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.

Ngan Huynh | Graphic Designer & Illustrator

Ever since I was a baby, I was always more inclined towards the creative fields. I would always find myself excelling whenever any school project included activities that utilized more artistic directions. The sense of self fulfillment when I was able to complete something from my artistic visions made me realize that this is where I belonged and where I can thrive to my fullest. Read more>>

Gary Thomas | Entertainment Producer, Director, and Choreographer

I was born to do it. Entertainment is in my DNA. Since the age of 4 or 5, I’ve been mesmerized by everything on TV or in a movie that involved dancing, singing, and performing. My older sisters were in dance class and one day at the studio I was watching them and I said I want to do that. I started with jazz and tap classes, followed by drum and vocal lessons. Read more>>

Bijal Fotedar | Business Owner and Creative Director

Despite of being a software engineer and working in the software industry, I take work very personally and I did not get the satisfaction I was looking for from my job. I was happy making money but I was seeking fulfillments from side hustles and projects. Just financial stability was not enough for me. I am a maker and it was very important for me that I am able to make things with my hands – not just “make” software. Read more>>

Moises Yamid Rodriguez | Architectural Photographer & Architect

I decided to pursue my artistic side since I was in high school, I learned to play the guitar and music became something essential in my life, I think that drove me into the arts, I became more sensitive to them, then I decided to study architecture; at first I wanted to be a civil engineer, but tried to take a chance and change my mind at the last second, and don’t regret my decision. I’ve been practicing photography as well as a second art language, for me, architecture and architectural photography are one. Read more>>

Luciano Revera | Photographer

I believe I pursued an artistic career because I have always been the artistic type. I have never been very much inclined to math and to live life in general, from a mathematical perspective. As a teenager, I learned to play the guitar and played and sang in many bands. When I started studying photography, I was somewhat surprised that a lot (and by that, I mean A LOT) of professional photographers were also musicians. I love cinema and live theater, too. However, I have no talent at all for acting. Read more>>

Anna Loader | Photographer

As a girl, I was constantly begging my parents to let me behind their hefty digital to VHS camera to film my brothers on our fake news channel broadcasts. I had an aunt 10+ years older than me pursue photography when I was 8 years old, and I asked her to give me photography lessons so I could learn, too. Her camera seemed so fascinating. The photos she produced brought magic to the world around me. Read more>>

Melissa Woodburn | Creating One-Of-A-Kind Sculpture In Ceramic And Fiber

I was one of those kids who was always drawing. There really wasn’t time when I thought of doing anything OTHER than pursuing a creative career. Read more>>

Kara S | Images By K | San Diego County Photographer

Growing up, my grandma’s from both sides of my family always had a camera or video recorder in their hand. As I got older I would spend hours going through hundreds of family photos that they would store in photo boxes in their living rooms. I feel that my love of photography started from being able to be brought back to a time and place just by looking at a photo. Not only images of my childhood but of their childhood as well. The different clothes, hairstyles and cars that they grew up with were so intriguing to me. To be able to go into a moment in time in my life or others was so fascinating that I started to really get into scrapbooking. I was just a kid when I got my first scrapbook. To me, a scrapbook allowed me to add context to my photos from my moms digital camera or a disposable camera. She would print out a lot of my photos and I would add them to a scrapbook album with stickers and notes about what I was doing or who I was with. To this day I still treasure those scrapbooks. I have them all saved in the attic in a memory box. As I got older, I wanted to take my own photos. I got a chunky, silver Kodak digital camera with the smallest screen ever compared to today’s models, but to me it was amazing and so advanced. I did my first paid photoshoot on that camera when I was about 14 years old. The session was of my sister and two cousins and my aunt paid me for the photos because she loved them so much. I will never forget that moment. This instilled an entrepreneur spirit in me. Could I really earn money doing something I considered fun? This started my love of photography mixed with practicing sessions on my siblings. Each year I would grow and learn more and eventually I got a degree in photography when I was in college. The pure fact that I could be apart of something people look at for years and treasure for a lifetime is what drew me into the photography world. I truly feel that beyond “art” and “creativity”, that usually encompasses the photography world, the raw emption and ability to freeze humans in a time and place and be able to go back to that moment time and time again is my true reason for loving photography. For my clients to see a photo and feel what they felt right then in that moment is a powerful tool. I love photography so much and I truly love the legacies I get to be apart of. I feel that there in that moment I am apart of my client’s journey in life and the legacy they leave behind from the images I capture for others to look upon for the years to come. What a gift to be able to give other’s something as simple, timeless and priceless as a photograph. Read more>>

Thomas Hinds | Poet & Troubadour

I decided to pursue an artistic career because I had no choice after raising three kids and finally having the freedom to do what I had always believed I was born to do. The passion for music, poetry, photography, and sketching had been simmering under the surface of my life. Read more>>

Clara Ford | Artist & Curator

My craft has always been central to everything I have done in my life. It has guided, nurtured, and allowed me to connect with the world around me. After leaving my childhood home at a young age, I hit a dark space in my life where I honestly had to face myself and what I wanted. There was nothing I ever truly wanted to do in this life but create, so I took a chance on myself with no money and no backup plan. Read more>>