We asked some of the city’s leading artists and creatives to tell us about how they decided to pursue an artistic or creative career. We’ve shared some highlights below.

Katie Yaquinto | Artist

Simple answer. It’s what makes me the happiest. Expressing myself creatively is what I’m meant to do in this life. Read more>>

Jordan Ferrin | Woodwind Player, Composer/Arranger, Music Educator, and Researcher

I’ve always had a constant imagination. It has always been generating images, sounds, ideas…. When I was young I could not control my imagination well, which resulted in many people thinking I was “uncontrollable.” Slowly but surely I started fitting into the norms of society, whether at school, home, or doing sports. The struggles of growing up neurodivergent–that’s what people say these days–are real, but there is another, beautifully creative side to it. Read more>>

Kim Sowa | Intuitive Artist and Photographer

Creativity has always been in my family so naturally it has also been in my blood to create and be an artist. My grandfather on my mom’s side was my biggest inspiration. He always encouraged me to pursue creativity and to always be learning. When I was younger he bought be a book on acrylic painting and it took me a few years to consider looking at it. I was stubborn and thought I would only be interested in drawing with charcoal or pencil. It wasn’t until after he passed away that I picked up the book and began to paint. I will always keep his advice close to my heart and choose to focus my energy on what I am passionate about doing as it feel more like my purpose in life to be an artist and create. Read more>>

Petar Zorkic – Petarz | singer-songwriter; painter; sociologist

I grew up in a surrounding full of music, paintings and books, so I gues I just continued nurturing all of that. Human feelings and expression are the main things that make this wolrd go round. Spoken word, the sound itself and images are all the conductors of our reality. Every single person has something to say, write, paint or record. So, in my early age I decided to communicate with the environment througgh all of this, as much as I can. Unfortunately, a lot of talented people don’t take risks or are afraid to express their thoughts with others, mostly because they think no one would listen or they can’t cope with the criticism that they could be exposed to. And we all have limited time here. Read more>>

C.J. May | Guitarist, Singer, Songwriter, Mix Engineer

To be honest, I never felt that I had a choice in the matter. I grew up in a film industry family, so the arts, performing, and creativity were ingrained in my mind at an early age. Music was also a big part of my life as a kid, so when the teenage years hit and hardships poured in, music felt like the only way to either escape or find sympathy. I began playing drums when I was nine, but unfortunately lost interest due to lack of guidance. When I was eleven, I decided to start playing guitar. I had been spending most of my time with headphones in listening to The Who, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Pearl Jam, System of a Down, Dead Kennedys, etc., Read more>>

Al Bowman | Big & Tall Model and Brand Designer

I find peace in it. I love where my mind takes itself and the feeling of satisfaction I get when I complete a project. Read more>>

Elsha Kim | Actor & Founder of BRONZEBUM™

I just love bringing ideas to fruition. Read more>>

Dom Cunningham | Photographer and Artist

I pursued the field of photography because of the impact it can create on others. My pictures can be viewed years even decades from now and can still give the viewer an emotion. Working in a office environment all day isn’t my calling. Capturing the “dream” through my photography is my calling Read more>>

Belva Chan | Photographer

In 2016, I went to Hong Kong Design Institute studying Fashion Image Design and Photography. During the time in college, I found passion in photography so I started assisting the lecturers’ shoots outside of class. I was very lucking to be assisting on Harper Bazaar, New Balance, Elle… etc set when I first starting out and I fell in love of the of process from pre-production to post-production. I also got my first client during those time, and that gave me confidence to keep pursuing this path! Read more>>

Andrea Sertori | Italian pianist, composer of instrumental music, producer, and keyboardist.

I started this activity because I needed to express a potential that was only partially expressed at that time. Artistic activity gave me great balance and I am very happy.. Read more>>

Julia Ponce Díaz | Writer/Director

I guess I didn’t find anything harder to do with my life! And I guess there was something inside of me that needed to come out, to be expressed somehow. But I didn’t find filmmaking for a while. The first thing I tried was writing short stories, which were both a form of expression and of escapism, as all of them were set in some fantasy land far far away from my own. I went through many different paths before I even realized there were people out there making movies. And when I did, it turned out that no one with such privilege looked like me. I didn’t have many professional female role models growing up, so I thought the only way I could get close to films would be by writing about them. Read more>>

Xiran Luo | Illustrator & film poster designer

First of all, I have many relatives in my family who are in the art industry, they are painters, sculptors, and interior designers. So at an early age, I did not feel that the art and creative industries were undignified, unstable, and unworthy of pursuit. On the contrary, the beauty they created influenced me unconsciously, intriguing me to do the same thing. I didn’t learn drawing systematically as a child, and it was not until the year before my college entrance exams that I went to a class specifically to learn how to pass art exams and acquire basic knowledge of human anatomy and color. When I was very young, I used to use my fingers to pretend to be paintbrushes and draw things in the air that I imagined in my mind. In retrospect, I probably looked very creepy at the time. Read more>>

Jason West | Creator of dark & whimsical art

I decided to pursue an artistic career because creating has always been in my blood and nothing else satisfied my soul. Read more>>

Aña Monique | Photographer, Talent Manager, Producer

I come from a very creative and artistic family. Having musicians and artists on both sides of my family created the perfect environment for me to develop my creative qualities. My father is a singer and record producer and owned his own record label as well as had one of the top spanish language radio programs in the united states and my mother was an acclaimed dancer. From childhood, my parents were very keen to enroll me in art classes and music classes. Read more>>

RayCee the Artist | Portrait & Event Photographer

I pursued photography because I love having the freedom to be as creative as I want to be. Photography is such a fun career because of the subjectivity. You can have several different photographers shoot the same scene and end up with very different final photographs of the exact same scene. Everyone has their own style when it comes to how they photograph and how they edit their photographs. That is the great thing about photography. The subjectivity and creativity involved in photography makes it fun, and never boring. Read more>>

Kate Alyse Clark | Artist & Small Business Owner of Penny Print Studio

I’ve spent my adult years sorting out the ‘hows’ and ‘whys’ of a creative career, but as a chid, art choose me. Even if I strayed in a different direction (primarily for finical security), I’ve always pivoted and found myself in front of a canvas or teaching a watercolor class. Working alongside fellow artists, sharing art with youth, watching paint cover a surface–those are the moments that make sense. Real moments cemented in connection and exploration. That’s why I pursue it every day. Read more>>

Rasec Marc Ortega | Singer, songwriter and music producer

Growing up in high school, I’ve had struggles with the complexities of puberty and teenage drama. The inability to share personal information at home made the feeling of loneliness difficult to manage. That is when I discovered writing. I wrote my feelings to a piece of paper every time emotional hurdles challenge me. I found solace in expressing my feelings through literature. Soon the writing has turned to songwriting. I guess you could say that the artistic career found me. Read more>>

Bailen Estrada | Filmmaker & Photographer

I always knew I wanted to do it. Ever since I held a camera in my hands at the age of 10. I was always fascinated by movies and the thought that goes into them to make the audience feel a certain way. Then as I got older and started trying new things one thing flowed into another and now Im an artist Read more>>

Alvin Lee | DJ & Producer

At the age of 6, I started learning classical piano. I knew by the first year that I was talented at music, because I was able to pick up pieces and concepts much faster than my teacher’s other students. However, I didn’t see myself playing piano as a career, and it wasn’t until one of my first friends in college showed me his DJ controller did I see myself pursuing a creative career. This thought was further solidified when I went to my first Insomniac festival at Beyond Wonderland, and saw the energy that a DJ could dictate through their music and presence. Since then, I have been working towards my goal of one day playing at Insomniac’s Electric Daisy Carnival in Las Vegas. Read more>>

Ela Rodríguez | Actor, Dancer & Model

I grew up being the entertainer of the family, always dancing, acting and putting on a show. Watching people having a good time made me realize that that’s what I wanted: entertain people and specially make them laugh. My family are all lawyers, teachers, nurses and doctors and I was the only one who decided to pursue acting; and I’m also the younger sibling so I was “the rebel”. When I got to High School I was between a rock and a hard place because I needed to make a decision about what I was going to study in college and “acting is a hobby” so it was “not an option”. Read more>>

Nick Cruz | Background Painter & Color Designer

Growing up, I always found myself drawn to works of art, especially animation and video games. Seeing these fantastical creations be packed full of things that just weren’t possible in the real world and that couldn’t be presented through live action, just really took hold of me. It made me realize you could have an idea and execute on it and literally make whatever you want and it could go beyond the confines of just your head and be real in some way, shape, or form. Even if it is still just on a TV screen. Read more>>

Yang Sun | Artist

When I was young, probably when I just entered elementary school, I saw some works of leonardo Da Vinci and Chagall in the school hallway. It was my first time realizing that there are things called paintings in the world. When I came home that day, I told my mom that I saw a nice paintings on the wall, and my mom told me that it was the painters who created those gorgeous scenes, and I can also become a painter in the future. Since then I began to grow interest in painting. Read more>>

Chelsea Stewart | Artist

I knew early on that I wanted to pursue a career in the arts, since elementary school art has always been a large influence on me and one of the subjects that I felt I had the most fun in. As I grew up I began to see how art was a way for people to express how they viewed and understood the world. During my undergraduate years, I was exposed to residencies and the impact they have on artists. Seeing how artists are able to manipulate their studio practice and express themselves so differently using either similar mediums or completely different tools of making, was really interesting to me. Read more>>

Alexis Bergasse | Music Photographer

I knew early on that I wanted to eventually pursue a creative career because making art always made me so happy and I enjoyed creating with just about any medium! And who doesn’t want to make a career out of something they enjoy? Not to mention there’s so much creative freedom. I can experiment as much as I want to find my style and creative process. Read more>>

Farrah Ng | Music Producer & DJ

When I’ve entered my mid-20s, I realized that it’s up to you to decide whether you’re alright with your career path because you’re the one living in that reality. There’s always going to be societal expectations of what people should do for their career path based on their circumstances. Growing up in Hong Kong, most of my peers grew up to pursue corporate paths as that’s what their family wants them to, or their education led them to that, etc. I followed that path as well and started to reevaluate my life decisions in the last 2 years of college in the states. I was often asked about what I wanted to do with my life afterwards and I would always come up with a reason that sounded logical but it was never what I really wanted to do. Read more>>

Jade Wolff | Lighting Designer

I have always been creative and have been drawn to artistic endeavors. My mother went to Pratt and enjoys oil painting. I’ve been drawing for as long as I remember and visions to be a ballerina at some point. The shift to lighting design happened when I watched the PBS showing of “the 25th anniversary of the Phantom of the opera at the Royal Albert Hall” the way the stage was lit, and the chandelier were awe inspiring. At 14 and heavily influenced my high school choice individual planning to become a concert lighting Director.! Read more>>

Robert Moore | Bass player of The Hynx

I become obsessed with music at a young age although I didn’t but my first instrument until my late teens. The creative process has always appealed to me. I bought an instrument to write songs (not to play other people’s music). Cover bands never appealed to me. Read more>>

Maryrose Cobarrubias Mendoza | Artist & Educator

I think it was natural for art to be how I make a living. I have been drawing since I was a child, encouraged by my Uncle who was an artist and designer. I never doubted that I could be an artist and just thought I would do anything to be able to continue it. Read more>>