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.

Zack Rosebrugh | Artist and Illustrator

I knew pretty early on that I wanted to do something creative or artistic as a career, but didn’t decide on visual art until the end of college. I did three years of film school thinking that was the answer, but realized in that time that I had a hard time expressing myself or feeling excited about a project that required so much collaboration and dependency on others– I wanted to oversee the product from beginning to end, and didn’t want to have to jump through a bunch of hoops to do it. Which just isn’t how filmmaking works, typically. Especially as a career. Read more>>

Elisa Pittella | Photographer

My father was a painter and a sculptor, so I grew up surrounded by art. My brother was also a photographer. Our walls were adorned with artworks, not only by my father, but by other well respected artists, both local and international. I pursued an artistic career because I had a strong desire to express my own truth. Growing up, I struggled to articulate my emotions. This is why I found dance and photography, so that I could express what I needed in a different way. Or maybe they found me? Read more>>

Lauren Elisabeth | Photographer – Fashion, Portraits, Events, Life.

I have always been imaginative and found ways to express that. I remember writing stories when I was a kid. When I was in high school, I picked up a camera for the first time and I haven’t put it down since. I always knew I wanted to create – in some form or another. After college, I tried a few more standard 9-5 jobs, but they never suited me. When I moved to LA, I worked for a number of other photographers for about a decade, Read more>> 

Ben Pearson | Session Guitarist, Vocalist, Composer, Guitar Instructor

From an early age, I didn’t really have a good idea of what I wanted to do, I’d hop from imagined dream job to dream job for whatever reason until I found a part that was boring, then quickly lose interest. Music was a constant presence in my household however. Neither my parents or grandparents were musicians, but all of them had a deep appreciation for the art form. Read more>>

Ashley Loth | Photographer

Since I can remember , I’ve always had a camera in my hand. I was the kid on field trips and band trips with 3 disposable cameras taking pictures of everything. When I was in highschool I started interning at a local radio rock station in my hometown of Richmond, Virginia. I worked for them for 13 years and became their lead photographer for all their festivals, shows and events. Music has always been a love of mine but I could never play an instrument and people would pay me not to sing along with songs, so I found another way to pay tribute to music. I became a music photographer. Read more>>

Nathalia Rodriguez | Photographer & Creative Director

I feel most creative when I take portraits of people. The endless amount of ways to document personalities, culture, and history through an image drives me towards portrait photography. I learned about the beauty of character by taking photos of my Dad working construction, with dried up concrete on his hat. He probably thinks he looks his absolute worst but to me that’s culture and authenticity. My Mother saw my passion and said “Go for it.” Growing up in a latino household, it was not realistic to pursue a creative career. However, I was blessed with one of the greatest support systems and both my parents are the reason I keep going. Read more>>

Melisa Dora | Ceramicist

I have always had a passion for art and design but I never thought I would have a career in it. From the ages 5-15 I was a national artistic gymnast. Sadly, my career as a gymnast ended prematurely due to a severe knee injury during one of my training sessions. I grew up in a creative household. Whether it was learning from my dad building many objects from scratch in his garage to admiring the beautiful and delicious meals my mum and dad would make from their Turkish and Swiss nationalities which were presented on many different types of tableware pieces. Read more>>

Mela Rogers | Graphic Novelist and Illustrator

Creating art has been something I’ve done ever since I was a little kid! I’ve always been obsessed with writing and drawing and playing music, and luckily I grew up with a family that was extremely encouraging and supportive of my creative endeavors. Telling stories is all I’ve ever wanted to do with my life, and after getting my degree in Sequential Art I was able to make that my professional reality! Read more>>

Kate Stern | Independent Art Curator

I think I was born with a creative mind and it just expressed itself in different ways throughout my life. So it was a natural for me to enter a creative field. It’s also in my genes. My father was a successful television writer and my mother is a wonderful sculptor as well as an actress. My grandfather owned the largest costume company in America which designed costumes for all the early broadway shows, the Zigfield Follies and the circus. Read more>>

Francisco Mota | Creative Director & Graphic Designer

Since I could remember I’ve had a creative mind. I’ve always had the idea that the light bulb is the perfect metaphor for creativity and ideas because, like the light bulb, great ideas often seem to turn on at the flick of the a switch. It’s that quick. Like artist creating art, GOD created the most beautiful art of all. LIFE. It surrounds us and we always have that question. What is art? Are we art? I have believed that we are. We think, we vision and dream. The creative mind never shuts down. That switch is always on and I knew that it was GOD’s creation of me that I must express my artistic gift to the world.  Read more>>

Demian Tejeda-Benitez | Professional Photographer

I’ve been an artistic person my entire life. My parents have stories of them catching me drawing multiple times, things that seemed a little more advanced than what a typical kid can do. I was more interested in art than sports. I enjoyed going to museums and being absolutely stunned with the paintings, marble sculptures, and architecture. In Highschool, we were told to start looking at what we might be interested in doing as a career and I noticed that a lot of students would choose careers that weren’t exactly exciting in any manner, but gave them job and financial security. Read more>>

RAIGN (Rachel Rabin) | Artist / Songwriter / Producer / Composer and Founder of Millionaire London Records

As a youth, I always struggled with the Question, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” I was very academic at school but always a creative thinker with an artistic personality; however, it never dawned on me I could do a creative job. I was always told I should do something academic, which I also loved, so I went to university to study civil engineering. Read more>>

Michael Antonio Keane | Multi Award Winning Filmmaker and Actor

In a way the profession chose me! Filmmaking was something I was always drawn towards since I was a kid and now the film industry is the place where I get to discover my true passion and devotion for what I like to do, which is to create films. I wasn’t born into a creative family who had been artists so I had to teach myself over time I made my mistakes but learned to overcome those and consistently improve my craft. With every new project, I gained new skills and met new like-minded people which overall benefited me hugely. Read more>>

Aline Salloum | Actress

My creative journey started intuitively and organically even though I was a shy child and this career wouldn’t have necessarily been predicted for me. My draw to acting came from an instinctive place rather than a calculated or inherited one. In this art form, I have found ultimate joy within the excitement and certain courage within the challenges. However, deciding to make my passion a profession is a daily conscious choice that comes with a will to overcome numerous obstacles. More often than not, finding this path is the result of a unique and particular revelatory moment, but the choice to stay is definitely an ongoing journey. Read more>>

Dasmin Cloe | Film Photographer

I’m Haitian, so naturally I was exposed to some of the most beautiful art, food and music. My family was always very big on capturing moments throughout generations. I grew up with hundreds and hundreds of family photos from my great grandmother to my baby sisters, Becoming a film photographer, felt so organic to me because it was something that was apart of my life growing up. Read more>>

Jennifer Gionfriddo | Actress, Model, Singer

When we’re young, we’re always presented with the question, ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’ My answer was always to be a singer and an actress. Somewhere between being a child and turning into an adult, I lost the permission I gave myself to do just that and instead sought to obtain a “real job”. But no matter what jobs I pursued, I continued to find myself excitedly and passionately doing one-off creative projects – things people would naturally approach me to collaborate with them about like promo modeling, backup singing. Read more>>

Ria Ocampo | Associate Creative Director

I knew I wanted to do something creative at a very young age. Maybe I watched too much TV, it looked like it could be a fun career and I just had to do something like it. As kids, my brother and I would play with a camcorder and recreate commercials. Fast forward, I ended up taking Marketing Communications in college. I had one class on Copywriting & Art Direction, Read more>>

Berit Freutel | Astrologer

I have Venus in Pisces in the 10th house, at the highest point of my chart and she holds hands with my Mars in Scorpio in the 5th. In plain English, that means: I want to create Art and “Spread The Love” (Mars is your will/drive and Venus is what you like). I’d say: Loving Art and The Art Of Love => are natural expressions of parts of my soul. Read more>>

Rachel Escalera | Singer/Songwriter/Zumba Instructor

I think we all have unique gifts and abilities that we can share with the world. Singing and dancing are my passion. I have found a way to connect with others and make a career out of the things I love to do most. Read more>>

Hye Jeon Jeon | Animation Producer & Comic Artist

While I’ve been creating things since I was a little kid, I actually didn’t aim to pursue art when I was a teenager because I, like many others, thought creativity was something that you “got over” as you grew older. I remember being miserable because everyone else seemed to have some kind of passion in life. Some really wanted to be a doctor and some really wanted to be a lawyer. Many of my high school friends are indeed doctors and lawyers now. But back then, there were even fewer opportunities for artists. Read more>>