Kacie Lyn Martinez

Kacie Lyn Martinez didn't have any plans set out to be an artist. Growing up, she wasn't even allowed to take art classes.

Instead, she built a career in places where answers were expected like coaching the King of Morocco's magistrates, launching university safety programs in Istanbul, working alongside civic innovators in New York City, advising entertainment executives on the science of creativity and collaboration.

But the more she solved for just the “right” answer, the more she felt something slipping. Intuition. Vulnerability. The kind of trust that can't be manufactured or faked.

So she stopped trying to have the answers.

Today, Kacie is a mixed media artist and public art facilitator whose work invites people into the unknown. She designs participatory installations and creative gatherings that help people move out of performance and perfection and into deep listening, intuitive response, and making from what's actually present.

She'll be the first to tell you that “creativity doesn't hand you a plan. It hands you a flashlight.” Follow it step by step, and you might just build a life whether a body of work or your own path but it’ll definitely be something that didn't exist before.