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.

Rosie Zhang

The most meaningful project I’ve worked on is Folded Butterfly, a 30×60-inch woven piece created using double weave and warp painting. Inspired by the way butterflies fold their wings to conceal vibrant colors, I wanted to express this idea of hidden beauty and self-revelation. To capture this, I painted two warps in contrasting colors and used double weave to create ‘windows’ that reveal glimpses of each painted warp—like wings just starting to open. This project holds deep meaning for me because it reflects themes of hidden identities and the beauty in subtlety, concepts I resonate with on a personal level. Working on Folded Butterfly was both technically challenging and emotionally rewarding, symbolizing strength and vulnerability through woven layers. Read more>>

Devon Wilfoung

This project means a lot to me because it gives me a chance to make reading fun again. Helps me educate the youth about criminal thinking, So they want go down the path that leads to prison. We never sit and think about our actions until it’s too late. We don’t consider the people who suffer due to us getting hauled off to prison. For me, my family had to witness that! I’m pretty sure everyone can relate to one of their relatives embarrassing the family by going to prison? Life is hard behind those lonely walls. You lose relationships and valuable time. I dedicate this book to friends, family, and anyone that has dealt with this vast situation. Read more>>

Aimee Koran

My work is a meditation on love, memory, and transitions of time. Channeled through the lens of motherhood, my primary artistic concerns are with the personal and collective stories that shape our everyday lives and often go overlooked. Working across the mediums of sculpture, photography, and mixed-media installation, my practice questions how the images, issues, and objects closely associated with motherhood inform the social-political structure of the care economy. In the process, personal possessions – some mass produced, some handed down, and some handmade – synonymous with pregnancy, infanthood, and parenting are transformed. Through slight formal manipulations of scale, color, or material, I question how memories are easily shifted, as refuse now performs as a relic. Read more>>

Maxim Elramsisy

Obviously 2020 was a tumultuous year for many people, both in predictable ways as in an election year, and unpredictable ways, as with the pandemic and its devastating impact as well as the unrest surrounding the death of George Floyd. It was also very hard for me personally, as I was devastated first by the death of a lifelong hero, Kobe Bryant, then the death of my brother on the day that I was at Kobe’s memorial service. I felt very compelled to capture the world around me as everything around me changed, because it reflected the chaos and change that was happening to me internally. Working during that time was really what made me feel at ease. It pushed me to get out of bed everyday and grow, in a time when I was pretty depressed. After the 2020 election, I immediately began to conceive of a project for the 2024 election. Now, about 3/4 of the way through this project, It already feels like it’s the most meaningful project for me by far… Read more>>

Shaunesty Frederick

My most meaningful project would have to be my music yet to be released but All of my music has meaning and substance, Apple tree (my latest release) is similar to a dis track aimed towards the self righteous, those who enjoy calling out others flaws when they are just as imperfect; and my first single was created to be an affirmation to boost any listeners self confidence as they listen to it and sing along. Much like a necessary reminder to always compliment yourself in spite of others opinions, built different is also a think piece that speaks to the issues of cultural appropriation and reminds listeners of my community I.E. the black community, to recognize that others copy you because you are a blue print and it’s out of adoration and even jealousy of you that they do so. Read more>>

Suzanne L. Vinson

Over the last twenty years, I’ve become very good at curating meaningful experiences through retreats, gatherings, and support groups. I love leading these experiences using mindfulness, journaling practices, deep breathing, guided meditation, and mark making and creative practices. In addition to those experiences, I have found creating curated boxes filled with creative, self care oriented tools to be immensely meaningful. The depth comes in when writing little booklets on how to use the items mindfully. The meaning infused within each box comes back tenfold as bereaved parents, fatigued ministers, folks undergoing treatment, or others receive the boxes and feel the love and care placed within them. Read more>>

Riverse

The most meaningful project that we’ve had the opportunity to produce would be the ‘Poison iV’ album, released in December of 2020. The reason that this project stands out is because we completed this body of work during the COVID-19 pandemic. At the top of the year, we were at the end stages of planning our first North American tour which was a big deal for us as independent artists. In the blink of an eye, it all ended as everything shut down due to COVID. After the initial devastation, we rallied together and decided to turn attentions to our online community, specifically Youtube, which boasted almost half a million subscribers at the time. Through our interactions with the community and hearing the stories of the wonderful people who support us from around the world and how the pandemic was affecting them, we started to feel very strongly that it was our duty to provide as much love, light and joy to these people as possible. Read more>>

Sherri Lu

Working on custom pieces are always exciting which gives me deep satisfaction Read more>>

Marie Cameron

I have a body of work called Critical Masses which focuses on the stability of ocean ecosystems, highlighting how we, as a species, are impacting small marine creatures. This series is dear to my heart as I have lived close to the ocean for most of my life, growing up in Maine and Nova Scotia and now making my home in the Bay Area of California where I still love to explore beaches, especially at low tide, where many inter-tidal creatures are magically revealed. Read more>>

Muhammad Rasheed

After I completed my two graphic novel series (Monsters 101 and Tales of Sinanju: The Destroyer) I didn’t want my skills to lag while in between projects, so I decided to take on a daily editorial cartoon project primarily to stay sharp. At the same time, I was going down the rabbit hole of anti-racism and political advocacy for the American Descendants of Slavery—my own ethnic group. After making several a year’s worth of more generic, quasi-woke toons (even managing to win a Best Web Comic award along the way) I decided to dedicate my art’s focus to a narrowed activism effort to promote the ADOS Movement for Black American Reparations and a Black Political Agenda. This decision changed my life and taught me the importance of removing art from the risky and often hypocritical tether of the profit motive that is so important for have a true voice that speaks Truth-to-Power is the purist way possible.

Zilong Wang

Produced by Chris Zilong Wang, the short film, Until He’s Born is a poignant tribute to her family and those affected by China’s one-child policy. Set in 1980s China, the short film follows Zheng Yuanwang, who inadvertently causes the death of his unborn brother and embarks on a journey to confront years of guilt and pain. I think most of the people around me are only children. Most of us, especially when the new second-child policy came into effect, were around 8 or 9 years old. Our parents would often ask us if we wanted a brother or sister, and our answer was always, “No, I don’t want to share the attention or love from my parents with another sibling.” I think that’s a natural reaction for most children around that age. I feel Qingxuan really captured that feeling in the story. You can call it bias or natural instinct. I think in general, the film brings back the issues of the time and immerses the audience into that era. Hopefully, it allows people to imagine what they would do in a similar situation. The film was official selection at Oakville Film Festival, Brisbane International Film Festival, Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival and Cannes Short Film Corner. Read more>>

Elena Magidson

The most meaningful project I have worked on (and still work on) is the emulsion lift “dresses” that I create. The unique process of taking one of my photographs and turning it into a physical dress shape using an emulsion lift technique. This project has brought my personal meaning as an artist to a whole new level of purpose. It started my senior year of college at Savannah College of Art and Design, one of my final and best classes was Experimental Printing. with a wonderful teacher and artist, Craig Stevens. There I was introduced to the process of emulsion lifts, and took it beyond what I imagined possible. The project is meaningful to me because I use images that are special to me to create something that is one-of-a kind. The dresses capture my vulnerable side as well as showcase my passion for art. Read more>>

Maira Ray

My grandmother was a black woman, and my mum has brown skin, so I grew seeing how the suffered with prejudice, racism and lack of representativity. I am a lover of arts, specially paintings. When I first went to the Louvre, 10 years ago. I was upset to see the lack of diversity on the individuals represented on traditional paintings. So, after starting to have access to the photography studio at school I came out with the idea of create images in the same aesthetic as paintings from periods such as Renaissance but using model from diverse races, genders and backgrounds. “Forgotten By The Renaissance” was aimed to capture the essence of individuals who, historically, were rarely seen as subjects in the Renaissance paintings adorning museum walls. These images feature minorities and people from diverse backgrounds, providing a fresh perspective on their significance and prominence in the tapestry of art and culture. Read more>>

Oxana Kovalchuk

Here I would like to mention my newest project that is still a work in progress. Tentatively, I call it ‘Comfort Zone’. The main goal is to identify, analyze, and present the ways in which immigrants overcome cultural and social barriers, creating new “comfort zones.” The project seeks to reveal the diversity of immigrant experiences and facilitate dialogue between cultures, enriching both the art community and society as a whole with an understanding of migration processes and their impact on individual and collective identity The project will involve approximately 100 respondents through surveys and in-depth interviews over the course of a year to collect data on their personal adaptation experiences. The research aims to identify the methods, objects, techniques, and communities that play a key role in the adaptation process Read more>>

Tony Coon

man who finds an alien after his ship crashes. It’s a music video for Jeff Riddles band Five Hundred Bucks but with full narrative storyline. It was a full circle moment and project where I got to reconnect with director Matthew John Lawrence, whom was my professor in college over 10 years ago. The video made it into a few film fests and also won two for best music video, which was a first for me to even make it into a film fest! It was the first time where I felt like I had become a real filmmaker finally, if you will. But more importantly it lead to some great friendships where we’ve all continued to collaborate on future projects together. It’s a project that will always hold a special place in my heart with one of the best DIY cast and crews! Read more>>

Ronny Flissundet

I must say that RULE OF TWO has been by far the musical and creative project I’ve worked on that has felt the most meaningful. Here is the backstory and some thoughts: Me & partner in crime Kristian Liljan met back in 1997 at a musician’s school outside of Trondheim, Norway, where we immediately connected both musically and socially, and have written and done musicals projects together ever since. Our background mostly have roots in punk, hardcore, rock and metal of various sorts, but we both also have always been fond of electronic music and more awkward indie and industrial stuff. Read more>>

Haf N’ Haf

The most meaningful project I’ve worked on was an LP called “Jive Talk” I released in 2020, The genesis of this 12 song album began with an assortment of instrumentals sent to me by a Toronto-based produced named emperor bohe in 2019. He heard my music & reached out to me with interest in collaborating and as soon as I heard the beat pack that he specifically curated to match my style, I was hooked. This was right before I took a trip to Cuba with my lover at the time so I have fond memories writing and listening to his beats on the plane, beaches & on the balcony of my hotel room. I was awestruck by how skillful, engrossing and just plain cool his production sounded. This was obviously the work of someone who had also been obsessed with music all his life. Read more>>