For Dylan Kendall, there is no such thing as going halfway. She routinely takes on social causes while she tirelessly blogs and fundraises, makes herself available to problem solve for non-profit groups and for her own new social entrepreneurship venture, a home accessories company based on playful dishware. And this is just before breakfast!

By my 35th birthday I had built my first charity, the Open Museum of Los Angeles (which worked with community members to organize two exhibits: a city-wide anniversary exhibit on the LA Riots and on the photography of location scouts); had completed the Coro Fellowship in Public Affairs; and put together a concept/strategic plan for an arts think tank for the the non- and for-profit arts sectors working together. But I was discouraged by what I was finding in the public sector. A conversation with a successful and happy girlfriend was the prompt I needed to go back into the studio. Just to try again…Only there wasn’t a studio. My studio was sold off years ago. So I turned a colander upside down, placed a cutting board on top as a bat and turned the silverware in my kitchen into scoring tools.

It was like riding a bike. My fingers took to it as if 7 years had never passed. I sunk back into that space, that refuge, of creative happiness which made time disappear and kept me lost in my own imagination. I decided to build a studio again–