In 2002, Craig Paul Nowak was awarded The Outstanding Artist Award from Brighton High School. Later, Nowak earned his BFA (cum laude) from The College for Creative Studies, in 2006. During Nowak's senior year at CCS, he managed the U245 Student Gallery.

After graduating, Nowak's art was featured in art fairs throughout the United States and France. His paintings were also published in magazines like Modern Painters Magazine, NY Arts Magazine, Chicago Gallery News, Arte Al Dia, and Arte Al Limite. In 2008, Nowak participated in a one-month artist residency with the City of Chicago's Department of Cultural Affairs. He followed that residency up with a three-month plein air painting residency in Tularosa, NM. Eventually, Nowak returned back home to Detroit where he became the Manager of Art Effect Gallery then later attended a three-month artist residency at Red Bull House of Art. A year after that, in 2014, Nowak was awarded the "Best Local Artist" Award from Real Detroit Weekly.

In 2016, Nowak returned to Red Bull House of Art as a curator before beginning to work on a 19ft x 9ft painting in collaboration with students at Henry Ford Academy. That project inspired Nowak to pursue a teaching career in 2017. Nowak began working as a Teaching Artist for Community Arts Partnership and continued teaching until the COVID-19 Pandemic in 2019.

Prior to the pandemic, Nowak accepted a position as the Creative Expressions Program Manager at Gesher Human Services. He continues to serve in that position today, where he organizes a comprehensive arts education and enrichment program for adults with intellectual, developmental, and mental disabilities. While managing the Creative Expressions Program at Gesher Human Services, Nowak has developed partnerships with cultural institutions like, The Detroit Symphony Orchestra, College for Creative Studies, Michigan Opera Theatre, Matrix Theatre, and more. Nowak has also organized arts events that took place at the Detroit Opera House, the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD), the Ann Arbor Art Fair, and other notable venues and events.

In 2021, Nowak received an Employee of the Year award for the work he's done with Creative Expressions. He graduated from Incompass Michigan's Leadership Academy, and he recently received the President's Award from the Birmingham Bloomfield Art Center's 2024 Michigan Fine Arts Competition. In April 2024, Nowak was appointed to be a Commissioner in the Farmington/Farmington Hills Arts Commission, and in September 2024, Nowak will be a featured artist at ARTPRIZE in Grand Rapids, MI.