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.

Natalie Nichole

I feel I’ve always been misunderstood or mischaracterized. Often times people assume something about you and then run with it. When I first began creating music people thought it was some sort of egotistic effort to get attention. In reality, music was my way of providing myself therapy. Read more>>

Maura Allen

When I first starting showing and selling my work 20+ years ago, I was an “outlier” in the Western/American West art world. I worked in acrylic; the classics were in oil. I crossed genres — photography, printmaking, painting (and now glass); this “boundary busting” approach was not understood or appreciated. Regardless, this is how I saw (and still see) the world. Read more>>

Lacie Evans

Being a woman in a male dominated industry my whole life has definitely come with its fair share of issues. And then to tack on being a business owner, content creator, and an Ag woman that has pet cows; I have definitely been misunderstood or mistaken many times.Tthe thing about being a woman in a mans fields you have to be twice as good” is a quote by Temple Grandin that I have always related too because of the truth it holds. Read more>>

Olivia Chisholm

I do feel that both – myself and my work have been mischaracterized. I am not a traditional florist. I am an artist that uses florals as a medium to design. All florists are artists, but I find limitation in what is often associated with traditional work – pretension and a copy and paste model of “beauty”. My life’s work has always been centered in culture and exploring the many layers of humanity that make us beautiful. Read more>>

Jessica Clark

While I was a student in college I felt like my classmates didn’t care for my artwork and that was really discouraging for me. I felt like if my classmates didn’t like my work then I had no real chance in the professional world. So I started painting what I thought people would like and they didn’t like that either so my plan was to graduate college and never paint again. Read more>>

Zan Dretti

As an artist, your craft is generally misunderstood or mischaracterized. Most of the time, others may see it as a “thing” you do, a hobby, or something in your spare time. The truth of the matter is, nobody can see your vision quite like you can. That’s the lesson-it’s your journey and yours alone and you keep chipping away IF it’s fulfilling for you. Hip Hop artists are especially misunderstood and sometimes even comes with a stigma. Read more>>

Multi Billion Dollar

Is anyone truly understood? Art and creativity has providing an avenue to where we can make and recreate ourselves as often as we’d like. To be understood one must understand themselves and know it don’t matter much who understands you! What matter is that you are happy with yourself and all you’ve created. Read more>>

Miss Cherry Delight

There’s a reason I have a portrait of Boris Karloff as Frankenstein’s monster on my handshaking/microphone arm. I’ve always known I was “weird” and I’ve always felt misunderstood. All the monsters want to be scary except for Frankenstein’s “monster”; he just wants to be treated with dignity and respect. He doesn’t get what he needs because he’s not finished and never will be. I’m never going to be finished. Are any of us? Read more>>