Often, those who tread off the beaten path are misunderstood or mischaracterized and so we asked folks from the community to reflect and tell us about the times they’ve been misunderstood or mischaracterized.
Alexandria Simmons
Yes. My best writing tends to come from a place of emotional complexity—when I feel something deeply but can’t quite articulate it until I sit down and write. That process is often cathartic, and in many ways necessary. Over time, I came to understand that what I was doing wasn’t just personal processing, but a kind of truth-seeking—particularly around identity, belonging, mental health, and the often-unspoken struggles of being a mixed-race American woman raised in a military family. Read more>>
Alexia Rousse
Absolutely—I’ve often felt that my work as a fine art nature photographer is misunderstood or mischaracterized, especially by those who haven’t seen the pieces in person or don’t know what goes into creating them. Photography is sometimes brushed off as “just taking pictures,” but the truth is, what I do is an intricate and demanding process that requires vision, patience, technical skill, and a deep connection with nature. My work begins long before I ever click the shutter—I spend hours researching and selecting locations, sometimes traveling across states or even countries. I track weather patterns, scout for days, and often return to the same location multiple times in pursuit of that perfect moment—when the light, sky, and landscape align like a symphony. If I’m shooting a sunrise or sunset, I need just the right amount of cloud coverage—enough to create vibrant colors, but not so much that the scene becomes flat or gray. Read more>>
Marci Hopkins
A defining moment in my professional career didn’t come with an award or a spotlight—it came from a conversation.
I was at a women’s retreat, sharing proudly about my talk show Wake Up with Marci, how it was on TV, how I was interviewing incredible guests, and truly living my dream. And then someone said, “But if you’re not making money from it, it’s just a hobby.” Read more>>
Lilian Melchert
Yes, many times. People have tried to box me into one version of myself, either the playful girl doing trends or the “too spiritual” one manifesting dreams out loud. But the truth is, I’ve always lived in between worlds. I create from intuition, but I move with strategy. And that duality can be hard for others to label, which is exactly why it works. I’ve learned that being misunderstood isn’t a flaw. It’s often the side effect of being multidimensional. I’d rather be felt deeply by the right people than be fully understood by everyone. Read more>>
Angie Kim
I can’t recall the exact timing, but it was around 2021, when we were still in the midst of COVID—or perhaps slowly coming out of it. I was preparing my undergraduate thesis project, and I wanted to create something that resonated with what we were all going through. I became interested in portraying the collective image of contemporary people—specifically, our masked faces. Read more>>
Joey Scigliano
I feel like musically speaking my band, Wasted Time has been mischaracterized in the past. I personally, would argue that we put a lot of emphasis on the live show and having more of a performance than just playing our music to an audience. Wasted Time shows can get crazy. They can be sloppy, things can get broken or tossed around the venue. To me anything that will create a memorable experience for the audience is the goal. I am never playing live so you can hear exactly what a studio recording of one of our songs sounds like. And I think we are often characterized as unserious or loose because of this way we perform. The fact is I personally hold so much more stock in making the night an experience for a viewer than I ever will about playing tight every single time. That’s my inner punk kid speaking. Read more>>
Samantha June
As a woman in the music industry, people often try to define your brand for you, oftentimes using black or white generalizations to attempt to understand the way you and your art exist in the world. You can either be a sex symbol or a songbird, a hopeless romantic or an eager primadonna. It is harder, in my experience, for a woman to center herself as a multi-faceted person and artist. I got a taste of this when I was working on my debut EP “Hotel June,” a metaphorical concept project about people checking “in and out” of your life and the fears and avoidance that comes with that. Much of the EP centers around a man as the main love interest, comparing the first meeting and infatuation of two people to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Read more>>
Aaron Dukes
There have been many times my creative work has been misunderstood and/or mischaracterized. I am constantly in a state of growth and the pursuance of truth. This means that some beliefs I used to hold, I no longer now hold. When you are humble enough to not know what you believe, sometimes you are willing to try on different perspectives and beliefs to see how they fit. Or sometimes you simply and naturally outgrow perceptions and understandings you may have held about a topic, or an event in your life, or the way things work. Read more>>
Kelsey Lane
Yes, I have felt that. I think people like to put us in boxes. Like, oh you can’t be a businesswoman and a comedian. I still get self conscious about telling people. If I’m in a one on one business meeting with someone I don’t want them to almost see this other side of me or know I am a comedian for fear of judgement or them taking me less seriously. But, I will say most of the time it’s 100% my own fears. No one is thinking I can’t do both or shouldn’t. But I felt like that in my 20’s like I had to pick one and I was either all in one category or the other. The past few years I feel like I have come into my own and really embraced that I have an interest and career in multiple areas. I think to people are becoming more and more versatile in their careers too. Such as the women on Selling Sunset! Read more>>
Andrea Tatted
I have hypothyroidism as a someone who aims to be a social media influencer being plus sized is never easy. It’s even more hard when people slam “work out” or “eat better” a lot of people don’t realize not everyone chooses to be the size they are big or small. So I just push that message. Read more>>
Ward Schumaker
At 22 years-old judges awarded me first purchase prize in the Governor’s Art Competition (in Nebraska where I was living). But when the governor and his wife saw it, they labeled the thing pornographic and refused to allow it into their collection. His wife called it the “dirtiest thing you’ve ever seen.” When reporters viewed the work, one asked: What’s dirty about it?” And the answer given was: If you don’t see what’s dirty about it, then you don’t have a dirty mind.” Read more>>
Robert Dick
I have invented an entire glossary of new sounds for flutes, often playing multiple notes simultaneously rather than the traditional one note at a time. Using the sounds I’ve invented, I’ve been able to create music that is truly new. An issue that has cropped up throughout my career, however, is that listeners can get caught up listening to the sounds rather than the music that the sounds convey. When I first started playing solo concerts, I frequently had the experience that, although I played my heart out, the audience didn’t really connect. Read more>>
Michael Paul Britto
I been told that a lot of my work is very loaded and confrontational. This is not my intention. I am just creating as a response to how I feel society perceives me, and the many challenges I / we face as people of color in the United States Of America. I was once told that I should create work that people would want to have in their home. I was also told once that my work is hard to curate because the imagery and messages conveyed. What I learned from these experiences is to be true to myself and my art, and not to change who I am for anybody. Read more>>
Tamaree Austin
As a “free spirit independent thinker”, I think the way I express myself in an artistic form is misunderstood, why?because of the way it comes off from the heart. However, my character has been mischaracterized ;especially in the art I present and the certain matter/ manner I choose to speak upon. It comes off sharp, meaningful, and has a clear understanding from what I express and experience through everyday life. Most people do not feel they can be that free, so when someone is open and maybe can be “a little too honest”, it’s deemed as negative. What I did learn though, through growth and transparency is that everything will always be a learning experience. Read more>>
Candice Spry
Sculpture seems to be a bit of a black box. It takes many forms and encompasses everything from table top objects to conceptual robotic performances at Art Basil. We’re living in a time of a new Industrial Revolution, anything that can be imagined or created with AI can be run through a digital program and milled on a CNC machine, or a 3-d printer. Most of the art production that is seen in most public places is fabricated by automation, and very little of the human is in the art or the finished work. Sculptors are monolithic and very few are capable of producing their own work. Read more>>
Josh Zagoren
An agent from CAA once called me because the content I was putting up was going viral and he cautioned me that once you are popular, you can only do what you became popular for to stay popular on the internet (eg you do a dance in front of a fountain, you are Fountain Dancer from now on). Then it becomes about how to please to algorithm. I think this is why what I do has been incorrectly labeled “Internet Personality” or “Influencer” or “Internet Comedian” and while those may be true in specific cases or bookings, the goal has always been celebrating language and human interest stories. Chad the Bird was born out of my love for spoken word performance and creating characters and that’s the focus still. We focus on the live show, the Internet popularity is a big bonus. Read more>>