track or cheerleading games and practices. I found creativity in most things, when I was one of the Captains in cheerleading, coached junior cheerleaders, and babysat for years I realized I became a role model to those younger, and it definitely made me happiest that my efforts made a difference and even better, helping others! I found influence in the world around me as I learned that there are many ways art can be translated. It became clear to pursue a career within the arts once I left high school. I went to County College of Morris with a great art program, and graduated with an Associate’s degree in Visual Arts. There, I learned the principles and histories of art, got my hands on all art materials such as clay, paint, charcoal, pastel while taking preliminary classes. I found myself drawn to creating art with raw materials, blending and layering them to craft captivating pieces. This process wasn’t just therapeutic but also demanded my focus on the details. Exploring art with a heartfelt approach, I admired landscape artists like Claude Monet for their use of color and started experimenting with impasto techniques and favored landscape paintings during this time. My preferred mediums were pen, pastel, charcoal, and acrylic paint. I drew much of my inspiration from observing and studying nature, particularly from places I’ve visited and cherished such as the beaches and lakes near me. Read more>>

Donna Black | Novelist, columnist, poet

I’ve always had creative drive. Earlier is was in visual arts: drawing, painting, photography. Although I enjoyed technical and business writing in my science based career, I didn’t begin writing fiction until I was in my 30’s. Once I a found the medium to spill out all the things I puzzled over, notice, pondered, imagined there was no stopping my pen. I had always imagined conversation in my mind – conversation I would like to ‘do over,’ ones I’d like to have, ones I tried out just to see where they would lead. Now, I had a place and a method to capture those musings. Frankly, I never intended to share the works with anyone. But, over time, there were pieces I thought others might enjoy or relate to. At this point, I’ve written a lot of poetry to play with words and concepts, but my major output is two-fold: a weekly natural history column/blog, and a number of novels. I would continue to write even if no one read the material. I can’t not write. Read more>>

Amani Mansur | Social Media Marketing and Management | User Acquisitions | Brand Consulting | Data Analysis

Well, you know, it’s not really something I pursued; it’s more like it found me everywhere I went. I’ve always had this artsy and creative eye, and honestly, I got tired of stepping into spaces that didn’t quite resonate with who I am. I found myself assimilating into audiences that didn’t fully appreciate my creative perspective. Read more>>