Every once in a while we have the good fortune of working on a project that we feel truly matters, a project that we’ll still be thinking about years from now. Maybe even something we can imagine telling our grandkids about – surely you’ve had moments like that where something you did in your professional life really mattered?

George Strasburger

My projects, as a painter, are self chosen. Each individual painting is a unique project and groups of paintings I would characterize as projects as well. I’ll site one painting in particular. “Two Men on a Trail”. My motivations are usually personal, perhaps having to do with a particular skill set I want to acquire or a scene I encounter in my city. In this case there was a famous historical painting I want to emulate which inspired me. After I started work, the recent earthquake in Turkey occurred which further inspired my subject. I’m often prodded my current events. Each painting seems to be “my most meaningful” as it happens. Read more>>

Michelle Cameron

When I joined my business partner in The Writers Circle, we stipulated in our partnership contract that we were authors first and foremost. Of course, it hasn’t always turned out that way. The community we have built among writers, in New Jersey and beyond, are particularly meaningful. Our goal is to bring every writer to their own best level – whether that be for publication (which we never promise) or simply to share their work among their peers and with their family and friends. In addition to weekly classes, we offer special events throughout the year, including day-long writing retreats, guest speakers from the publishing world, and special craft workshops. Read more>>

Ombretta Agro Andruff

Sometimes, quantifying the enduring impact of the diverse programs we orchestrate at ARTSail becomes a challenge beyond mere numbers and digits. To illustrate the significance of our efforts, I’d like to recount three poignant episodes that vividly exemplify why we are committed to our mission and why we find it both meaningful and essential: The first remarkable tale unfurled in tandem with the Simon Faithfull – Fata Morgana exhibition, a solo display that I curated as part of our artist-in-residence initiative. Read more>>

Katie Grubb

One day at school a lady came in pleading for help with her hair. She had severe matting. I walked up to the front desk after she left and immediately volunteered after seeing that no one else was willing to do it. I was advised to not take on the project but I knew I needed to do it. The next day she showed up and I took her to my station. She was so embarrassed and told me her story. She had been homeless and no one at the shelter would help her braid her hair or give her a hair brush. One of the instructors assisted me in the consultation (she had extensive experience in matting) , she told me I had 30 minutes and if I hadn’t made progress the lady would have to leave. Read more>>

Tudor Alexander

I have taught dance for over 15 years and it has been an incredibly meaningful career. I love working with beginners and sculpting them into superstars, because the memories are priceless and it is so much more satisfying to create excellence for someone who has had no previous experience or never even thought that was possible for their lives. Especially in my case, I have worked with mostly women who have gone through divorce, career transitions or life changes and ultimately they desired to have their confidence back and sense of meaning. Dance helped to provide that and in a very powerful way, so I am grateful I get to do what I love. Read more>>

Ben Venom

I am the Night Rider quilt commissioned by the Gregg Museum. This quilt combines the quote “I am the Nightrider. I’m a fuel injected suicide machine. I am a rocker, I am a roller, I am an out-of-controller!” in the movie Mad Max with Paul Revere’s midnight ride to alert the colonial militia in April 1775 to the approach of British forces. The horse is substituted for a wolf which is the official mascot of NC State. Read more>>

Maurice Whitfield

I have been a performer since I was modeling at age 4. Professionally, I’ve been Acting and Producing in Los Angeles for 15 years now. There have been good years but I believe my best years in the acting industry are still in front of me and very close. This year has been rough with the Writer’s and Actor’s dual strike. I’ve used this time to explore new ideas and build new skills. As a parent, I’m passionate about the gun violence epidemic in America, especially regarding children. So I patented a design for a bulletproof backpack for kids. I’ve engineered a prototype to present to manufacturers and distributors and I’d like to get it in stores and available online immediately. Read more>>

Rachel Alber

I have had the honor of being asked to create many different and meaningful projects for art lovers over the years. Some of those projects include wedding rings for two sweet gay couples, made from forged stainless steel pipe, a painting of an African slave ship that depicted tremendous struggle and resilience, a public art sculpture that hopes to inspire connections within community and with all of life, and an interactive sculpture for an individual who is disabled. This last one was a really fun project. Read more>>

Elena Maro

As a freelancing woman composer, who moved on her own from Italy to the USA to start afresh in a male dominated and very competitive industry, and a former educator of 21 years, it is my choice to focus on Film and Television productions that highlight social issues and promote equality. Those stories that inspire, educate and empower are the meaningful projects I love writing music for. I believe that entertainment is a formidable tool and it can make the difference in people’s life, opening minds, igniting ideas and passions and much more. Read more>>

J.a. (Jen) Sweeney

I am a children’s author and I used to live in Lahaina on Maui. During this recent tragedy I thought… what can I do as an author. I then posted on all of my author groups and to my own private social media page. I figured, I have 5.5 thousand followers, so someone will MAYBE donate “some” books.  Well, in the last week I’ve RECEIVED over 1600 lbs of children’s books and well as different genres. And I just received notice that another 1500 lbs are being donated by august 27. I have been on local tv and another news station contacted me yesterday. Read more>>

Gigi Bisong

I have had so many meaningful projects that I have been involved in. But one was with the pillsbury house. My first exp was public speaking with them at their north Minneapolis site. I was schedule to give an hour talk. I had no idea what I was going to share but was called to speak from my heart and not have a speech prepared. I showed up and began telling the youth my life story – there was one moment when I questioned if I should tell the full/deep version or skim past some of the more raw and vulnerable details. My intuition said to share it. So i did. As I did I could see the kids eyes light up (mainly boys that were 11th grade). Read more>>

Alejandra A.Wuotto

My newest two projects are my twerkout classes, where you will learn twerk but also you will work your glutes and lower body; you only need a resistance band, yoga mat and water! I have 3 levels, so don’t worry it’s begginer friendly! Also I’m about to launch my website where you can buy booty shorts with such a nice a designs, they are perfect for the twerkout classes, but you can wear them everywhere! Read more>>

Tony Mantor

I have established myself as a singer-songwriter, pianist, podcast host and record-charting music producer. I am celebrating working in Nashville for more than 30 years. I have progressed into an award winning music producer, recording and placing 33 songs into the Top 40, and 16 songs into the Top 10 of various U.S. based major music charts including Billboard, Indicator, Mediabase, Cashbox & Music Row Magazine. Read more>>

Pavel Sokov

I am currently focused on creating a series I call “Stories of the Tribes of Ethiopia” which aims to share the culture and traditions of the tribes in the Omo Valley, through the medium of realism painting. In November 2022, I spent a month with 6 different tribes in the Omo Valley, sleeping in tents next to their homes. During this time I painted, photographed and recorded stories and songs of the many people I met in the tribes. Although it was pretty difficult on my health, I absolutely loved the adventure. Read more>>

Andres Valentin Lopez

Over the years I’ve had the privilege of working on projects that highlighted many of my childhood icons (even if I didn’t know their names at the time) such as Kevin Conroy and Mark Henn. Artists who maybe the large public might not know, but the fandoms who are inspired by them certainly do. But the project that has been the most meaningful to me has to be my career spanning piece on acclaimed voice director/casting director Andrea Romano. Read more>>

Luke Ring

“American Dreamers”: A Luke Ring Film Set against the backdrop of the captivating Midwest landscape, Luke Ring’s newest cinematic endeavor, “American Dreamers”, promises a fresh, introspective look at the complexities of modern aspirations, familial expectations, and the role of community in shaping our destiny. The story follows Jake, a young man caught at the crossroads of life. With college on the horizon, the weight of his grandparent’s monetary sacrifice looms large. But Jake’s vision of the future deviates from the traditional path, challenging the notion of what the American Dream truly represents in today’s society. Read more>>

Stephanie Gillis

As much as I love a fast and fun read, all of my literary works have to have meaning behind them or else I don’t feel like I have a space in the writing world. While I still write predominantly fantasy, the messages behind those stories still ring true. The Ashport Archives is an urban fantasy but it’s main character shares many traits with me due to the fact that I got the idea while struggling with the effects of “reverse culture shock”. I had been living in Japan for five years when I suddenly was brought back home due to a death in the family and much like Leaven, I didn’t know how to really cope with all that had changed since I’d been gone. Read more>>

Vanessa Morrow

Creating a series of album artwork for the Singer/Songwriter Salamasina has been such an amazing and meaningful project. Our timing and trajectory of our careers have felt very aligned. And working with her on creating art for her debut album has been such a wonderful process. It feels like the dream collab. Our communication and rapport have been phenomenal. Read more>>

Sherry Brooks

As a photographer, I pride myself on making my clients feel great in front of the camera. I think everyone can take a great photo given the right circumstances and guidance. I also pride myself on not over-editing my images because I want to make my clients look like themselves. My goal is to create images that my clients love that show real people. I will retouch my images to remove blemishes, stray hairs and distractions in the background but I don’t change face or body shapes. My clients pay me to make them look their best but they should still look like themselves. Read more>>

Ailin Gong

I have worked on numerous great projects, one of the most recent being the third season of “The Righteous Gemstones,” where I held the role of a foley editor. In this capacity, my responsibility involved meticulously cueing and editing sound effects related to characters’ actions, encompassing everything from rustling clothing and footsteps to gestures and falls. These subtle yet crucial auditory details are instrumental in elevating the authenticity and immersive nature of each scene. Read more>>

Kelli Laneé

The most meaningful projects has been working on are company’s vision and staying dedicated to having fun in the process. Building legacy should be the most meaningful things all of us can contribute to life , to have a sense of purpose . Read more>>

Payton Hurley

The most meaningful project I have ever worked on is my collection of Blooming Bodies. I create art using the human form and botanical elements woven into bodies. Each of the bodies in my work have a meaning behind them. The meaning that I create lies in the pose, movement, type of flower, or colors specific to the piece. I also create a lot based on current struggles I am going through personally or that I see others enduring and overcoming. These experiences whether directly experienced or witnessed often become the intricate tangle of meaning that my work embodies. Read more>>

Shailyn Daniels

I think the most recent album I dropped was the most meaningful project to me because it brought me closer to God. I was told to do this album and work with people I had just met, simply because God told me to. I was asked to trust these people that were large names in the industry and I had no idea how it was going to go but I had to have faith. I had no idea how I was going to find the project but I said yes anyway and a year later we completed the project. The process was hard because I wrote every song myself but the songs weren’t for me. Read more>>

Michelle A M Miller

It was an honor to have been the book artist-in-residence at Women’s Studio Workshop in New York earlier this year. I was there to produce a limited edition handmade artist book entitled, “Erebid/Materia,” with the support of some incredible humans. This project features two of my poems nestled among painted pulp interpretations of abstract drawings from my ongoing “Ouroboros” series. Conceived as an elegy for my father who died in 2021, the writing and imagery are meditations on my transcendent experiences of caregiving, grief, and the healing power of wonder. Many hands made this project possible from the papermaking and cutting to the printing and binding and I cannot wait for the release. Read more>>

Charles Ingham

I recently showed 26 works from an ongoing series Pastoral Scenes from the Gallant South. (The title of the series comes from Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit” and is, of course, sardonic.) I took the photographs in these works on road trips and visits to family in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, and North Carolina.. This is the South that photographer Sally Mann describes as “a place extravagant in its beauty, reckless in its fecundity, terrible in its indifference, and dark with memories.” Pastoral Scenes address the history and legacy of slavery and colonialism. Read more>>

Mike Kurman

For several decades, private collectors, music fans, and galleries would see my photos on the photo sharing website, Flickr, and reach out about how to buy my images. I would ask them to copy and paste links of the shots that they were interested in buying and we would go from there. It was an inelegant solution to something that should have been much more streamlined. Fast forward to 2020 when the world shut down because of Covid. I was an Event Producer by trade and found myself with no events to produce. So I decided that it would be the perfect time to start my own website. I spent a significant amount of time researching various web building platforms but couldn’t find any that could help me accomplish what I wanted to accomplish. Read more>>

Angela Grey

I have recently closed off my painting commissions to gift myself personal project time for painting. It is currently my outlet as I work through my tattoo apprenticeship and I’m glad I gave myself the opportunity to paint for myself again. The current project I’m in the midst of is an oil painting series of captured reference images. The shoot concept incorporates post-it notes listing off painful things others have said that have stuck with us (parties who participated in the shoot) over time. There was also a positive version of this featuring things others have said to us that are healthy and comforting. Read more>>

Weston Wei

My thesis project “Symbiosis” is an art creation based on my personal experience and journey with allergic rhinitis. The deliverables of this project are a series of illustrations and an artist zine. For this project, I divided my story into three chapters: the first chapter is about how I learned about my disease and how the condition caused me pain and panic. The second part is about drug treatment. I was trying to fight against allergic rhinitis through external means such as drugs, syringes, and traditional Chinese herbal medicine. The last chapter is about psychological adjustment: I gradually discovered that all physical diseases are more or less related to the psychological state. Read more>>

Arthur James Solomon

I am a huge fan of romantic comedy. Being Black and Queer and having my own experience, I felt the need to create rom com magic and wrote the web series “Shady Bishes – The Series”. The series showcases an unconventional Black Queer character as the romantic lead, a role we rarely get to portray in film and television. The protagonist of “Shady Bishes” holds all of the fallible qualities of any character we like to root for in their quest to find love. It shows the lightness of a Black, single, gay man in Los Angeles at a time when finding love, romance and intimacy is now on an app. “Shady Bishes” proves that romantic experiences in film are hilarious and universal to all racial and gender identities. Read more>>

Ian Stout

My most meaningful project to date is the current feature-length narrative film project that we are now, as of August 2023, deep in preproduction on, called The Way Through. The film is about a fictional character Ethan, who is a composite of my own lived experiences as well as a combination of many other military veterans who have found healing through underground psychedelic therapy. MDMA assisted therapy and carefully planned Psilocybin mushroom journeys have greatly helped me find relief from the lingering depression tied to my PTSD. After discovering the healing potentials of these medicines I began noticing that many combat veterans, still in the hardest part of their PTSD journey, many of whom were diagnosed with Treatment Resistant PTSD were becoming PTSD free after receiving MDMA assisted therapy. Read more>>

Tiona Thompson

My podcast Affirmations Of A Bad Bitch is the most meaningful project I have ever been apart of. I started my show as I began my healing journey and was honestly feeling alone. I knew other girls had to feeling alone too and I wanted to build community and a safe space for deep, meaningful, and spiritual conversations. This has opened my eyes to the beauty of sisterhood, as well as authenticity as I share my unique viewpoints and perspective throughout my journey. My goal is to empower other women to step into their “Bad Bitch Energy” by cultivating confidence through self love and mindset magic. It’s really important to me that others feel seen and safe to express themselves as they are. I hold my podcast, as well as my listeners, very close to my heart. Read more>>

Liseli Thiele

The most meaningful project I’ve ever worked on is the creation and management of the 3EB Lifestyle blog dedicated to Third Eye Blind, the rock band. The story behind this project is very personal and holds great significance to me. Back in 1999, when I was just 23, I went through a difficult period after losing my husband. During those dark days, the music of Third Eye Blind became a source of comfort and hope for me. Fast forward 18 years to 2016, and their melodies and lyrics still hold a special place in my heart. I couldn’t help but wonder why their music had such a powerful impact on my life. This led me on a journey of self-discovery, trying to understand what made their songs so meaningful to me. In a moment of inspiration, I had the idea to create a space where fans like me could come together and share their stories. Read more>>

Samantha Simmons

Move Me No Mountain was such a meaningful film project to work on in desert of Las Vegas Nevada. Overcoming homelessness, the film follows the main character, Jenna, who goes on a emotional walkabout to find new purpose in life. But don’t worry—it has a happy ending. The film really is the whole package: striking cinematography, an impactful story, and a talented cast and crew. Deborah Richards and her team outdid themselves by working with the Las Vegas Rescue Mission, and Shine A Light Foundation to gather up stories from previously un-sheltered people, and incorporate those experiences into the film. I was fortunate enough to portray a Las Vegas police officer in the film—complete with stunt work and some cursing. Read more>>

Gabriel Rhenals

Completed and self-published in late 2022, my 1st book ’20 Years a Filmmaker’ is a project that means a great deal to me outside of my filmmaking work. At 125 chapters and 443 pages long, the book is a rich repository of experiences relevant to my formation and practice as a visual artist and filmmaker. The process of writing the book took 11 months and involved extensive outlining at the outset followed by a rapt commitment to a near-daily routine of crafting the prose involved. Writing the book reinforced the importance of preparation, organization and orderliness in my creative process. Along with granting me greater confidence as a writer, the experience of finishing my first book also warmed me to the idea of writing more books in the future. Read more>>

Karo Moralyan

Recently I released “Now I Rise” an album of cinematic-style songs with artist and singer-songwriter Mia Mormino that I would say was very meaningful to me. As a kid, I had always been a fan of movie soundtracks and film scores. In fact, one of the reasons I got into music production in the first place was because I enjoyed them so much. I just remember the feeling you get when you a hear a particular song in a scene or how certain scores can make movies so much more memorable. Read more>>

Leonor Anthony

IceBreaking Project – I applied to the Arctic Circle Artist and Science Residency in January of 2019 in my quest to push and challenge myself beyond my preconceived boundaries. I was accepted for the 2020 fall expedition but was delayed because of Covid until October 2022. I went north into the unknown because I felt that as an activist artist I absolutely had to. I had no idea what to expect but upon landing in the Northernmost “city” of Longyearbyen and for the next 23 days, I saw and experienced the unimaginable, a land of unspeakable beauty where sublime became a verb and where every day, overwhelmed by beauty – I openly and uninhibitedly cried. Read more>>

Jade Maxx

One of the most meaningful projects I’ve had the opportunity to be a part of is a project I still work on with 305 Pink Pack. They are a Miami based non profit that provides services for breast cancer patients in the area. I have partnered with them to provide Crowns of Courage by adorning the head with personalized henna art after hair loss. The henna crown can bring the wearer a confidence that’s sometimes lost in turbulent times. It reminds them of their outer beauty and within. Since henna lasts 2 to 3 weeks it can also serve as a reminder that all things will pass in time, and to find beauty in the moment we have. Read more>>

Jillian Schmitz

I love this question. Artists typically do what they do because it’s meaningful for them, but so often, once that passion turns into a profession, the industry quickly strips away meaning for means. I don’t think meaningful is monolithic so I have three projects that I’ve experienced, and continue to experience, as particularly meaningful. In 2020, during the pandemic lockdown, I had come to accept that much of my work, as I knew it, may not fully return. Instead of fighting this realization, I accepted it as a natural life progression and began to come to peace with my fortunate career of television and film work along with my weekly staple of live burlesque performances – which I was most concerned about not returning post-pandemic. Read more>>

Gregory Malphurs

Definitely my new series of paintings “Abstract Heads.” We have thousands, maybe millions of thoughts a day. LA is moving fast – we are constantly bombarded with information. Its endless. Perpetual motion. The “Abstract Heads” explore this by interweaving and layers chaotic, gestural marks and strokes and splatters all moving together with energy. I’ve always been drawn to abstract paintings – I’m not an abstract painter, by any means, but I always wanted to incorporate it into my work, I just never found a way. Read more>>

Justin Daniels

My most meaningful project is a song titled “this is not a song this is me venting”. The song starts off with me addressing the fact that my fans often portray me as a star but in my eyes i am far from it, also I speak on the loss of my father figure and how it has affected me in my life. As the song progresses it touches past relationships and how things can change overtime but at the end of the day it’s up to you to keep moving forward. Read more>>