Arts & Culture Housing

Grinding away at being a New York artist

By Chijoke Onyeagucha

Moving to New York City in November 2025, Donovan Banmalley had no job lined up and no place to stay. Six months later, Banmalley’s work was hanging in Salmangundi Club, which calls itself the oldest organization of its kind in New York City, exhibiting the works of Norman Rockwell, Thomas Moran, William Merritt Chase and other famous artists.

Banmalley, 29, is among current artists who’ve moved to the city to hone their craft, regardless of the high rents, other financial obstacles and employment hurdles they may face. Though artists are among those who have exited increasingly expensive New York, photographer and painter Banmalley is among those who embrace the grind of doing what it takes to stay put and expand their artist portfolios in a big, new city. 

“Limitations are kind of what make artists really, really thrive,” said Banmalley, a 2019 graduate of Colorado College. Moving to New York has forced him to work harder and be more resourceful. He stayed in a hotel for his first 10 days on the East Coast. After that, he spent weeks couch-surfing across an unfamiliar city with artist friends.

In his new environment, he would build on what he refined as a student and arts fellow at Colorado College, where he studied oil painting, printmaking and film photography. The fellowship provided him with a studio of his own, art supplies and classrooms where he could continue to practice his artistry.

Now, as an independent artist, he has to finance his work on his own.

“Everything has been sort of down-scaled,” Banmalley said. “I’m thinking about it more in ways of ‘What can I do at my kitchen table?’” 

He has also switched to cheaper, more budget-friendly artistic media. “Film prices are insane, development prices are insane. So I’ve also moved more towards a digital aspect, and ‘How can I still achieve the same look and feeling of a film picture with digital?’”

New York City’s atmosphere enticed Benjamin Cruz when he first visited in 2012. In 2021, the filmmaker moved to the Big Apple from Santa Ana, Calif

After watching “The Dark Knight Rises,” Cruz recalled, he left the theater late at night to the flashing lights of Times Square, feeling he had stepped into a movie set. That “psychedelic experience” catalyzed his love of the city.

“I really trained myself to just kind of keep wanting more,” he said.

Initially, Cruz studied computer science at New York University, the only college he applied to coming out of high school. But neither NYU nor computer science turned out to give Cruz the experience he wanted. “I had no motivation to do computer science,” he said. “I didn’t move to New York to sit in my room for twelve hours and look at a computer screen.”

In May 2021, Cruz received an email from the school saying he would be kicked out of NYU if he did not fix failing grades, but by then his mind was already made up.

“I just didn’t care. I just let it happen.” Leaving NYU felt like “jumping off a cliff,” Cruz said. 

During the next six months, while working side jobs to keep himself afloat, Cruz eventually found an apartment. He wrote several short films before eventually finding work as a production assistant in New York’s film industry.

“I love taking risks. I do. I like really love it,” Cruz said. “ … Part of the reason why I’m so attracted to this work is … there’s so much uncertainty.”

Using the network he gained while a production assistant — a job he got by responding to an ad on social media — Cruz found himself getting more opportunities around the city.

“I got on set and, then, the next set and, then, the next set and the next set.”

Cruz has left school behind completely. A short stint at the Borough of Manhattan Community College in the fall of 2022 ended quickly. He realized that he preferred hands-on experience to classroom learning.

“I would have jobs available to me where I knew I could be learning more and meeting more people,” he said. “Instead, I would have to go to class for stuff that I already knew how to do.” 

Today, Cruz is among young artisans who are still grinding away in a new place. He continues to write and direct films, inspired by his chosen city.

“I can’t help but make films about where I’m at in the world,” he said, “and what’s around me.”