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.

Anna Long | CEO & Designer

I chose to pursue a creative career because it is something that I truly love. I have always been interested in art, my background is in fine art. I did a lot of painting and drawing growing up until I reached college. While obtaining a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in graphic design, I was hired by a local brewery in my college town. This changed the trajectory of my design career because it open up the world of package design to me. Read more>>

Robert McCaskill | Acting Coach

When a person is cursed with a portion of talent, it bugs him, or her. It wants to be used. It’s like a fetus inside that kicks. Like many people cursed with talent, I neglected everything else, including my teeth and bank account. But given enough time, artists will find a niche, a way to take care of themselves. We see a way to monetize while being who we really are. For me, that meant teaching and coaching, while making films and theater pieces. Read more>>

Yvette Underwood | Artist

My pursuit of an artistic career comes from a long history and passion for creating. I grew up, creating art and painting and loving anything to do with expression of my creative self. I found a number of different ways to express my creativity through the years from shopping garage sales and buying old furniture, stripping them, painting them or staining them and then selling an artistic piece, to painting and expressing my creativity with all forms of mixed media on canvas and different surfaces. Read more>>

Rebecca Foote | Floral Designer/ Entrepreneur

From the time I was a little girl I always knew that I was a creative. When I was in kindergarten, my mom would take me to the Rag Shop (equivalent to a Michaels or Joanne’s today) and I would pick scraps of fabric, pins and whatever miscellaneous items I could find to make crafts, that I would give away as gifts. I knew that one day I wanted to create beauty and give it as my gift to the world. I choose the medium of flowers because I was always so inspired and moved by them and they’re alluring charm. Read more>>

 Cassie LeFevre | Filmmaker, Writer & Media Manager/Marketer

At the risk of sounding too fanciful, I chose to pursue a creative career because I believed wholeheartedly in the power of storytelling. Throughout my teens, me and my family were on-and-off homeless, alternating between living in a tent and hotel rooms. During that time, my two reliable escapes were sports and stories. Whether the latter was watching what would become my all-time favorite tv show (Psych) on a junky television set or making up a nightly, Read more>>

Leslie Cikra | Owner and Curator

Back to my deepest roots, I am a kid at heart that loves to play with color and create. I grew up both in sports and having fond memories of creating at our local art center. Somewhere along the way, I traded art for a volleyball scholarship. Beyond the athlete, I am an artist and an entrepreneur at heart, and I wanted both but I didn’t know exactly how it would come to be. When I retired from volleyball, I started peeling back the layers of who I was before my identity as an athlete. I came back to art to heal and find the creator underneath it all. For years, I sold clothes from my closet for fun, not realizing all the time, I was building VYV. Read more>>

Soudchay Phakonekham | Sushi Chef & Owner of Taku Sushi

I enjoy creating something for others to enjoy. The best part of becoming a sushi chef is I get to create art not only people can enjoy, but can also taste. Becoming a sushi chef is also more than just the food itself, but the creativity of it. The art of sushi. To me, sushi is a delicacy. How it’s made and how it should be presented matters. There are many sushi restaurants in the world, and what I do to succeed in my career is having patience, and dedication to create something new consistently. Once I get too comfortable, I want to challenge myself to get even more creative and create something new that others can enjoy. Read more>>

Madison Dufour | Barber

The hair industry is both creative and artistic but not just from behind the chair but on the business side as well. Having a service business means that you have to cater to other’s needs and strategically market to the needs of your clients. However, when a barber, like myself, becomes self-employed we get to have the freedom to manage our schedule and client base however we want. With that being said, I feel as though I have to be creative in how I say yes and no to scheduling clients. Read more>>