I was bartending at an Irish pub in Hoboken, New Jersey.

It was 2019 and I was freshly out of college with a mixed degree in Music and Visual Arts Technology. My dream was to use my background in media technology to head teams that created the kind of content I loved to consume, and was fired up to get my first job in design, or social media, or video editing, or whoever else would have me. As a professional, the path felt clear, but as an artist, I felt lost. I had all these new skills in design, media, and technology, and was feeling confident in my technical growth, but every time I sat down to make something on my own, nothing came to me.  I was going to help professionals and brands find their voice, but I felt like I had lost mine.

So back to the bar, I was 21 and having a blast bartending. One night I was talking to a patron, and after some chatting, found out he was a full-time artist from London doing a residency a few towns over in Union City. After my shift ended, I poured myself a beer, grabbed a seat next to him and we started chatting. He showed me his work; stunning photorealistic black-and-white portraits using ballpoint pen on newspaper and old book pages. They were beautifully executed and technical, but also funny and full of character.

After a little back and forth, I showed him some of my work and he asked why I didn’t try submitting to galleries and open calls. I told him I didn’t know what to make; there’s so much to talk about and some artists have such rich and deep stories to tell, I didn’t know where to start. And his answer shocked me: he told me to make things I think the people in my life would enjoy. It clicked instantly. Suddenly, his portraits made sense not just as drawings, but as reflections of people he cared about. I could see his friends and family seeing these for the first time and gasping and giggling and understanding each other better. And it stuck with me. I started making drawings and songs and making videos for my friends and family, just for fun, just for them. And suddenly, like magic, creating felt easy again.

I’ve carried that idea with me all these years, and pour it into every project. There is nothing in the world like seeing a project go from an over-ambitious idea, to a real thing being enjoyed by real people. Every project is a chance to speak to an audience, to see them as a collection of individuals rather than consumers, and to remind myself why I fell in love with art in the first place.

Cheyenne Chao graduated from Stevens Institute of Technology in 2019 with a B.A. in Music Technology and a concentration in Visual Arts Technology. Since then, she has built a multidisciplinary career at the intersection of design, media, and live production. Her experience spans social media, photography and video production, graphic design, and brand development. Most recently, she has focused on producing and supporting live events including theater, concerts, conferences, galas, and other large-scale performances. She has worked on productions featuring politicians, diplomats, celebrities, C-suite executives, and other prominent figures.