Deciding to pursue an artistic or creative career path isn’t for the faint of heart. Challenges will abound, but so many of the artists we speak with couldn’t be happier with their choice. So, we asked them about how they made the decision in the first place.

Mackenzie Rae Lord

I have always been a creative person but fear held me back in identifying myself as an artist for most of my life. When I made the decision to get sober five years ago I instantly knew that to continue on this new path I would have to live honestly. That meant pursuing my passions as a working artist. Read More>>

Jade Faria

I was a very creative child overall. I remember always playing and always having fun with what I now understand as expressive experiences. I used to say I was going to grow up to be a dancer or singer or actress or painter or writer… so I believe it was already something that I was inclined to. Read More>>

Aidan Wood

I was very fortunate to grow up in a creative household. With my father being a painter and my mother a writer, I was always accustomed to the idea of pursuing a life as an artist. Read More>>

DADA KIM

I’m fascinated by stories. The ones we’ve carried mouth to mouth since the beginning of humanity. The ones we invent to explain the sky, our neighbors, our mistakes. The ones we tell to teach, to entertain, to survive awkward dinners. We create to understand ourselves. It feels innate to me. The truth is, I feel a lot. Read More>>

Marial Moreno Gómez

Movies changed the way I see the world. They put me inside lives that were not my own and let me understand people I would never meet otherwise. A film could take me into someone else’s circumstances and make their reasoning and their feelings clear to me, even when they were nothing like mine. Those experience stayed with me. Read More>>

Roz Stanley

This endeavor of this type of career has pursued me as much as I have pursued it. I think it was more about answering the call because the life of an artist is a calling. It’s not linear. It’s not the type of career where you graduate and get the next degree to move up the ladder of that industry. Read More>>

Lisa Cheek

When I graduated from college, I knew a nine to five job wasn’t me, but my father wanted me to join the navy or work in accounting. After I left home, I never made my bed and couldn’t envision myself wearing a tan or white uniform every day all week long so the navy was out. Read More>>

Auxilia

I pursued a creative career because I’ve always enjoyed expressing ideas visually and through storytelling. In a creative career, you’re constantly learning and evolving, and you get the opportunity to work with different brands, people, and industries, which keeps the work exciting and inspiring. Read More>>

 Jesse Cilio

I was at Club Limelight in NYC with my older cousin when I was 9 . I got discovered by the director Larry Clark where he asked us if we wanted to be in the movie he was doing . Which turned out to be the movie “Kids “. In the end we only ended up being extras in the part in the club and skating around Washington Square Park . Read More>>