We asked some insanely talented artists, creatives and makers to tell us about when they know they were going to pursue a creative career.

Yeniel Nieto

I’ve always been surrounded by music my entire life. My dad showed me Nirvana and The Smashing Pumpkins at a very young age. My mom showed me bands like Red and Switchfoot very young in my life and I’ve loved them ever since. I would never take school seriously and cared more about wanting to make music and play shows in front of people I don’t even know. There was something about that with I fell in love with and interacting with other musicians in the San Antonio scene I get high off that energy! Read more>>

Dasha Gousseva

Around half a year into my brain injury, I was staying at my cousin’s house and in complete despair. I couldn’t comfortably walk, read, drive, or hold a conversation for more than ten minutes at a time because of the pain and fatigue. I had very little hope of getting better. I did not know if I would make it through. Read more>>

Omaima Doghmi

After graduating from engineering school and entering the corporate world, I realized that outside of my working hours, I felt an overwhelming sense of boredom and dissatisfaction with the routine. It struck me that life had to offer more, and I yearned for a fulfilling hobby that would keep me excited beyond my workout and gym sessions. Driven by a natural inclination toward creativity and a desire to connect with others, I decided to take a leap into the world of vlogging. Read more>>

Lauren Mays

Pretty early on I knew making art and telling stories with it was something I wanted to do. I first started taking commissions in 2015, and come 2016 I officially started up my business Robotic Pastries. Read more>>

Heidi Derner

I have always been creative, but more in a “crafty” way. My mom is a painter and taught lessons in our home throughout my childhood. We were always encouraged to create and diy decorations, gifts, clothes…you name it we did it homemade. I never considered myself an artist because I didn’t paint traditional landscapes or portraits, but I loved making things! Read more>>

Anna Kutsia

My passion for the creative arts has been a constant throughout my life, manifesting itself in my earliest memories of drawing from my kindergarten days and possibly even before. The joy I derived from creating visual narratives fueled my wish to be an artist. My interest in animation was sparked by the enchanting world of older animated Disney movies, where characters came to life through drawings and their voice acting, inspiring my desire to understand and contribute to this magical process. Read more>>

Jamie Coffey

We are all born with creative fire in us — agni, prana, energy — but the world moves in swiftly, so its up to us to hear the call and keep the fire stoked. I can remember feeling a creative pull at a very young age. There are moments when I’ve stood on stage and felt the lights on my face and simply known that I was home. I have also had this feeling while singing, while dancing in the studio, while skating on the rink, and while leading a practice. While these are all very different experiences, the feeling is the same and it’s what keeps me on the path. Read more>>

Susanne Lambdin

At the age of 8, my older brother told me to either ‘get out of his room’ or ‘sit down and write something.’ I wrote my first novel, a fantasy, 250 pages that I still have (the penmanship was excellent as a child). I was reading at a college level by that age. I read the classics by Dickens, Austin, C.S. Lewis, Tolkien, and Burroughs. But I also read kid books as I was a child, and I had big dreams of being a published author as an adult. Read more>>

Michael Wilson

Growing up with a famous Hollywood animator father i was inclined to be in touch with an artistic perspective but which I ignored for years until my 50’s .Read more>>

Nathan Hamilton

I grew up in a fairly musical household. Listening, singing, and playing music was something that was greatly appreciated and valued. My father and brother both played guitar and sang, my mother sang and there was also a lot of singing in church. I also performed as an actor in school plays and in community theater productions. And  after high school studied art and design.  I have always had a lot of different creative interests and pathways and I have felt free to follow all of them at any given moment. I never felt that I had to choose any one medium. Read more>>

Mica Holmstead

The name of my business is “Lola’s Lines” after my little girl Lola who passed away in august of 2020. I’ve always loved art and actually (unprofessionally) tattooed a handful of friends in Highschool (2017) but never thought I would take that up as a career. Read more>>

Krysta Covington

My dream has always been to be in acting and modeling since I was a child. It has always been something that I have been passionate about. I went through extreme obstacles in my life when I was a child because of a sexual assault that happened when I was 15 . I had a daughter that resulted from it and left me hopeless and suicidal. This is why I wrote my book Lifeline Defeating Depression and Suicide among Teens and Young Adults. Read more>>

Natasha Huggins

Definitely when I was 5. In Kindergarten, I used to stay awake during nap time with my teacher’s permission. She’d let me paint her nails with crayons and pretend to roll her hair with jumbo markers. She knew before I did that I’d be some sort of artist. That launched me into activities such as ballet for 8 years, art as an elective all through middle school, and becoming a licensed cosmetologist out of high school. Read more>>

Brian Dunn

Shortly after picking up my camera and just shooting friends and documenting things around me. I found that it was the one thing that I actually never got bored of and just kinda stuck. Stuck to the point where it was like wait this is all I want to do – I really don’t care about anything else but just taking photos. As long as there’s a camera in my hand I’m happy. I mean the bills have to be paid and I have to work to pay bills so it’s like.. Read more>>

Bucky P

As a kid I always had an infatuation with music. Whether it was my mom blasting Mary J Blige, 2 Pac, and Sade all through the night or watching my Uncle Doug go crazy on the drums, I knew I was destined to have a career in music. Read more>>

Colin Hogan

I knew from age 5 I wanted to write music and share it with the world. My mom would find me at the piano trying to play. One day she asked me if I wanted to take lessons. Yes! I began taking lessons at a studio. The studio was gearing up for their annual recital. My teacher asked me to pick out a song I wanted to learn for the recital. I promptly told her that I would play my own song that I had written! Read more>>

Steven Piper

In the moment I felt that I had discovered my love for photography too late. In hindsight, I realize now that I had plenty of time to develop my skills and learn more about the photography as an art form. It was senior year of high school and I was about to go on my first trip abroad to France for a student exchange program. My parents had gifted me a small and simple point and shoot digital camera. I had always loved to take pictures with my friends as to hold onto the moments I felt were precious to me, but something felt different while abroad. Read more>>

Gen Rey

A part of me always knew singing was my path, but growing up, it was looked at as a phase. Kids have dreams, and ‘pop star’ sounds almost as unrealistic as ‘princess.’ But it wasn’t until I was 8 years old in Calle Ocho, Carnival Miami, and one of the artists couldn’t make it, leaving the crowd in silence as they scrambled to get the next act in order. My sister was working the event, so she had the idea of letting me sing. Read more>>

Tom Matousek

I think I’ve always known that this is what I wanted to pursue. At a young age my father asked what I wanted to be when I grew up? I said “An artist”. He said “You can’t be an artist, it’s too competitive and you’ll never make it. Be an engineer”. So with that I really had a hard time determining what I should do and I wandered for quite some time and found it hard to focus on what to commit to professionally. I was, and I still am a really big snowboard enthusiast and moved to Colorado in the early 90’s. I worked in that industry for a while and I was pretty passionate about it. Read more>>

Jill Pearson

When I was two I used to make marks on my walls during nap time with part of a toy. Those were my early abstracts! By high school I knew I wanted to study art in college. After completing my freshman year at MICA in Baltimore, I transferred to major in illustration at The University of the Arts in Philadelphia. I chose illustration because I felt I would get a good education in fine art, graphic design and marketing oneself as an artist. Read more>>

Alexis Victoria

Deep down, I have always known that I wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally. Growing up, I loved to perform. I was a gymnast and all-star cheerleader for much of my younger years. I remember spending my after school days with my brother mostly and we would use our time choreographing, stunting, and doing all types of other creative activities. We would raid my mother’s closet and make-up while she was at work, and he would get me all prepped to strut down our imaginary runways. Read more>>

Laura Hugill

I always wanted to be an actress and singer. I never wanted anything else. My mum tells me that I could sing long before I could talk. Read more>>

Gwendolyn Ballantyne

As child I had a rich imagination and was constantly making things – that was just how I played, making something was sometimes more fun than actually playing with it. I would draw illustrations from the books I read, and I was an artist for the school newspaper and yearbook. I was constantly inventing fantasy worlds in my head, sewing costumes, making treehouse forts and models, drawing monsters. I went to college to study Fine Art because it was the only thing that I felt came naturally to me. Read more>>

Tim Carr

There are so many people in showbiz that had this in their “life goals” or plans. I was not one of them. I grew up in a small town where sometimes, hope and ambition fell by the wayside, so for me, being able to work in New York and Los Angeles would never have been a thought. Read more>>

Reesey GotIt

Maaan, look. I knew music was my love language when it first spoke to my soul as a child. Im 23 today, my first console was a PS2 and my first game was Vice City. I was like 4-5 years old, listening to Michael Jacksons Billie Jean as its the first song you hear when you start playing. Ever since then ive been infatuated with what people call “the 80s”. The colors, the fashion and most importantly the music. If I was making music during the 80s, Michael Jackson would have to step it up not even gon lie to ya. Read more>>

William Yawson

I knew I wanted to pursue a creative path when I was about 8 years old. That time Regular Show and Adventure Time was on the air. I loved how those shows were just wacky and fun to watch and it just spewed creativity. When I found out that it was made by actual real people with a story to tell I felt like I could do the same myself. I’ve since then wanted to pursue animation and other creative endeavors to tell my creative story/vision. Read more>>

Hannah Malloy

Ever since I was a child, I was always artistically inclined. My first love was drawing- I was always the kid in class doodling on my assignment rather than calculating math equations or whatever task at hand I was given. I remember the distinct feeling of freedom and relief stepping into the art classroom in school. It was my safe place to express myself and to hone in on my craft. Read more>>

Onnissia Harries

I knew that I wanted to be an artist at five years old. Unfortunately, the adults in my life bought into the narrative that artists are broke. Out of love and concern, they recommended that I seek out other careers that they believed to be suitable. Some time in high school, I settled on wanting to be a lobbyist because I love politics and I liked the idea of organizing political campaigns. I was a student-body president in college and I graduated with a BA in Communication. Read more>>

Malina Omut

Studying fine arts since primary school helped shape my perception of art from an early age. The first time I thought of art as a profession was in High school, where I studied sculpture and worked as an event photographer during the weekends. My education continued with Photography and Video art for my BFA and MFA degrees, but my actual career path remained uncertain. Consequently, I decided to combine photography with my love for drawing and design, and for one semester I studied graphic design in Slovenia. Read more>>

Monique Candelaria

Iknew I wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally when I was 10 years old singing for my cousins wedding. I felt honored to be asked to be part of the creation of a memory everlasting. I am enticed by the experience of capturing a moment in time or allowing someone to experience a profound emotional response when they are not the ones directly involved. For this reason I actively explore every art form and see how I can work the medium to create this connection with my audience. Read more>>