Artistic and creative careers are among the most rewarding, but they also come with unique challenges. We asked some of the city’s best creatives to tell us why they choose to pursue a creative career.

Wendy Smith

I feel I have always had a creative nature. As a kid, I typed a menu on my typewriter, stapled it and then did a drawing on the cover to “play restaurant”. I was always drawing house plans on graph paper. In high school, my favorite classes were drafting and interior design. I loved carrying around my drawings in a tube and my T-Square. And putting mood boards together of fabric swatches and color palettes. My dreams then were to be either an architect or an interior designer. Read More>> 

Raizel Lieb

The answer to this question is simple: I could not physically or mentally see myself elsewhere. Having a career that had nothing to do with the arts would have broken my soul. Dramatic as it may sound, I am tied so deeply into the arts that anything else would make me feel unfulfilled. Sometimes I think “Maybe it would have been easier or ‘safer’ to pursue something else” but then the thought of doing anything else makes my heart shrivel up inside. It is like being artistic is my lifeline. Read More>>

Cass Braido

Well, I realized pretty soon after high school that I just liked to make stuff. It wasn’t specifically music, or film necessarily. The process of coming up with an idea and seeing it through was really rewarding, whether it’s my own or something someone else is working on. So pursuing the arts and trying to be around similarly minded people was an obvious choice for sure. Read More>> 

Emily Knoppe

As is the case with many artists– I’ve just always had the drive to create! Regardless of artistic medium, being able to bring an idea to life with my own hands is SO fulfilling. Plus, working as an artist allows for a more flexible schedule. When doing freelance work, I can set my own hours and work at my own pace (within reason). This bit is important to me since I’ve run the gamut of minimum wage jobs that wear at your sanity and free time. Read More>> 

Ann Himel

I have always been a creative and artistic person. My mom was an accomplished artist, dress designer and draftsman, and she passed her skills on to me.
My degree from CU Boulder is in English, and I concentrated my early career writing curriculum for K-2 students and working as Accountability Liaison for Jefferson County Schools. Read More>>