We asked some of the most creative folks we know to open up to us about why they chose a creative career path. Check out their responses below.

Bryan Button | Photographer & Engineer

My whole life I’ve been making things, but mostly in my head. I feel like a lot of people can probably relate to that. Ask anyone in my family and they’ll tell you how regularly I am making up a silly song, idea for an advertisement, or looking at a scene thinking how great it would look with a subject placed just right. Read more>>

Infinipi

I don’t think that this question really has an answer that is specific. I think a lot of it has to do with the phase that one is at in life. When I was a kid, I enjoyed drawing… as I grew up in my teens, it became building stuff with my hands and whatever parts I could get. Read more>> 

Eric Chi Nguyen | Tattooer

The main reason is that I wanted to work for myself. Tattooing struck me as a profitable business. Don’t get me wrong; it’s not all about the money. Art is incredible and I am very grateful that it can provide/support my lifestyle, but let’s be real, “Gettin’ money is the main reason most people wake up.” ~Pimp C Alarms are the actual reason, but you get the point. Read more>>

Rileigh Goldsmith | Dance Artist & Producer

I’ve always known I wanted to be a professional dancer, but it wasn’t until college that I began to see it as a real possibility. Growing up, I attended rigorous schools where academics always took precedence over the arts. Every day, I poured myself into my schoolwork, always trying to finish just enough so I could go to dance class at night. Read more>>

Jason DeWitt | Portrait and Event Photographer

When I was a child, my father built a darkroom in our basement to try to pursue photography. He bought all the equipment and gave it a try but, for reasons unknown to me, he stopped at some point before I became a teenager. The darkroom became a storage room but all of the equipment remained. Read more>>

Megan McCarthy | Artist

workshop taught by a dear friend at La Porte Peinte artist residency in Noyers-sur-Serein, France. It had been years since I had actively painted, and being reimmersed in that creativity reminded me just how important that was to my mental and emotional health. Read more>>

Andrew Buckendorf (BUCK) | Artist & Creative

Art is a direct way of expressing who you are as a person, so it’s an extremely intimate way to introduce people to who you are as well as to learn who you are yourself. Read more>>

Katy Jaquez | Luxury Hairstylist and Full Time Mom

I learned how to braid my own hair when I was only 4yrs because my mom would always braid my hair so tight. From then on I always experimented with fun updos/braids for the remainder of my childhood. Then when I became an adult I chose to actually go to school for nursing. I found it to be rewarding but not creative. Read more>>