Working on something meaningful is a common desire – but how? We started asking folks to share the story of how they ended up working on a project they felt was meaningful because we wanted inspiration but also because we wondered if hearing from people from across a range of industries would help us identify patterns making it more likely for anyone to be able to find and work on projects that they would find meaningful.

Delbert Anderson

I’ve been researching the tragic event known as the Long Walk. In late 1863, the US government ordered the US Military to escort the Navajo/Diné to Bosque Redondo (Fort Sumner, New Mexico) from Fort Defiance, AZ. Many Diné people say the history and truth of the event must be retold. Today, the government tells the story in somewhat a positive way. After much research, I decided to dedicate a project to the Long Walk in which musicians and artists will create awareness through composition that lasts 1,674 Days. This piece was created in my residency at the Institute of American Indian Art in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Read more>>

Kendall Nicole & Reghan Cutler

“Tall Enough” is a musical project that we made together during our freshman year of college at Belmont University in 2022 & 2023. The project is coupled together as a song & short film that has garnered over 12K streams on Spotify, and over 1.4K views on YouTube. Tall Enough is the story of the universal shadow that childhood trauma casts upon one beginning to grow into their adulthood– and how the cycle of revisitation back to those darkest days of one’s young years never seems to end. This film is meant to speak to those who feel silenced by it. This project is for the souls that became adults while still children. Read more>>

Param Bhattacharyya

I’m actually really happy to be working on the project that I’m currently undertaking. I’ve been putting out an independent graphic novel called “Looking for the Ramones. ” Its the story of how I started a punk band during a dark period of my life. Its been a lot of work but I find it deeply fulfilling. Prior to this I used to work in video games and animation. Ultimately, if I can be honest, they ultimately began to feel like jobs where I did my best to make something visually interesting. But working on my own book has been much more deeply satisfying. I’m working on both artwork, and a story that I lived and that I believe in. Read more>>

Zach Ramirez

I often go through seasons of painting, drawing, or ceramics, bouncing between all three mediums. Lately, I’ve returned to ceramics. It was my first introduction to art so working with clay has always been a material that was deeply special to me. As a 16-year-old, it became something that was really grounding for me. This latest work is about me exploring a material that I have loved for so long in new ways. I’ve been experimenting with more organic forms in an attempt to get them closer to nature. I’ve always found joy in the landscape, and these latest pieces are in some way trying to mimic that. These vessels are usually wheel thrown and then pressed, sculpted, carved to become something more organic, completely allowing the process to guide the result. Read more>>

Tobi Edward

The most meaningful project I’ve worked on is my most recent short film, “KINGPIN”. Not only is this my first real major project but, the short film is based on the hit TV series, “Snowfall” which was a show that got me into acting. Being able to tell a story through my own version was very fun and gave me more confidence in terms of my acting ability. Read more>>

ShinYeon Moon

One of the most meaningful projects I had the privilege to work on is an upcoming children’s book, Laolao’s Dumplings, published by Godwin Books and written by the talented Dane Liu. It tells the story of a grandmother and her granddaughter bonding over making dumplings and the family’s connections to their community in Chinatown. Food has always been a great source of inspiration for me and I feel it is one of the best ways to learn about any culture, so I was thrilled to be asked to work on this book that showcased the beauty of food as a form of connection and family love. The representation of Asian-American families is something that I have always longed to see in children’s books and it is so meaningful to be able to help visualize the stories that make this world so diverse and wonderful. Read more>>

Maison Douce

In the summer of 2023, we set out on a field trip to Los Angeles, California. There are few places in the world as closely related to big dreams, arts, music, and entertainment as the City of Angels. So we spent a month there to dive into the radiant art scene, explore the omnipresent new age vibes, and find new sources of inspiration. All staged between natural beauty, a consumerist utopia, and unleashed social conflicts. Read more>>

Tae-Young Yu

One of the more meaningful projects was the first film I worked on as a composer. The story goes back to 2018. I was a literature student who had always deeply loved music, and one day I watched director Koo-Yong Sohn’s film A Walk (2018), in which a shot of a pink-painted wall inspired a short piece of music in my mind. I recorded the song on the piano as soon as I got back home and decided to send it to the director. Surprisingly, he invited me to work with him on his next project, Winter in Seoul (2019). That film received positive reviews and was selected for the internationally renowned Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival in Japan, which brought me to the world of film music and became a turning point in my life. Read more>>

Aistė Rye

Two of my most recent mural projects this past summer and fall were incredibly special for me. I have had the honor to create a 650+ sq ft public mural for the Phinney Neighborhood Association in Seattle and another large private mural at the Northwest School for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children in Shoreline, WA. These projects were meaningful to me because I was given creative freedom to express myself using my own artistic style while using themes of Deaf Art (also known as Deaf View/Image Art or De’VIA), which is a form of art that expresses the Deaf experience from a cultural, linguistic, and intersectional point of view. Most of all, I got to do this in my community in Seattle with the support of volunteers, local artists, and ASL interpreters. Read more>>

Brandon Quy

I’ve been immersed in a project that truly encapsulates my diverse musical influences. Originating from a background that blends hiphop, emo, rap, country, and trap, I’ve been crafting a collection of tracks that go beyond genre conventions. The goal is to create a deeply emotional experience for the listeners, weaving a narrative that reflects my personal journey. Read more>>

Carol Chisolm

One of my most meaning projects is publishing my book, “Breaking the Shadows: How to Embrace Your True Self and Live in the Light of God’s Glory”. It is a compelling story about my struggle with alopecia, an auto-immune disorder that results in baldness. Read more>>

Brodie Mullin

Right now I’m working with Relay for Life Teams. My math teacher knew I was a singer/songwriter so she asked me to write a song using NSYNC’s Bye Bye Bye song for my high school’s Relay for Life team. The song honors survivors and caregivers. I have performed the song at two Relay for Life fundraisers and a Breast Cancer Awareness fundraiser. Helping to raise money for a great cause is meaningful to me. Read more>>

Jesse Bens

My last two albums have been super meaningful to me and felt remarkably organic to create. I made a metal concept album called Cathedral. For that project I tried to imagine myself trapped in an abandoned European cathedral and the only way out was by playing the right music. Song by song I’m navigating toward the exit and channeling the spirits within the cathedral to pave my way. The album is mostly metal but also gives way to some atmospheric work as well. Read more>>

Wai Ching Schroeder

My True Passion is to make movies. I am a full form artist and a nurse. From the year 2017 to 2022, I have created over 1000 pieces of paintings and 750 drawings crafted a distinctive style of my own. I am also a screenwriter. I sing, model and act. Why I am driven to create and support my art and talent is to create a culture I envisioned full of love and creativity genuinely. Read more>>

Jeri Newtom

The most meaningful project to date for me has to be my “Draft Day” that was released last year. It was the first project I worked on since the passing of my mother, even has her last voicemail on the beginning of the opening track “Cry Baby”. At that time In my life I didn’t know where I was headed or even if I wanted to create anymore. “Draft Day” was basically me declaring that this is what I want to do with my life and I’m here to stay! From billboards, magazine interviews, and B.E.T I had a lot to prove to myself. Draft Day definitely saved my dream! Read more>>

Chris Berryman

My creative journey has been a winding and unexpected one. I started off as an actor, fleeing to New York after college where I played various roles in theatre and on TV while continuing to train. Eventually, In 2011, I came back to Michigan broke and mentally exhausted, but I also felt overwhelmed by a need to mount my own productions. Then, the writing bug, a huge part of my childhood, bit again. I now juggle fiction, non-fiction, and screenwriting projects with my theatrical pursuits, which are mostly in indie film and with Detroit Theatre Collective. This can be invigorating, yet schizophrenic. Read more>>

Bailey Brookes

One of my most meaningful projects has been my vulva vases. I’ve always been captivated by the beauty of the vulva and knew that I wanted to attempt to capture that beauty in my work. I created a design of a simple vase form with four unique vulvas attached. At first, I was quite hard on myself. I thought the vulvas that I sculpted weren’t realistic enough. To me, they didn’t capture the beauty of the vulva in the way that I’d envisioned. I posted my vulva vases on TikTok, and two of them blew up. I received hundreds of comments and this was by far the most feedback I’d received on my work at once. Some comments were negative, of course, but the positive comments far outweighed them. Read more>>

Jinshi Ozaki

I recently finished creating a new album and now I’m preparing for its release. This is a unique and ambitious work, all original songs and finished with acoustic guitar improvisation. Let me share a little about my previous album here. When the pandemic made society anything but normal, at first, I was unsure what to do. But with extra time on my hands, I went to the recorder and played a few chords with my Stratocaster (Electric Guitar). It had a nice feel that was beyond my expectations, so I layered improvised melodies over it. I added some more sections in this manner. Read more>>

Sandra Kluge

I started my most meaningful project about five years ago: To compose, record, and perform my own original music in which tap percussion (= tap dance as a music instrument) fulfills the role of the drumset. Pretty much from the start of my tap journey I was always most drawn to the sonic aspect of it. It never really mattered to me what it looked like. The movement for me is there to serve the sound, not more, not less. Read more>>

Ali Cook

My most meaningful project to date is currently being recorded. My debut album: Ali and the Wild Geese; an uncovering of the imprisoned, true, self. In the process of creating this album, I have perhaps unwittingly embarked on an odyssey toward and through what has warped my sense of self and self-love— parts of life that I’ve struggled to prioritize over the needs and ideas of others. Read more>>

Silas Quinn

One of my favorite things about art is its ability to uplift and unify people. It doesn’t matter who you are, where you’re from, your journey through life- you can find art that brightens your soul. One of my favorite projects seeks to uplift our lgbtq siblings by doing stylized portraits of clients, allowing them to see themselves on paper as they do in their hearts. Often times people perceive you in a way that you know isn’t who you are inside, and I seek to bridge that gap through art. Read more>>

Yongqi (Vicky) He

The most meaningful project I worked on was the first photo project I did when I was in high school. Inspired by my little sister, < A BLINK > is taken by film camera, and the project ended up with a personal photo book. Read more>>

Troy Williams

As I am nearing a decade in this industry, I’ve become very selective of the projects I choose to do. In the very beginning of my career, I auditioned for everything because I was so excited to be pursuing my dream. However, in this craft, once you begin to make a name for yourself, you have to ensure you are putting your best foot forward with quality projects. If a project is not meaninful to me, it is extremely difficult for me to really get into the role.Read more>>

Laura Fogg

Our local Ukiah theater group was putting on a performance of Eve Ensler’s “Vagina Monologues” and an artist friend suggested that we needed to convince our quilt guild to create a series of Vagina quilts to hang in the store windows downtown, to support public awareness and discussion about the important issues raised in the play. To our amazement, a dozen of the downtown merchants agreed to display our quilts. Eve Ensler heard about this project and sent a film crew to Ukiah to see if there was a story worth filming. Read more>>

Melissa Borman

During the pandemic, I worked on two projects. Both are meaningful, but one required me to be much more vulnerable. In May of 2020, my mother passed away the same week George Floyd was murdered just a few miles from my home. I had just started my photography series “Birds”. That summer, it made sense to focus on a project that I could work on alone in my studio during a difficult time, and photography is the medium with which I am most comfortable. Once “Birds” was well underway, I revisited previously overlooked objects, images, and ideas from abandoned and unfinished projects spanning two decades of my practice. I needed to make work about loss. That was the start of “[Re]collections & Earthly Artifacts, an installation and corresponding artist book. Read more>>

Daley Lin

One of my most meaningful projects is an exciting upcoming adventure game that seamlessly blends real-time strategy (RTS) mouse controls with action-packed gameplay elements. Players assume the role of a necromancer, using their powers to resurrect fallen enemies, guiding them to defeat foes, tackle intricate puzzles, and overcome various challenges. Read more>>

Jason Frye

As a creative, a lot of projects I take on have a personal resonance. I’m a transplant to North Carolina, and in my years of working as a travel writer and guidebook author, I’ve developed a deep and abiding love for my adopted home state. Any chance I get to deepen that connection – by writing about the Outer Banks, where my family vacationed for a decade; by writing about the mountains, a place that truly holds my heart; by interviewing a local character whose conversation causes me to reframe my thoughts about a place – I relish. To that end, my travel guidebook Moon Blue Ridge Parkway Road Trip hits all those notes. Read more>>

Le’Don Williams

After cancelling the 2020 event due to Covid Restrictions, TRiBAL Grounds was finally able come back in 2022. TRiBAL GROUNDS Hip Hop Dance Festival is a 5 day event in which we bring Hip Hop Culture to Houston by way of Dance, Music, and Art. During this event, we hosts multiple dance competitions, exchanges of wisdom, live-Graffiti paintings, and, most-importantly, the parties. Read more>>

Nick Vigarino

There have been many meaningful projects, it would be difficult to choose only one. Most recently, I performed with members of the Reno Philharmonic Orchestra and others at Bally’s in Lake Tahoe to raise funds for displaced children in Ukraine, to help continue their schooling and basic needs during wartime. The funds garnered were divided into thirds, with the remaining portions awarded to Africa and Peru. The funds awarded to Peru were used for food in the jungle near the Amazon, and for help needed in securing a palatable water source. Read more>>

Anya Lagman

The most meaningful project in my career has been “Pagsibol,” the first musical cultural show held at the Goldenberg Mansion last July 22, 2023. It was a landmark event, being the first of its kind at the Goldenberg Mansion, supported by the Philippines’ Department of Tourism’s Malacañang Heritage Tours. In English, “Pagsibol” translates to ‘blossom’, signifying the growth in my artistic journey and the promising future of Filipino arts. Read more>>

Hamilton & Rose Massey

Our most meaningful project, as of late, was our Reformation Series of Shorts on YouTube this past October. The Reformation movement, in many ways, is the foundation of America. Those escaping the control of the Papacy, found religious freedom in America. The Reformation movement gave millions of Christians the ability to worship according to the dictates of their conscience and not the force of a centralized ecclesiastical power. Since October 31, is actually Reformation Day, we decided that a month long spot light on the Reformers was important. Read more>>

Sean Alves

Among my projects, Decline holds the most profound significance. It marks a turning point, steering me toward film and video art and inspired by a deeply personal exploration of memory loss. Showcased at the Rebirth art show and The Other Art Fair, Decline visually meditates on the gradual fading of memories, inviting viewers to confront existential fears and the inevitability of death and ultimately being forgotten. Read more>>

Pedro Cavaletti

The most meaningful project I have worked on, so far, was my new film, “Artistic Pressure”. It is a project that I wrote, directed, acted and edited. It is a very personal film about my dreams, fears, and inspirations. It tells the story of a famous artist (played by me) who succeeded soon in life and had to move to another country away from his family. He has everything he always wanted professionally, and everyone is jealous of him for that, but day after day he realizes even more that what he wanted was maybe not what he needed. Read more>>

Gabriela Iancu

Everything started in art school. I pursued my MFA in Photography at the Savannah College of Art and Design in Atlanta. I have always been interested in and inspired by nature. My work is about the interconnectedness we share on Earth, with my still-life photography depicting nature and domestic space. But part of everyday life is also the cosmic space. Read more>>

Mila Miranda

Women’s Freedom Festival! This past June 3rd was my first time co-headlining next to Madame Gandhi, which I admire and appreciate her work so much, for this particular show, I wanted to create unique tracks, songs that the audience haven’t heard before, it took endless hours of work, not just on my part but my sound engineer Margaux which is such a trooper spending crazy hours in the studio with me getting the levels ready for the show. Read more>>

Anastasio Wrobel

I am getting ready to relaunch my 2016 project “The Non-Binary Coloring Book” and will do so with an expansion of drawings as well as the original 50 illustrations included. When this project began the landscape for transgender media was still intermittent – the web of community who were creating both past and present began to intersect and meet one another – the years passed and we are blessed with so many projects, comics, paintings, photographs, biographies, fiction and more from the transgender perspective that it feels excellent to be bringing my individual story to join so many others in speaking our truth. Read more>>

Nancy Kay Turner

One of the most memorable and meaningful projects was my first site specific piece, which was a huge risk for me -or so I thought! Here’s the “backstory” and my description of the project. During the Covid-19 pandemic, I like so many others worldwide, learned how to bake bread. At first, I saved the bread -stained parchment paper because it reminded me of the of religious artifacts -those miraculous visions of Jesus in the tortilla and Mary in burnt toast. After accumulating the remains of three or four months of baking, I began to collage these fragmented translucent “leftovers” that are so rich in metaphor. Domestic and spiritual, humble and exalted, the making of bread out of only four ingredients-flour, leavening, salt and water, is a basic ancient activity, born of necessity and is a sign of communion and sustenance. Read more>>

Ava Rose Johnson

My recent release is “Sweet Home Oklahoma”. It was written by myself, Billy Dawson and Kelli Johnson. The video was shot by Russell Sun Eagle of Sun Eagle Media. The song is about just that-sweet home Oklahoma. The things we do living in a small town in southeastern Oklahoma like fishing, hunting, feeding cows, everyone gathering to eat, driving around and of course the Friday night lights along with riding atvs at the local ATV trails. Read more>>

Chennetta Renae

My 1st and only project to date thus far which was publishing my 1st book. It is meaningful to me because I always journaled and never thought about compiling my thoughts and putting them in a book until I was encouraged to do so by someone I had shared my story with. I am a survivor of Military Sexual Trauma and I journaled as a means of therapy to get how I was feeling out. I had began going to therapy and discovered that all of the years that I had gone without seeking treatment or even addressing what had happened to me that it was detrimental to my entire life. Read more>>

Maria Norris Scaffido

One of my projects that I’m currently producing is an experimental adult animated series called Trash Cats – made entirely by hand with traditional cut-paper stop-motion. The series follows a group of hedonistic townies in the underbelly of a seemingly-picturesque college town. The show is like a mix of Workaholics, Always Sunny and Broad City, with an experimental visual style similar to South Park’s Pilot episode. Read more>>

Jameal Pullins-MDRD

Most recently, I personally sewed this leather Louis Vuitton jacket I’m wearing. I’ve always loved fashion but never imagined I’d be a seamstress. I picked up sewing before moving to Atlanta. Originally, it was because a client was interested in creating custom attire for their private lounge. Later on, when I couldn’t find certain items in stores, I thought it would be a fun idea to create them myself. Far as my most meaningful project, I believe this chapter of my life is a project (laugh out loud). I am self taught in most of my talents. Lately, I’ve been honing my skills. Read more>>

Jordan and Lindsey Plotner

The first project that comes to mind is the one that brought us together. It began in late 2019 with a phone call. I had just been diagnosed with genital herpes while living in New York and trying to “make it” as a singer-songwriter. The phone call, scheduled by my producer, was with a composer in Los Angeles who would be remotely collaborating with me for my next song. I didn’t know this at the time, but that composer was recovering from an intense spinal fusion surgery, which he underwent after suffering a spinal leak caused by the rare connective tissue disorder Ehlers Danlos Syndrome. I also didn’t know that he would end up being my husband! Read more>>