Winning comes in so many different forms that it’s hard to define, but you know it when you see it. The CanvasRebel community is filled with so many incredible folks who have overcome long odds, challenged the status quo and won. Below, you’ll find stories of these winners along with much of the accumulated wisdom on what it takes to succeed.

Jasen Ross

I have a physical disability known as cerebral palsy, but I’ve always been dedicated to maintaining my health and staying in the best shape possible. When I began my fitness journey, I noticed a lack of inclusive programs designed to support individuals with disabilities. In response, I took the initiative to create a space that empowers and includes the disabled community in the world of fitness. Read more>>

SALUSTIANO

I was 5 years old when I made the decision of to be an artist: I had made a drawing and I showed it to my mother. When she saw it she was amazed and surprised, then she went straight to me and hugged me full of emotion. I felt that this embrace somehow invested me with the responsibility of being an artist. It was as if I suddenly had permission to try. I considere that maternal permission is essential to develop all the potential everyone of us is carrying inside. Read more>>

Alana Palmer

I am a current undergraduate at Temple University studying Graphic and Interactive Design with Entrepreneurial Studies. I have been photographing professionally for 10 years and I am also a freelance designer and social media manager. Read more>>

Jack

I have always been drawn to storytelling and have been making videos since I could hold a camera. What started with Dance Moms parody videos would become carefully curated vlogs which include my passions for fitness, travel, and skincare. Read more>>

Zachariah Ben

Bidii Baby Foods LLC is an Indigenous baby food line created by farmers and new parents to increase access to traditional foods in early childhood. Bidii Baby Foods is a limited liability company registered and operating domestically on the Navajo Nation. Our mission is to reconnect Indigenous families with our longstanding relationship between earth and parenting. We believe that there is a direct connection between nurturing the land and nurturing our children. By understanding how to grow traditional crops and preparing them for young children we are actively dismantling systems of oppression and rematriating Indigenous foodways. Read more>>

FRANCESCA FURIAN

My journey as an artist and designer has been anything but linear—it’s a story shaped by creativity, resilience, and transformation. I grew up in a small town in northern Italy, where the solitude of my childhood sparked a deep curiosity and love for art. Whether I was crafting toys from recycled materials or painting, creativity became my refuge and a way to explore the world around me. This passion led me to study industrial design at an academy of fine arts, where I immersed myself in a community of makers, learning to approach every project with a problem-solving mindset. Read more>>

Amber Christina Hedgeman

I started out discovering what I wanted to do and I always had a passion for helping people. I also worked in healthcare and retail so I have a lot of people experience and I enjoy working for a greater purpose. I’m a business woman and I still work a 9-5 to support my dreams. I graduated Empire Beauty school in 2012. I always knew I was gonna have a foundation laid in the beauty industry. I have worked in retail so I gained my personal experience from being a peoples person. I got into beauty blogging in 2017 and I was working as a makeup artist at Lancôme a year before. I really enjoyed working with clients and doing the makeup. Read more>>

Anne Mendez

The Lit Bitch started in 2010 as a passion project. I wanted a space to track the books I read and share my thoughts on them. My sister and I brainstormed names, and when we realized that “Lit” and “Bitch” had a fun, catchy rhyme to it, the blog found its name! At the time, I had no vision beyond creating a simple platform to catalog my reading, but I quickly discovered a vibrant online book community. Read more>>

Susannah Foos

Art has always been woven into the fabric of my life, even if it took me years to fully embrace it as a career. One of my earliest and fondest memories is attending a summer art camp as a child. I experimented with different mediums and created an abstract piece that, even now, speaks to my soul. That piece still hangs framed at my parents’ house, serving as a reminder of the beginning of my creative journey—a time when I first connected with the raw joy of creating something unique and personal. Read more>>

Kolt Sizer

Just over ten years ago, I wouldn’t believe this is where my life would take me. I had just finished an associates degree in general studies and was working as a construction worker in the day and a server at night in Oklahoma City. A tattoo artist from my hometown in South Bend, IN asked me to apprentice for him and i saw it as an opportunity to create something for myself. It is important to note that prior to this experience, I had limited exposure to and understanding of art. From my working-class perspective, it was often perceived as a luxury not accessible to those with fewer resources. Read more>>

Claire Wessels

I’ve been designing clothes since I could hold a crayon—at least, that’s what my parents like to say. While I’m not sure how much you should believe them, creativity has always run in my blood. My father, an architect, fostered a home environment where artistry and innovation thrived. Though I hail from Des Moines, Iowa—a city not typically associated with artistic endeavors—it’s a place brimming with creative energy and inspiring people. Read more>>

La Terra Stevenson

For me, I believe Ive always had a grandiose imagination about where life can take me. I’ve always had big dreams that I believed I could acheive. I was a young girl and would always play with beauty, and fashion constantly dressing up and bringing my imagination to life. I was one day a model, a business woman, a hairstylist etc. I could never pick an identity and “stick” with it. As I got older, as a millennial I saw so many people my age figuring out what they wanted to do after school ended. I thought of settling into a career one of the most daunting things I could imagine. Here I was, in high school still trying figure out what that thing was that I wanted to do. I just could understand how people honestly committed to just ONE thing in the early stages of life to do until they retire. Read more>>

Michele Foss

I’ve always been a nerd. It might be the largest piece of my identity pie chart.

As a child, I fit the traditional definition of a nerd in that I got good grades, I wore glasses, I engaged in only the most tepid acts of rebellion, and I committed myself, heart and soul and time, to one or more fields of study or interest. My commitment was so complete that within MINUTES of meeting me, people could guess the object of my nerdy affections: television. I made it my mission to know as much about television as possible. I watched everything, including shows I didn’t particularly care for, just because I wanted to KNOW. Read more>>

Taha Chanouha

I started photography back in 2018 after suffering from severe depression due to heartbreak. I needed an outlet to express myself and found photography to be the most soothing. After falling in love with photo, the natural progression was to move into video and storytelling.

In 2022 I moved to Toronto, Canada where I decided to become a full time creator. Read more>>

Dj Spectakulah

I got started in the early 90s in Jersey City, inspired by the street sounds of NYC hip-hop radio. DJs like Red Alert, DJ Silver Surfer, and DJ Riz were major influences on my journey. Over time, I honed my skills and began competing in DJ competitions, which helped shape my style and elevate my career. Those experiences brought me to where I am today—sharing my passion for DJing as both a performer and an instructor, while continuing to push the art of turntablism forward. Read more>>

Kritbodee Chaicharoen

My name is Kritbodee Chaicharoen, and I’m originally from Bangkok, Thailand. For over a decade now, I’ve been living in New York City. With a background in design, I’ve always been deeply passionate about art and craftsmanship.

Traveling across Thailand gave me the opportunity to visit craft communities and connect with incredibly talented artists. Through these experiences, I discovered Thailand’s rich cultural heritage in craftsmanship, which often goes underappreciated or lacks exposure to the global market. Read more>>

Stephanie Nery

I’m Stephanie, a passionate and dedicated local Las Vegas makeup artist with over 12 years of experience. I was born in the USA, but my multicultural background and time spent in England, New Zealand, and Brazil have really influenced my approach to makeup. I’m fluent in English and Portuguese, and I also speak some Spanish, which helps me connect with clients from all over the world. Read more>>

Jashima Wadehra

I loved writing as a child, my diaries were my safe haven from a chaotic upbringing. From mandala mehendi inspired doodles to poems in English, Hindi, Punjabi and Urdu, I loved to write things that were specific to me, yet relatable to the world. I spent most of my childhood and teen years writing and public speaking. Competitive student business organizations like DECA, Speech and Debate and Student Government became a place for the topics I wanted to cover to co-exist. I was able to oscillate between the intersections of entrepreneurship, activism, marketing, philosophy, psychology, and global inequity. Read more>>

Meghan Farrar

I’d say my interest in events started at my first job out of college in 2011 when I was working on yachts at the Wharf in D.C. (before the Wharf was anything like what it is now). My job was to sell private and public event rentals for four yachts. At our Christmas party, we had hired a catering company and the boat looked so gorgeous! It really piqued my interest in events and creating memorable moments, but I wouldn’t join the industry until much later. Read more>>

Mark Tuggle

I was clinically diagnosed with generalized anxiety and moderate depression in February 1995. When my holistic health practitioner shared the news we didn’t have a conversation about this startling revelation. I saw the words on paper, but denial overshadowed discussion. My default reaction to bad news is to hope it magically disappears. Read more>>

Zave Smith

I started noticing the poetry of visual relationships when I was just a boy. Walking to school I became very aware of the ever changing compositions that were created between the trees, the homes, and the sky as I walked by. Creating photographs just came naturally to me.

After the military, when I had to think about how I wanted to spend my life, photography called to me. I ended up in a photography/art program at the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design. Read more>>