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.
Rocky Rose
I met Paul Trudeau in 2016, playing keys for Billy Idol. As a keyboardist myself, I’m a big fan of Idol’s music and of course, the live keys player behind the shows, Paul himself. We’ve stayed in touch over the years and recently I got a phone call from Paul saying that he had his own original project that he actually played guitar and sang for – asking me to come play keyboards (for my favorite keyboard player!) and I’ve had so much fun learning his music, lyrics and harmonies! Watch out for more live shows in Los Angeles from the Paul Trudeau Band! (www.paultrudeaumusic.com) Read more>>
Sarah Lisle
One of the most meaningful projects I’ve worked on as a photographer has been photographing military homecomings – when partners, families, and loved ones reunite with their service member when they return from a deployment. It’s always a little hectic to schedule because the arrival time is usually given very last minute, and sometimes at odd hours of the day/night. When you arrive for the session, you usually have to wait with the family members and it’s a great time to capture their last moments apart. There’s a buzz in the air and everyone is excited and nervous and very anxious for the time to pass. There’s usually a short ceremony where the service members get to parade out, and then they “release” the audience and everyone madly makes their way to their service member for the reunion. Read more>>
Lauren Mae
Some of the most meaningful projects I’ve gotten to do have been with cancer non-profits. Although cancer has been the hardest thing I’ve ever walked through, it has brought so many blessings and amazing opportunities to work with incredible people and organizations. Once I started sharing my cancer journey on my YouTube channel and other social media platforms, non-profit organizations started reaching out to work together. One of the first projects I got to do was with the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. There, I got to share my personal story to spread awareness and bring people to register for their annual Light The Night Walk. I also got the amazing opportunity to create content for SurvivorNet and shared my story of how Immunotherapy saved my life. It has been incredible to watch the impact cancer has had on my life and how its affected my career path. Read more>>
Television Face
Our most meaningful project has been our current project, the Static EP. The band started just under 3 years ago now, with a very different lineup and a very different sound. Going through such drastic changes over the years with members quitting, frustration with the style, multiple different producers, and just constant change in both the band and our own personal lives, we’ve learned to adapt to any problem thrown at us. This EP is the product of our willingness to fight through that adversity and come out on top. Read more>>
Trena Myers
Volunteering with Rare Strides has been an incredibly meaningful experience for me. The organization works tirelessly to support people with rare diseases and their families, providing them with much-needed advocacy, resources, and hope. One of the most memorable experiences I had while volunteering with Rare Strides was helping to organize and emcee the second Glow in the Dark Concert for children and adults with rare diseases. It was heartwarming to see people come together and enjoy themselves despite the daily challenges they face. Seeing the children’s faces light up as they participated in activities and games was truly a joyous experience that I will never forget. We also granted our first Rare Wish. Read more>>
Evan Alvarado
The most meaningful project that I’m working on right now is my next documentary, about the Rising Voices Changing Coasts (RVCC) project being led by Dr. Daniel Wildcat. The RVCC is a 5-year project, in building an Earth Justice Hub at Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, KS. For each of those five years, they’ll be hosting a summer program at each coastal region: Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Gulf Coast. Each costal region is experiencing their own unique climate challenges, where indigenous communities are being affected negatively in some way. These summer intern programs are to host a small focused group of university students, to train under some of the best climate scientists. Read more>>
Lexi Layne
The most meaningful project to me is the one that I am currently working on. I am working on a full length album, so much of this music is my story, the raw essence of my soul and creativity. Read more>>
Loveday Funck
The journey of creating “Childhood Demons: Rituals and Meditations for Making Peace with Your Past” was a deeply transformative experience, intertwining the realms of creativity, healing, and self-discovery. As a fairy tale surrealist and poet, I embarked on a remarkable project that ventured into the ethereal world of Victorian demon girls set against the backdrop of mystical New Orleans settings. Each of the twelve pieces of artwork held a mirror to the complex emotions that reside within us all, particularly those stemming from the wounds of childhood. Read more>>
Jennifer McCray Rincón
I have been Artistic Director of Visionbox Studio since our founding in 2010. The company was founded to help provide graduate-level training to actors in Colorado of all ages, levels, and backgrounds, but equally important has been the development of new intermedia performance work of social relevance. Our founding production was an adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Othello” that we call “The Othello Project” based on contemporary interviews with perpetrators and victims of domestic violence. I have had a long history of working on “Devised Work” in theatre beginning with “Expedition Six” by Bill Pullman and “The Laramie Project” by Moisés Kaufman. Devised work is to theatre what documentary is to film. Read more>>
Kelly Fogel
I have been working with Ohana One for several years. They are a group of surgeons and medical professionals using smart glasses and other technology to train surgeons around the world where they don’t have a specialist in their field to learn from. I never thought photography would take me into operating rooms around the world. Read more>>
Faye D
The most meaningful project I’ve worked on is when I was part of a program in college where I went and helped serve dinners at nursing homes and provided after school care to students at local schools. I love being in a place where I can help others. Read more>>
Michael Antonio Keane
I am more than honoured to be discussing my latest two films with the team. “Like A Bolt From The Blue” made in late 2022 is a winner at the (SWIFF) Student World Impact Film Festival. Nominated for Best Direction at the 2023 Ireland’s Young Filmmaker Of The Year Awards. Shortlist for best Drama at the 2023 All American High School Film Festival premiering in New York Premiere at AMC Theaters in Times Square, October 2023. Like A Bolt From The Blue tells the gripping story of a young relationship facing an unplanned pregnancy. Read more>>
Ashley Gierke
The most meaningful project I’ve worked on is the 300+ drawings I made over a span of 3 years (2015 – 2018). It wasn’t something I planned to do nor had as a goal, but rather it came about organically as I was healing from my experience with breast cancer. The five surgeries I had as part of my treatment temporarily limited me from making the highly repetitive paper artwork I had been creating previously. With a desire to use my hands again and a need to process the emotional breadth of the experience, I started drawing. Most of the pieces are figurative and relate to my feelings about coming to terms with my changed body and new perspective. Read more>>
Elisabeth Hill
I have lots of projects I’ve done that have been meaningful. Between boudoir sessions and seeing self love grow within the clients, from portraits and seeing them expressing powerful emotions. However I have done a body positivity shoot before. Showing that self love comes in so many different kinds of forms, the models eyes lighting up from seeing their pictures. The meaningful sessions all come from them expressing emotions. Read more>>
Jordy Sank
I did a feature documentary about the life of a remarkable 98-year-old Holocaust Survivor, Ella Blumenthal. She survived the ghetto and three concentration and in spite of all of this her spirit remains undimmed. Every day I spent working on her documentary I felt as though I was doing something positive for the world. There was a lot of pressure in doing her story justice and communicating all of her remarkable values of faith, resilience and joy to audiences – I wanted to everyone watching to feel as uplifted and inspired as I did when I was around Ella. Read more>>
Savanna Crasto
After doing ‘The Psychology of Beauty’, which was centered around the impact of the beauty industry, specifically on our sense of worth and how the industry speaks to women, I received a letter from a woman who had seen it with her daughter. In the letter she spoke about how the film made her question the way she brings her daughter up considering the impact of the beauty industry, and that for herself and her daughter, how the film made them feel understood in the struggles women face to achieve an impossible standard. To me, those are the projects I want to create and that I think are important. That was my second feature film and it had a private screening in 2021. It showed me that even if one person feels heard and understood, that is the merit of a successful film to me. That is the importance of this industry to me; films that show what it means to be human. Read more>>
Antione Jenkins
One of the most meaningful projects I have ever worked on was the George Floyd Mural that I painted with my best friend in 2020. Living in Minnesota during the aftermath of George Floyd’s death was a tumultuous and emotional time for everyone. After participating in protests and experiencing the traumatic incident of a semi-truck driving into the crowd on the 35W Bridge, we were deeply affected. Despite the fear and pain, we knew we had to continue the fight for justice, and we decided to use our artistic talent to send a powerful message to the world. Read more>>
Kayatta Patton
This year I collaborated with the City of Santa Rosa and Kimzin Creative as part of a civic engagement to discuss and curate the City of Santa Rosa’s 30-year plan regarding housing and health. This project comprised many layers, such as developing writing workshops to gather information from citizens aged 16-24. We worked with students in the juvenile hall and Santa Rosa Community College. Once we conducted our workshops, I took the information gathered and produced an original record telling their stories. This was a challenging project for multiple reasons, I was telling someone else’s story, and I wanted to stay true to my sound and brand. Luckily we were able to accomplish both of those ideas. This project taught me that there is power in our youth telling their stories. I’m incredibly proud of everyone who worked to make it happen. Read more>>
Casey De Bie
My friend and I have recently started an artist collective. Born out of our post-art school experiences, Jess Peters and I struggled with a lack of immediate community and consistent guidance sparking creativity. Therefore we started Car Crash Collective, creating a purpose-driven artist collective that embraces the transformative power of calamitous events, symbolized by the metaphorical “car crash.” Fueled by the fear of losing our creative community and having to forge our paths alone, we wanted to create something that brought us and our work together. Read more>>
DeVante Mack
The Ikigai Experiment For those that may not know. The term is a Japanese concept that combines the elements of your passion, your mission, your vocation and your profession. The Ikigai Experiment was created to allow business owners the opportunity to talk about their lives as Entrepeneur’s and creatives and give advice to those aspiring to own businesses or get involved in creative spaces. This project meant a lot to me as a creator and business owner myself to talk with likeminded people and learn from hearing their experiences. Read more>>
Tamara Solomson
The pandemic hit and the industry took a huge hit. A good portion of my work was producing live shows and events. It was during this time that I realized that I needed a change. I had some of the most amazing opportunities over the years, but after extensive travel, I felt I was ready to close that door. Leaving was bitter sweet and it felt a bit daunting to be starting over but it has proven to be the right decision. Having the opportunity to venture back to my creative side has changed both my professional and personal life for the better. Read more>>
Lizzy Barrett
By far the most meaningful project I’ve ever worked on is “Divisible,” a documentary film about the history and current impacts redlining. The film highlights the specific case of Omaha, Nebraska to illustrate and show how redlining continually affects and harms people nationwide. Divisible is told through a collection of interviews with individuals who are experts, either through their profession, their lived experiences, or both. I first came to Omaha in 2020 to film a fundraising video for a North Omaha-based non-profit. I had a baseline understanding of redlining at the time, but was interested in learning more about how it shapes everything around us in cities across the country. Read more>>
Marisa Avelar
One of the most meaningful projects to me was getting to design an outside banner for the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian Museum in Lower Manhattan’s annual Día de los Muertos/Day of the Dead event that offers a community ofrenda, live performances, lectures, craft making and family activities. This project meant a lot to me personally because I never dreamed I would get to do design work for the exterior of a very special cultural institution like the Smithsonian in New York City educating visitors, tourists and New Yorkers about my Mexican culture. I have always been very proud of my roots and cultural identity, and love educating people about beautiful, unique traditions like Día de los Muertos. I also loved participating in the community ofrenda with a photo and memory of my Tía Sonia who had recently passed. Read more>>
Martin Wave
As someone who’s, at this point, worked on countless projects with artists, brands, for movies, shows and games over the years, the thing that I keep coming back to is the need to express myself in some way. When you’re asked to make music for something and you’re essentially limited to a pretty narrow brief, your own expression naturally becomes limited. That’s important, of course, because you are adding something to someone else’s vision, and it can be a good container for creativity. But in the industry we measure success in a way that often leads creatives away from personal expression and instead we’re focusing on always helping others. Read more>>
Kikee Bah
Before the pandemic I was writing and recording songs to uplift children who were suffering from cancer. I had the opportunity to do so for a couple of years and every time that I received an email from The Songs Of Love Foundation (the company that had hired me) telling me that the children I had written a song for were ecstatic, it brought warmth to my heart and soul, just knowing that I could do something that could have such a positive impact on the life of another human being was incredible. Read more>>
Carrie Vecchione
Creating our own OboeBass! genre. We are the world’s only professional oboe/bass duo. This grew out of our being a married couple looking for things to play as a duo, learning very little had been written for the combination, and discovering it was a solid, versatile, pleasing pairing. The creation of our genre led us down many very varied pathways – commissioning, recording, performing, teaching, arranging, collaborating, and presenting. Each of these activities generated many meaningful and rewarding projects. It’s gratifying to see the impact our small, portable ensemble has in bringing our music to people where they are, from rural settings to inner cities, from to traditional and novel concert venues, and to schools and senior residences. Read more>>
Sally Nellson
Following the 2010 release of the documentary Waiting for Superman and Obama’s Race to the Top legislation, charter schools experienced explosive growth. I live in Nebraska which, at the time, was one of less than a dozen states that did not allow charter schools despite a growing number of bills being introduced in our legislature. In addition, Nebraska was ranked at the bottom in state aid for public schools. Charter schools bleed money from public schools. If proven effective, then perhaps they are a good investment. However, research has shown that more fail than succeed. Read more>>
Elizabeth Inglese
Producing high quality live music experiences within the city of Seattle is super important to me as it allows for me to share and spread my passion for artists and their music to other people. Read more>>
Ella, Bella, Mariela Vernile, Hogan, Ferreira
A meaningful project we completed was the first ever Noughties Market event we held in December of 2022. Living in Charlotte, we felt as though woman did not have a special place at vintage markets. A majority of the vendors consisted of masculine clothing and few brands were woman owned. The three of us made up a majority of the woman owned vendors when we did vintage events around Charlotte. There was a lack of representation for the 2000s style of clothing we gravitated towards, yet we knew there was a rapidly growing group in Charlotte of like-minded individuals who just needed a space to shop and express their individuality. Read more>>
Jay Echevarria
The majority of my work is paint on canvas – but I have always loved expressing myself through multiple mediums. One day, I was messing around in Procreate. I began to draw a font, and then a character, added some detail and I realized I had just created the cover for a comic (STINK). As I created each page, I realized they felt like a diary entry of sorts. Dealing with mental health and sobriety, STINK was created out of thin air, but for a greater purpose. I shared STINK with the world and the feedback was so much greater than I had anticipated. Read more>>
Don Kleppin
I wrote a short story back in college which a friend, who was in film school at the time, asked me to turn into a screenplay. I had no experience writing screenplays but I ended up completing the task in one night (consequently I got no sleep). A month later it was Thanksgiving break and my friend returned home to Morton Grove, north of Chicago. He had rented all the equipment needed to shoot the screenplay and create a short film. We spent the next day calling everyone we knew to get a cast and crew together, and were successful. We contacted a local church and were able to convince them to let us use it as our film set. We shot the film over a three-day span, with many of us working full-time jobs alongside the project, which forced us to shoot overnight. I got very little sleep, if any, during those three days. Read more>>
Christina Hulen
The most meaningful project I’ve worked on is also my most recent. It’s a short film and proof of concept called EVERYTHING’S FINE, which is currently on the festival circuit. It centers around a young schoolteacher who is the sole survivor of a school shooting and her struggles with PTSD as the one year anniversary of the event approaches. It began with a conversation with the lead actress, Charlotte Rothwell, about Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSD). She asked if I had ever written about my own struggles with it and suggested maybe I should. Read more>>
Sophia Victor
The most meaningful project I have worked on is called the To Be Free Project. The To Be Free Project started in 2010 when I learned about the Black Panther Party and that there were still U.S. held political prisoners. Soon after I met family members of current U.S. held political prisoners and was prompted by the Holy Ghost to start attending birthday signing meetings for political prisoners. Eventually these cards turned into my own full blown snail mail trail to over 40 political prisoners that were still fighting for their freedom. The letters soon prompted prison visits, followed by a body of paintings, video, installation and performance art aimed at telling their story and advocating for their freedom. By the grace of God, since the project began over 15 political prisoners have been released from prison. Read more>>
Jennifer Dyer
As an Art Director in a my professional life, learning to garden was something that came natural to me. I actually wasn’t expected I’d fall in love with gardening so much. But as we bought our first home and I found myself with a 1/3 of an acre of neglected backyard space, I quickly got into the idea that I wanted it to look beautiful. It became a slow process over 7 years of turning nothing by grass and weeds into something landscaped and tailored. Gardening is a very visual hobby. There’s a lot of gratification that comes from transforming a yard into something beautiful. And when that beauty can also feed you (my vegetable garden), it’s an even greater win. Read more>>
Josefien Stoppelenburg
To me, it doesn’t get much more meaningful than creating paintings on commission. People will give me elements that have great significance in their live. For example, they might ask me to make a painting representing a certain city, something that represents their job, some of their beloved pets, something to represent family, musical instruments, books or athletic equipment to celebrate their hobbies, or a special event, such as. Wedding Anniversary. It’s then up to me to take all these elements and combine them into a coherent painting. But it can be much simpler too: the other day I finished a commission for a wonderful woman, who had to give up gardening, her longtime passion. Read more>>
Chiung Zhang
The Awakening of Insects is my latest and most meaningful project. It is a 2D animated short film presenting three funny scenes from insect life when spring is coming. Cute and silly characters wake up from their winter sleep and celebrate the awakening uniquely. Its lighthearted portrayal also encourages viewers to live life to the fullest and expect the next beautiful moment to come. The traditional Chinese lunar calendar divides the year into 24 solar terms. 24 solar terms is a unique and poetic way Chinese people depict seasonal change. Read more>>
Mara Herman
Most of my meaningful projects are outlined her on the producer page of my website: https://www.marajillherman.com/producer My latest project, The Moss Maidens, just closed on Sunday so it doesn’t have its own page yet however I will elaborate here. The Moss Maidens is a new play written by S. Dylan Zwickel and inspired by the true story of a group of Dutch teenage girls who flirted with Nazis, lured them into the woods for a romantic walk, and murdered them. This dramatic play evokes the beauty and sacredness of the woods while amplifying feminist values and human rights. Read more>>
Amber Andersson
There is a book called the “Accusation” which was written by an author that goes by the pen name Bandi (Korean for Firefly). “The Accusation” is special in many ways, but the primary reason is that it is the first book to be smuggled out of North Korea. It is a collection of seven stories, which tell of seven different families charged for a “crime” in North Korea, and how their experience revealed the lies they were sold by their country and its rulers. The stories were beautifully written and harrowing, but what moved me the most was the author’s courage to pen such words and then to have them smuggled out of North Korea. Read more>>
Mario Loor
I am currently working on my debut LP, American Gothic that comes out on October 13th. The project is dark, folky and psychedelic. After releasing 3 singles (Tobacco Rd., Mascara, Haha) people have compared it to Nick Drake, Syd Barrett, Elliott Smith, The Beatles and The Doors. I started writing songs for this record last summer after a band breakup. We recorded 5 songs and Tobacco Rd. was one I threw in last minute. I played all the instruments on it except drums. I released it under my name in December and it was the first song that gained thousands of streams due to a semi viral video on Tiktok and Instagram. So I started making more music that was like the music I hold near and dear to my heart. Read more>>