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.

Melissa Becraft | Dancer and Content Creator

I have a passion for music and dance and I’ve always been a dreamer. There are amazing possibilities for those who work both hard enough and long enough. For me, I dance as much for myself as I do for the next generation of dancers. So many people invest time into their passions as they come of age. When it was time for me to make big life decisions, I wasn’t ready to stop dancing. I wanted it to be my career despite the lack of belief others had in me. Honestly I didn’t even think I could do it, but I tried anyways. I want to be the example to young artists. If 1 person keeps dancing because of me, I’ll feel accomplished. Read more>>

Michelle Flores | Creative Director | Photographer | Entrepreneur

Creativity is something that I’ve possessed from a very young age, so it always really felt like my destiny to fulfill my life’s work through my creative art. When I was just 7 years old, I became obsessed with watching WWD fashion week runway reels. Aweing at the works of Marc Jacobs & Betsey Johnson inspired me from a very young age to pursue becoming a fashion designer. Truly from that moment on, I had my eyes set on being a creative in the world of fashion. Read more>>

Meredith Welborn | Content Creator

I’ve always been very creative. When I was younger, I participated in dance, voice lessons, piano lessons, musical theater, reading, writing, you name it (I also participated in sports, but let’s just say they were not my forté). In college, I majored in creative advertising, journalism and French. While my mother would probably say I have a flare for the dramatic, I think I’m just a good storyteller. And honestly, I think that’s what it all boils down to: storytelling. Read more>>

Ryota Sasaki | Saxophonist & composer

My mother plays piano and has been a huge fan of music, especially Jazz, for a long time. I am so sure about becoming a Jazz musician at the age of 12 when she took me to a Jazz club in Japan for a live Jazz performance for the first time. I started clarinet and saxophone in the school band at the same time. I was not young compared with other musicians and any other Berklee Student which is the college I belong to now. Read more>>

Michelle Lane | Florist

There was never really a decision to pursue a creative career because I have always pursued creative careers. I have never done anything else! Before I found creative expression through floristry, I was always a performing artist. A singer, actor, dancer, “Triple Threat” whose toes once touched the broadway boards in NYC. At the beginning of the Covid pandemic, I lost my creative outlet when theatre shutdown. Read more>>

Clare Brincat | Hula Hoop and Roller Skating performer and Architect

I have always felt energetic through creative pursuits from a young age. I love to produce and absorb creativity at every moment of my day. I have formally trained as an architect as well as a rollerskating, hula hooping performer. These seem like polar opposite careers, but in fact they inform each other regularly. Skills I learn from each discipline can be surprisingly applied to the other – and I feel that one can never surpass importance of the other or I will lack fulfilment. Read more>>

Samuel Shin | Illustrator & Storyboard Artist

I knew at a young age I would make a career out of drawing. It really began with my admiration for comic-book superheroes (both Marvel and DC). My drawing spree kicked-off from reading comics and watching cartoons and movies about superheroes. I typically like to call it my “awakening.” From then on it was just non-stop. I would constantly draw Spider-Man, Batman, Superman, Green Lantern, Hulk, Fantastic 4, Wonder Woman, X-Men, Captain America, Iron Man, etc. Basically everyone and anyone in Marvel and DC. Read more>>

Ty Allen | Conceptual Artist

It’s really the only thing that I can say has always just fascinated me. Growing up I was always told about the idea of a safe job and all that that comes with and the benefits of it. But for me it always seemed like you could never really be you in those environments. I have always enjoyed the idea of creating something from my own mind due to my love of cartoons, anime, movies, etc. I felt like art was something I could use to help express my own personal narrative, while also being able to have that free spirited approach to allow my imagination to run wild. Read more>>

La’Quitia Denson | Wedding & Portrait Photographer

I have always in a way been atristic since I was a little girl. If I wasn’t drawing, I was painting or using my computer’s paint program to draw something. I even went to Moore College, an all girls Art School to pursue a degree in fashion and a minor in graphic design. There is a beauty in art and I was trying to find my own place in it. It just felt right. Free in a way even to just let my mind wander and hands follow. Knowing that I created this piece of art in front of me was liberating. Read more>>

Xuan Liu | Illustrator& Artist

For freedom, in short. The freedom you can find on paper or canvas or drawing tablet is unlimited. There is no rule, no gravity. When I was a kid who was unconfident and hate to go to school, sitting in front of a desk and listening to a math teacher rumbling is like living in jail. Drawing and sketching are the only output for my soul. When my pencil touched the paper, the real world doesn’t exist anymore. I fly to wherever I want, creating anything I like. Read more>>

Halie Milligan | Voice teacher & current student studying music education

I chose to pursue music because it is something that I have always loved. I have sung for as long as I can remember and when It came time to choose a pathway in college, I knew music was the right career for me. It wasn’t until I met my college choir teacher, that I knew I wanted to pursue music education. She inspired me with how much she cared about her students, and how much she cared about creating lifelong musicians, whether they decided to stay in music professionally or not. Read more>>

David Auner, aac | Cinematographer

When I was growing up and in school, I was very interested in many, many different topics. My grandfather was a photographer, who taught me much and piqued my interest in many topics, from arts to sciences. Same for my parents. To this day, that still hasn’t changed. There’s not much I’m not interested in in one form or another. Read more>>

Dante Alba | Actor & Singer

I remember being fascinated by movies and music since I was a little kid. I would turn on the TV at the same time each day to watch my favorite movies. My oldest brother would always play out loud his favorite albums and turn up the radio. My father would try to sing old songs and play classical music. My sister would introduced me new songs and play her children’s music. Read more>>

Kalen Shay | Songwriter, Producer, & Singer

For the first half of my life I can’t remember being musical whatsoever. My parents weren’t musicians and we only listened to radio every now and then. It wasn’t until I started taking piano lessons and playing percussion in 5th grade when music was truly introduced in my life. Not only did it come easy to me, but I couldn’t help but be bored of the music I was learning in my classes and lessons because of how simple they were, so I began to write my own. I was that music student that never practiced but somehow managed to play every piece memorized without issue. Read more>>

Michael Mersereau | Media and sound artist, Film maker, and music

My artistic career slowly revealed itself to me at a rather young age. I knew the arts would be my focus, probably around 11. I had no clue how to go about it or what it meant, but it was a great world for a young introverted child to find. As I got older, the reasons have matured, developed, and even lost. It’s been a unique choice, one that has the potential to work outside of capitalism. It’s not always true, but the arts, specifically my focus on film/video, can pose philosophical, personal, and radical thoughts. What works for me can work differently for someone else. I found the complexity and contradictions of each person or community expression exciting. Read more>>

Kalaisan Kalaichelvan | Composer & Storyteller

I think it was something that sort of snuck up on me, to be honest. I grew up surrounded by music, dance and theatre in my family, from both a Western classical context and a South Asian classical tradition. And I really loved learning and trying to figure out how all these different forms actually worked. I was drawn to classical music as a kid because the internal logic of these pieces of music, whether they’re big orchestral works or small solos, fascinated me. It’s the same reason I fell in love with movies. How were these massive complicated machines, with so many different moving parts, actually made? Read more>>

Mosik | Rapper & Entrepreneur

You know, from the time I was about 11 or 12 years old, my interest for music and simply the arts, really came from being around it. From cleaning the house on Saturdays to Motown music, Gospel, Jazz and Hip-Hop, no matter where I turned, music was there. In the streets of Bronx, NY, and any borough in NYC there is no shortage of art, music, and culture. You could walk one to two blocks away from your apartment and discover the carefully crafted graffiti fill an entire wall with all sorts of shapes, colors, and characters. Read more>>

Mike Visser | Musician

You don’t choose pursuing an artistic or creative career, it chooses you at a certain point in your life. For me (Mike) I was on vacation and I got a chance to witness a friends dad play an acoustic guitar around a campfire and I knew that was what I was going to do. That was the direction I gravitated towards and it’s who I was, it was an aha moment. Read more>>

Jemimah Wei | Writer

I’ve always identified as a writer since I was a child — because I saw writing as a verb, as something you do. Not necessarily something you got paid for. I didn’t think it was possible to be a writer, professionally, but I’d always done things that were writing adjacent — I freelanced as a copywriter and a presenter for years, did some screenwriting for local productions in Singapore, worked on passion projects that had to do with promoting reading and writing locally and regionally, all the while scribbling in private. I applied to the Columbia MFA on the recommendation of a mentor, thinking it was a long shot… Read more>>

Cameron Moody | Composer & Conductor

Ever since I was a very small boy, I have known that I was going to be a composer. In that respect, I never looked at my career path as a choice, but more as a calling. Music to me is as essential as water or oxygen. Every day I wake up, I look forward to the boundless potential for musical expression. Whether I’m writing, listening, or studying, I am always surrounded by music. I honestly can’t think of a more gratifying, yet never-ending endeavor to which a person can commit their life. Read more>>