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.

Carolyn Rauen | Travel Photographer & Occupational Therapist

I was always a person who had and enjoyed an artistic outlet. I started oil painting in the 7th and 8th grade. After I had my children, it became harder to oil paint. I bought a good camera and started to take pictures of my boys and the landscapes at our farm. My oil paintings were always landscapes with an impressionistic feel. Read more>>

Kit Mizeres | Artist & Drifter

I would of course say it’s because of my passion for making art.. but really it’s because it allows me freedom, more than anything else. To me, freedom is the ability to be able to do whatever you’d like with the time that you have. Read more>>

Alex Ertel | Photographer & Writer

Creativity has always been a significant piece of my life, from reading as a kid and imagining new worlds in my head to picking up my first point-and-shoot camera and looking at the same world I saw every day and seeing it for the first time. Picking a creative career comes with plenty of challenges: paying the bills, marketing, understanding business finances, keeping up with social media, to name a few. Read more>>

Brekon Baxter | Director of Photography

What it truly came down to was freedom. Although my industry is a collective of moving parts working in tandem, there is a level of freedom and creativity to it that especially stood out to me as the right career path. At a young age I knew I wanted to be a part of the film and television industry, inspired by watching films with family and friends to picking up my first camera and just filming skateboarding with my friends. Read more>>