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.

Vu Mai | Director, Screenplay Writer and Actress

Art is the process and product of human creativity. It is the application of our imagination and skill. This is too important not to pursue. Life is too short not to create art. Read more>>

Steve Casino | Toy Inventor and Pop Culture Artist

My uncle was a commercial artist so I was aware of it as a career from a very young age. Seeing him quickly draw recognizable objects was like a magic trick toy me. Read more>>

Alexandra Adlawan | Through brilliant art and skillful dialogue, Long Beach, CA author and illustrator, Alexandra Adlawan, brings to life the experiences that she dreams of in her own life through her books. Diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder at the age of fifteen, Alexandra focused her storytelling and illustrating talents developed at an early age and created The Adventures of Maddie and Albert book series.

Growing up, I have always love to draw and make up stories. I carried a Composition note everywhere I went, writing and sketching out story ideas. A Composition notebook wasn’t the best sketchbook is terms of quality, but I had my own way of doing things. After high school I attended a professional art and animation school for students on the Autism Spectrum. I learned how to do animation and I was good at it, but I later decided that writing stories was my passion and therefore transitioned to writing my children’s book series, The Adventures Of Maddie And Albert. Since then I have written four books in the series and each have been awarded the Golden Wizard book prize. Read more>>

Alla Baksanskaya | Artist

I have had a passion for creating and expressing the beauty of the world around me for as long as I can remember. Everything began in my childhood on the romantic shores of the Caspian Sea, in Baku, where I was born with a pencil in my hand, collecting tiny shells from the local beaches to create my first shell necklaces. I immersed myself in my own imaginative and fantastical world, brimming with creativity, where I experimented with various natural materials such as dried plants, small beach pebbles, vibrant pencils, and paper. Read more>>