We asked some of the most talented folks in the community to talk to us about projects they’ve worked on that they still think about, projects that really meant something. Have you had such an experience? Are you looking for inspiration for your next project? Check out the stories below, they are exciting, entertaining, and most importantly – inspiring.

Joe Knetter

Every project I work on is meaningful in some way so it’s hard to narrow it down to one. They each stand out for their own reasons. But I will say the film “Blind” is very meaningful to me. That was the first time I got to work closely with Marcel Walz, the director of the film. He was a friend and was a part of our Taco Tuesday group. We met each week at El Tejano in North Hollywood for discount tacos and drinks. It also has a self service tortilla chip station which is great for those conserving money, which most of us in the industry have to do. Read more>>

Carolina Bubbico

Among the most meaningful projects I have created is Pangea, a concert entirely orchestrated by me for symphony orchestra, a musical journey that aims to reinforce and celebrate the concept of universal music, as if it were a great Pangea from which all the world’s languages originate. Read more>>

IM’PERETIV

The most meaningful project I’ve worked on is actually a tie between two of my own releases: Full Circle [EP] and Burial Plots & Pyramid Schemes [LP]. There’s something powerful about first projects. They define a moment in time and leave a lasting imprint on your identity as an artist. Read more>>

Wendy Reed

Retirement is supposed to mean more free time and fewer responsibilities—at least, that’s what they say. When I officially stepped away last summer from my long-held role as a literacy trainer, teaching educators at The Ohio State University, I saw a world of possibilities ahead. I imagined more time to consult with schools, focus on my own writing, and expand the support I offer to other writers. And I’ve done all of that. But, true to form, I’ve also taken on an unexpected new venture – adding yet another project to my ever-growing list. Read more>>

Eugene Ebner Gary Adrian Randall

This past April, we hosted Blossom and Bloom—an immersive event benefiting Trans Lifeline. We transformed the back patio of Champagne Tiger on Colfax into a lush, floral dreamscape where attendees showed up in stunning, imaginative costumes. The night was a vibrant celebration of queer creativity, featuring local vendors, giveaways, art installations, live music, and performance art. We chose the name Blossom and Bloom to honor the journey of trans individuals stepping into their authenticity—flourishing, thriving, and fully blooming. Our goal was to create a safe, joyful space where the trans and queer community could feel seen, supported, and celebrated. Read more>>

GARIE CHAVEZ

The most meaningful art project I’ve done is the Heart Fractal Art. In 1987, my son Erik was diagnosed with liver cancer at the age of one. Thanks to Phoenix Children’s Hospital, he will turn 39 years old this year. As a parent of a cancer survivor, I handcraft the heart with fractal art and donate part of the sales to Phoenix Children’s Hospital Foundation. The fractal art on the wood represents each child stricken with this disease, and the heart is the hope for a permanent cure. Read more>>

Anita

“Kibble the Monarch Caterpillar Afraid to Get Wings” storybook with audio is meaningful to me for so many reasons. It’s always exciting to see your own creative projects take shape, but for “Kibble”, I got to collaborate with wonderfully talented, creative professionals throughout it, and that was a real treasure. I taught children for 29 years, so there’s definitely an educational element to “Kibble”, but it’s done in a fun, coming-of-age, feel good way with the story itself focusing on friendship, kindness, and what it means to be a part of a community. Read more>>

Nia

The most meaningful project I’ve worked on is my latest EP, “Honey, I’m Home”, which just released on my birthday, June 27th, 2025. I created it while coming out of the hardest time of my life, physically, mentally, and spiritually.

In August of 2024, I started battling serious health issues that completely changed my life. I experienced constant dizziness, migraines, a racing heart, and weakness so intense I had to use a cane at one point. I wore a heart monitor, had 19 tubes of blood drawn in one sitting, and went through more specialists and medical workups than I even knew existed. There were days I felt like I was dying, like life was slipping through my hands, and I had no energy, no motivation, and felt extremely lonely and misunderstood. I truly had to fight to stay strong. Read more>>

Love By

The Potting Bench II is my most meaningful project—we’ve been through a lot together!

The piece marks the full realization of a vision I had as a teenager while vintage shopping with my mom. I loved the works of art we’d find, but wondered what they could look like with pink and glitter. Nearly ten years later, I found a print of Barbara Mock’s painting The Potting Bench, which brought the thought of Lisa Frank and led to the purple table & blue sunflowers. Then this piece taught me how to paint, as the rest unravels from there. Read more>>

Ella Rouwen Chen

The most meaningful project for me recently as an actor is “Tranquil Waters, Boundless Skies” directed by Sean Yang. It is an action fantasy short film inspired by the great Chinese classical novel Journey to the West. The story follows two siblings who are descendants of Sun Wukong, the Monkey King, as they learn to embrace their destined powers, confront their family’s past and unite to fight the vengeful Bull Demon King.  Read more>>

Matteo Esposito

The most meaningful project, is definitely my one-act play about autism Sorting It Out.

Based on a true story that happened to me on a transit bus in Oakville Ontario, Canada, this play has been performed Off Off Broadway in New York City and at the Richmond Hill Performing Arts Center this past April.

The main message of my play is comes down to two simple words: unconditional love! Read more>>

Jen Sterling

Funny enough, one of the most meaningful projects I have worked on is unfolding as I answer this. I have built an online community platform for all Maryland visual artists. I have been craving the connection and shared knowledge of my peers, and figured I wasn’t alone in this. Now we have a place where we can all share our experiences, help each other with our work, our businesses, and even just coordinate get-togethers to visit exhibits or co-create. We just soft-launched to a small group of artists and will be launching publicly in the next month or so. Read more>>

Daniel Holdridge

The most meaningful project I’ve done was a group show that I curated this April (2025). A few close friends gave me the opportunity to show their work in my own home, and a lot of friends, acquaintances, and strangers gave us their time to look at it.

Almost a year ago I had a conversation with a friend and mentor. We talked about the nature of working as an artist. How do you make a living? how do you wear all the hats? I knew I needed to bolster my CV and resume, and gain experience outside of school. I had to prove that I had the chops for grad school, career jobs, higher paying commissions, whatever. I couldn’t see a way to get a gallery or studio to pay attention to me, and toss me a gig curating or art handling, or anything really. In the course of our conversation, my friend suggested a simple idea: do it yourself. Read more>>

Mighty Joe Castro

As a general rule, I’m always on the lookout for meaningful creative projects. It’s good for the soul.

In my late teens, I became involved in the local Delaware music scene, where I quickly noticed that nearly every sweaty punk show in the local church hall was a benefit to raise money for a non-profit organization. Watching people my own age, from my own town, lending their talents to the greater good by turning art into positive action was powerful and inspiring. Over the years, whether it’s donating a piece of collage art to raise money for the Girls and Boys Club of Puerto Rico or organizing and performing at a concert to raise money for NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund, I’ve done my best to remember that talent is a gift and one should honor that gift by using it to benefit the community. Read more>>

Jacob Mendoza

i would say that my first project, “(demos)” is my most raw and emotional project, maybe my most meaningful. each of those songs have meanings that are personal for me. i enjoy the intimacy of my music, it feels like telling a close friend a secret. i want people to connect to my lyrics with their own experiences as i do my own. Read more>>

Rinde Eckert

During my formative years I made several pieces that were definitive for me. This was in the late 80’s in San Francisco when there was a very vital interdisciplinary art scene (before the dot-coms bought up all the loft space, drove rents up, and performance venues disappeared). Everything I touched seemed to work. Then my hubris got in the way and I took on a couple of big pieces I wasn’t ready for. The bottom fell out and I found myself back at what seemed like square one. I decided to make a one-man piece, something I could control. It was called The Idiot Variations. Read more>>

Sal Strom

Dropping Like Flies (WWII Veterans). My father, a decorated WWII fighter pilot was also a scholar. He left a 3″ binder full of letters detailing his experiences. After the first time I read them, I did a project “Face the Free” (1995), focused on nudes with guns reflecting his passion for flying juxtaposed with the torment of killing women and children. That series got “Critics Picks” in The Oregonian. I knew I had achieved my mark when a woman who came into the gallery commented “I came into the gallery because of the beautiful art, then realized the subject matter was awful.” The medium was colorful soft pastels on rag paper with text from his letters. Read more>>

Roberto Baldea

The most meaningful project I got the chance to work on was in 2024 during the summer when Levi’s reached out to me to promote the clothing collection they were going to release with McLaren and it fell perfectly as I was also going to the Indycar race in Toronto which gave the perfect opportunity to promote the clothes in my natural context (doing photography) at a race weekend. It was meaningful first because Levi’s is a big brand and it always means the world when a brand such as them trusts you with something. It was also meaningful to me as it showed a transition from only being known about Motorsport to dabbling into fashion and other domains. Read more>>

Joe Charley

The most meaningful project I’ve worked on is my debut solo album, Rudolph: The Audio Interpretation.

It’s not just music — it’s the first time I’ve allowed my own voice to carry a story from start to finish. I’ve spent years modeling, acting, dancing, and performing in character — often in service of someone else’s vision. This project is deeply personal because it finally centers mine. Read more>>

Sydney Goodwin

I’ve around firefighters my whole life, with my dad, grandpa, uncles, and more being in the fire service. From a young age I was taught the importance of fire safety and how having a plan could save your life. A couple of years ago, my mom took over as the Executive Director of the Central Ohio Fire Museum & Learning Center, focused on teaching fire safety to people of all ages. One of the educators there had always wanted to make a children’s book based on some of what they teach at the museum. Finishing up at art school, I collaborated with her to create Boots the Firehouse Mouse – Good Fires, Bad Fires, a fire safety children’s book highlighting the different ways fire can help or hurt us. Read more>>

Sabra Meretab

I’m still in the thick of the most meaningful project of my life so far: writing a memoir about my burnout.
I started writing it at a time when I was in my best place professionally, but my worst place personally. I was working at a fast-growing tech company in Silicon Valley, with a team of people that I admired and a product that I strongly believed in. Ironically, it was because I cared so much about both – the people that I worked with, and the products that we were building together – that I burned out so hard. Read more>>

Kathy Sheppard

There have been so many meaningful projects throughout the course of my career, but the one I must choose is Shepstock, a musical fundraising endeavor. During the course of my husband’s battle with mesothelioma, we discovered the Best Answer for Cancer Foundation, which helps patients afford insulin potentiation therapy, a treatment not covered by insurance. After his death, a member of our former band from high school approached me about reuniting the band to perform a series of concerts in my husband’s name, to benefit this charity. Shepstock became a pet project for me, that raised a substantial sum for BAFC over the course of five years. Read more>>

Brittney Lickert

As an invitation designer, every project I take on begins with the couple’s story. How did they meet? What do they love to do together? From there, we move into the design details that shape the first impression of their wedding – color palette, floral inspiration, patterns, and personal design elements. I use these thoughtful touchpoints to craft a bespoke, heirloom invitation suite that reflects their unique journey. Read more>>

Katty Huertas

I recently installed my first immersive public art projection in Washington, DC. Titled “Pushing Through,” it features animated local flora as well as monarch butterflies animated on an underpass. The looping videos interact with the passersby making them look dwarfed in comparison to the art creating a sense of magic. Commissioned by Noma Bid, I made these digital animations specifically for the site. Read more>>

Patrick Gray

Honestly, it’s hard to pick just one because for me, nearly every project I take on carries deep meaning. As a DJ, I’m not just showing up to play music, I’m stepping into some of the most important moments of people’s lives. Whether it’s a wedding, milestone birthday, or retirement celebration, these events mark chapters that people will remember forever. And I get to help shape the atmosphere and energy of that memory. Read more>>

Jamie Bannon

One of the most meaningful projects I’ve worked on to date has been an exploration of self-portraits.

To understand the self is to understand one’s place in, and relationship with, the greater context—of the world, nature, community, humanity, history, and so on. That is to say, the idea of the “self” exists not in a vacuum, but as part of a larger conversation with the world around us, before us, and ultimately after us. I think of art in much the same way—not as the thing itself, but rather as the conversation of the thing with its maker, its viewers, its place in time and space, and so on. The art isn’t the thing, any more than the self is—it’s the conversations and relationships that exist in the space between the thing and *gestures broadly*. Read more>>

Andrew Gurza

I am a Disability Awareness Consultant, living with Cerebral Palsy and using a power wheelchair. In 2020, I launched a sex toy company called Bump’n to create the world’s first hands-free sex toy. I did this in partnership and collaboration with my sister who is non-disabled. While we eventually decided to close the company in 2024 (thanks Covid delays), that is one of the most meaningful projects I have ever worked on because it brought my sister and I much closer, but it also put sexuality, disability and access to self-pleasure in the public eye, and I’ll forever be proud of that. Read more>>

Leon Elias Wu

One of the most personal and powerful projects I’ve undertaken is the launch of ELIAS WU, a new chapter in customwear that fuses identity, artistry, and self-reclamation. This isn’t just a fashion line. It’s a return to self. After years of designing through Sharpe Suiting, I felt called to create something even more intimate. ELIAS WU is about letting go of gender rules, style expectations, and external definitions of success—and stepping fully into authenticity. Read more>>

Helene Ruiz

I try to propose multi media art events ( to include poetry, music, visual art, performance art, etc) whenever it is possible. I feel that the layers of message and variety of ways to speak through art make for a more interesting and thought provoking event. A lot of my projects ( proposals ) are to be a voice on a topic that tends to be swept under the rug so to speak. I have always felt it important to advocate for human rights, justice, world peace, animal rights and so much more. Even if some of the visitors do not agree with everything we have to say, it certainly leaves them lots of room for thought. This is where I feel fulfilled. If I can produce something that leaves another to think, I have served to purpose of creating some sort of awareness. That in turn, means that perhaps something someone never before considered before an opinion…may now think about. Read more>>

Jane Jian Su

One of the most meaningful projects I’ve worked on is Two for One, a multimedia performance I conceived, directed, and designed. It began in Berlin as a workshop and has since grown into a larger production that I’m now bringing to New York as part of in-version ensemble’s 2025 summer season, “Memory and Entanglement”, which I co-curated. Read more>>

Jordan Manley

My most recent album “Elm St.”, named after the street I lived on during a two year period. I see it like a time capsule of a very important time in my life. It was simultaneously the best and worst time I’ve ever had so far. I got to live in a house with my best friends. I finally got a band. But then, also, I got really sick from a cat and almost died. I struggled financially. I had to sell my guitars. I lost people close to me. I drank a lot. I battled insomnia. I dealt with a breakup. And the album, to me, is like proof that, not only can I handle that stuff but I can create beauty out of it. At least I think it’s beautiful. These terrible things that happen to people – things much worse than what I went through – if you can redirect those emotions into something that people can relate to and make them feel less alone – something that can bring people together. That’s how you get back at the world. That’s how you make it a better place. Read more>>

Joshua Marquez

There are so many projects I have worked on that are incredibly meaningful to me. Recently, I have worked on projects like “Recycled Soundscapes” which explore material waste and our relationship to waste culture. “Recycled Soundscapes” was completed during my artist residency at RAIR (Recycled Artist in Residence) in Philadelphia. During that residency, I collected recordings and musical materials from the waste stream at Revolution Recovery (a waste and recycling facility). I gathered these recordings and transformed them into music which culminated in turning a large, 40-yard dumpster into a speaker using tranducers. I ended my residency with a performance at Revolution Recovery using the dumpster as the sounding device – all sound came from the dumpster-turned-speaker. “Recycled Soundscapes” is going to be re-imagined as a sound installation at the Visual Arts Center of New Jersey from September 2025 – January 2026. Read more>>

Kevin Class

The 3 minute long short film that produced in 2022/2023, titled Dulce, was easily one of the most meaningful projects of my life. We produced this film as a graduation requirement from the 3D animation program at the School of Visual Arts in NYC, and it opened so many doors for me that I didn’t know were possible. Read more>>

Tammy Smith

Creating TGIT “Thank God It’s Today,” is my passion and mission in life. It’s a phrase based on my 19 year history of domestic abuse. I was in a 17 year marriage where I experienced all five forms of domestic abuse. The abuse led to my near death, being choked and almost losing my voice. After nearly dying, I realized how valuable each day was. I did all that I could to heal from my life experience. The journey led me to start vlogging, sharing my journey of healing, authentically. Read more>>

Kevin Austra

The most meaningful project I have worked on has been the short film I most recently wrapped up, Perception. Perception is a short film that I wrote, directed, produced, and also co-star in. Just as the title suggests, the movie deals with themes of how we see perceive people. Very often we judge a book by its cover. We sometimes let our mind wander and trick us into believing that other people may have it better than us, However, very often the reality is that is not true. This is a consistent theme in my life where I jump to conclusions way too quickly instead of taking a step back and considering other scenarios first. My latest film, Perception, lightly deals with those themes and intertwines them into the main character storylines. Read more>>