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?

Jason Daniels

For me one of the most meaningful creative projects I’ve been a part of is when I stepped away from the music industry as far as touring goes, and moved to a remote indigenous community on an island off the top of Australia in Arnhem Land. Read more>>

Janell Grace

Love Conquers All has been the most meaningful project that I’ve worked on for multiple reasons. First, Love Conquers All is a story of mental health and perseverance. The main character Kennedy is forced to face his issues from his past and present. That confrontation is something we wanted to make sure to capture. Read more>>

Talena Queen

Recently, I worked on a museum exhibit. “Paterson’s Poets.” The exhibit seems like a culminating event of many of the other projects that I’ve worked on over the years. Read more>>

Mary Sherman

The most meaningful project that I recently worked on, was a project I conceived and produced as the director of the nonprofit I founded, TransCultural Exchange. The project’s title is Hello World.  Read more>>

Derek Anthony Wilson

When I think about a meaningful projects I think about the two most important things in my life right now other than family, love, and faith. Those two meaningful things are my new full band album “Doozies to Daisies” and the “CarBags” homeless drive that I am proud to be a part of. Read more>>

Kari Whiteside

Though not every painting, print, or mural of mine speaks to everyone, all of my artwork is very meaningful to me in one way or another, I only put paint down when I have inspiration, so each of my pieces is embedded with a deeper story than meets the eye. Not only do I absolutely love answering questions about how I made my pieces, but also why I made them. Read more>>

JONELLE LOVE

Thank you so much for having me! Like many creators, I stumbled onto content creation unintentionally during the pandemic — I was stuck at home with my family with nothing to do but get on each others nerves and notice all the little things that bothered me about our house because it was either A) a waste of space, or B) inefficient for our busy family. Read more>>

Madeline Manning

I began Madeline Marie with the intent to create special dresses for myself that I did not see in the industry. I wanted a dress that had huge puff sleeves, that fit my chest perfectly and was just the right length. As I began making these dresses and customizing them to my body, my friends and family began wanting dresses that fit their body perfectly. Read more>>

Victoria J. Fry

Since launching my company, Visionary Art Collective, I’ve dreamed about curating an in-person exhibition. For three years we’ve successfully facilitated a wide range of virtual exhibitions, featuring artists from all over the world. This April we had the pleasure of putting together our first in-person show in New York City, highlighting the work of six contemporary women painters. Read more>>

Jennifer Wilkin Penick

This year (2023) I had the idea to organize a call for art on behalf of the hospital cancer center where I am a paid artist in residence. It seemed a good event to organize in conjunction with World Collage Day (May 13), and the way that we described the call explained that we were inviting artists to give small collage artwork (4×4″) that would be displayed before being given to patients, their families, caregivers, and hospital staff. Read more>>

Polina Varlamova

“The Body project” is one of my biggest projects. I’ve been working on it since 2020. I am always looking for a new type of expression, ways to deepen it, and make it more complex. Read more>>

Jessica Cerullo

When the pandemic hit, the theater – the place I called home – no longer existed in a way I recognized. Without the ability to engage in live rehearsal and performance, I was lost. The art of gathering for rehearsal and for performance, the dynamic flow that transpires between audiences and performers, was like oxygen for me and suddenly I was suffocating from the isolation. Read more>>

Victoria Mikael

I’m currently hosting weekly writing workshops at Mary’s Place, a women’s shelter in downtown Seattle. Since the workshops are primarily generative memoir-focused, many of the women share and process deeply personal stories and trauma they’ve been carrying for years. Read more>>

Xiaotong Wen

Recent years I’ve been working and collaborating with in house team at Activision Blizzard Marketing creative department to produce high quality video content for their world class AAA mobile game Call of duty mobile. I‘m working as an 3D Artist motion graphics to provide 3D creative assets for using at marketing platform such as YouTube. Read more>>

Dante Plush

So for work, I run a youth engagement program where I’m supposed to get young people around the world to participate in giving, community service, and making change. However, I have creative control over an overwhelming majority of my work so the result of my program’s efforts seem to materialize differently than one would expect. Read more>>

McKenzie Berquam

I have two major meaningful projects I have been working on and they are both very different. Read more>>

Dazelle Yvette

My most meaningful project is the creation of my passion project, Pretty Girl Certified®. I created PGC because I want to make sure that women and girls don’t feel a void with one another while navigating life. I believe there is a massive disconnect between women that stems from many things but mostly communication. Read more>>

Jahtiek Long

Meaningful projects are my favorite projects to work on! One of the most meaningful projects I worked on is a poetry piece called “What It’s Like..” It speaks about looking at my hometown of Staten Island through a more nuanced lens. There’s a lot of stigma about the place and I wanted to provide another perspective. Read more>>

Steven King

Recently just dropped an album on all platforms named Stevens Universe. Long overdue project that needed to come out with my brother Mane Mikey. He produced this whole album from start to finish so shoutout my bro for real. I have A LOT of songs in the vault, I guess you can call me a song hoarder sometimes. Read more>>

Jewels Genesis

Well, last year I released my EP ‘Streets is Sleepin’ Vol. 3: The Spirit of Hartshorn’ which is the most meaningful and socially conscious project I’ve released to date. This was an important project to me that came together during and after the social justice protests that arose around 2020. Read more>>

Jessa Campbell

The first song I learned as a child was Raffi’s “Evergreen, Everblue” in our 1st grade classroom. On that day, I fell in love with our planet and discovered that singing was a way I could express it. I was so proud to share the song with my parents and vividly remember us sitting on blankets outside during a family picnic in our backyard as I belted my little heart out. Read more>>

Emily Ulrich

Something that we love to do is give back to the Houston community. Animal homelessness is at an all time high in our area and a lot of dogs and cats are in need of a home. With this, shelters and foster groups continue to take in animals with little funding and volunteers. Read more>>

Corinne Bortner

I recently had the honor of working on a set of four Hebrew-German prayer books in rough shape. They had obviously seen some things. I don’t often get to hear the backstory of how these books came into the client’s possession, but this week my boss was out of town and I got to meet with the client when I’d finished the repairs. Read more>>

Aaron Ni’jai

This is a hard question, but I believe that my most meaningful project is Paper Therapy. Originally, it started as a set of affirmation cards but has now grown into a full-fledged Black-owned brand. The backstory, much like many transformational breakthroughs, is from a space of intentional reflection and connection. Read more>>

Carli Vergamini

I am a self-admitted hoarder of craft supplies. I’m talking all the way down to storing a brown paper bag of pom pom fuzz (the leftover trimmings from making pom poms). Said fuzz sat in my studio for years, occasionally accumulating more, completely convinced that someday the time would come for the perfect project. Read more>>

Kedisha Barnes

My name is Kedisha. I’m a Blasian Model, Brand Ambassador, and Self-Taught Makeup Artist. I love working in the Beauty and Fashion Industry as it’s a work of art just like any Pablo Picasso painting/mural. Ever since I signed the contract with my agency a month ago, Eclipse Talent Agency. I been working extremely hard on many makeup and modeling projects via my social media platforms. Read more>>

Kathleen Beausoleil

Individuals like to think about themselves as conspicuously unique personalities. Take a closer look however and it’s pretty clear that we are deeply social animals, biologically programmed for social interaction and territorial tribal behavior. I have been painting crowds and how people gather for 20 years: sporting events, children’s swim meets, beaches and lift lines. Read more>>

Hana Azim

My graduate thesis is probably the most meaningful project I’ve worked on. Titled Comfort Food, my thesis is a visual journal cookbook that explores how food shapes the overall first and second generation immigrant experience and, most importantly, helps those immigrants maintain a connection to their culture. Read more>>

Jennifer Drinkwater

I’m an artist, and in 2018, I started something called The What’s Good Project, which has been my combined attempt to learn from folks, make art, and shift my default way of thinking. Read more>>

Jiarong Lu

In my opinion, the most meaningful project I’ve worked on to date is my current thesis project, Celebration of Life. This short documentary tells the story of cancer patients’ journey against the disease with the help of the Herald Cancer Association and its founder. Through this project, I aim to shed light on the difficulties Chinese cancer patients face when seeking treatment in the United States. Read more>>

Gabriele Di Sazio

In recent years, I’ve had the privilege of working as a Dubbing Director, directing English dubs for over 40 films and series, including “All of Us Are Dead,” which became one of the most successful shows in Netflix history. Read more>>

Santo Donia

I am currently working on a longform project called “The Pink Camera Project” that I unexpectedly started in 2016. I have been creating a time capsule of my experiences in the local music scene on a pink Kodak point-and-shoot, paired with small audio interviews on a cassette tape recorder. Read more>>

Britney Jones

We have had the privilege of working on a variety of “personal specimens”. These include organs, tissues, and implants that were removed from someone for a variety of reasons. We have preserved placentas from various human births and displayed them in snow globes. Read more>>

Carlie Raymond

In 2019 I worked on the Emmy-Award-winning talk show Black Women OWN the Conversation. I was privy to intimate conversations with thought leaders and celebrities as we discussed important issues with 100 black women. Read more>>

Anna Lena Feunekes

For me, creating meaningful and creative work is the ideal way to spend time. While we tend to spend time with loved ones in our personal lives, we are still learning to prioritize this in our professional lives. Of course, this can be a luxury when earning a living is a top priority. As an experienced artist, I have a natural sense of what is beautiful and good. But what sets me apart is my desire to create work with extra meaning. Read more>>

Zion Wade

I guess the most meaningful project I have been on is Surviving Clotilda. It is a partially animated documentary about the last slave ship to America that landed in Africatown, a small town outside Mobile, Alabama through the eyes of Oluale Kossola (also known as Cudjoe Lewis). If you want to know more about Oluale Kossola I recommend reading Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo” by Zora Neale Hurston. Read more>>

Lauren Miller

In the last year I have been working to document my tools and botanicals. Exploring how to brand a product in a sense lead me right back to themes of work I had been creating a decade ago in graduate school. Themes relating to body positivity, relationships, intimacy, sensuality and self care became more prevalent and important as I have worked with models and photographers. Read more>>

Holland Cunningham

One of my most meaningful projects was one called “49 Things”. My husband of 21 years died of brain cancer at age 49. I decided that in honor of him I would make 49 small paintings of his “things”. This project took about 3 and a half years. I think I got to about 20 and I ran out of “things” so I added to the collection exact painted replicas of notes from our children to him as well as some of his special memories during his lifetime. Read more>>

REZZIES

Our studio has been our biggest ongoing project for the last couple of years. When the pandemic hit we had an album’s worth of material written and nowhere to record it. With no shows on the horizon, we all eventually decided to pick different corners of the recording process to learn, and started gathering gear. Read more>>

Justin Klocke

I love getting unusual requests, and one of my favorite ring requests involved setting an elk’s tooth in a gold ring. I got to make this particular ring primarily due to lucky timing- I was around when the client knocked. Read more>>

Chieh Hsiung

“Islanders” is a three-part live art experience created by a group of young Taiwanese artists to express their cultural identities through music, dance, audiovisual installation, and Taiwanese street food. This show was created by Taiwanese duo Chieh Hsiung and Yu-Wei Hsiao. Read more>>

James Martak

In December 2022, we restructured Hot House West to a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. After nearly twelve years as an LLC, we decided we wanted to have a greater impact on the music community in Salt Lake City, UT. We started Hot House West back in 2011 as part of the Jazz program at the University of Utah where Nathan Royal and I met as undergraduate music majors. Read more>>