Are artists born or made? To help answer this question, we asked some of the most artistic folks we know to tell us about how they knew they were going to pursue an artistic or creative path. We’ve shared highlights below.

Nicholas Prescott

I was always into writing and poetry growing up so I always realized that I had a creative side. I feel like it wasn’t up until 3 years ago when I made the decision to fully take my music professionally. I invested in my own recording equipment and I just took the risk. You can’t be afraid to chase after what you want in life forever because you never know if you’re passing up on a life changing opportunity. Read more>>

Miki Anderson

I have always wanted to pursue a creative path. As a small child, I would choose to write short stories over playing Oregon Trail in the computer lab in school. As the years went on, I became obsessed with documenting moments and would journal and took up photography in college. I have no formal training but have enjoyed learning about photography through trial and error. More recently, I have been painting and making music, but I still dabble in photography. Read more>>

Desmond Roberson

When I was a kid, I watched my mom and her friends sing in the church choir. From that experience, I began to sing and became popular. I was later invited to sing with a kids community choir where I met my wife. I was also a member of the school choir. This later developed into singing with a local quartet with all adult men who wanted this 12yr old to sing with them. I was honored. Once they began doing big shows, I knew that this was what I wanted to do. Since then, I’ve based my life around my music and being successful. Read more>>

Perry Pressley

My family on my fathers side were singers & musicians, & my mom would have me play records for when she had. company so the love for music was in me. I was inspired by Jam Master Jay of Run DMC to be a Dj but it wasn’t until I my mom let me go to my first concert, I was 14, Dj Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince were the headliner. When I watched Dj Jazzy Jeff do his solo set, I knew then “I want to THAT! I want to be a Dj”. Read more>>

Ellen Kaplan

Being a “Professional” was nothing I gave any thought to ( I didn’t equate doing what you love and getting paid to do it with what ‘professional’ meant – now I understand!), but I spent much of my childhood playing out every comic book character, every fairy tale character. My big role was to be the Witch in Sleeping Beauty in 6th grade, and I was decimated when I got a cast on my leg and my teacher wouldn’t let me do it, I cried so hard… It was falling totally in love with theatre that got me: at 14, I wandered into a (for me) life changing performance – Joe Chaikin in Beckett’s Endgame on 6th ave and 14th street), From then on, I’d find every wild, weird theatre I could find. Each new magical experience was exhilarating – I left Equus thrumming with excitement; I flew on a cloud of dazzling stars at the end of Tap Dance Kid.  Read more>>

Rastin Music

My name is “Rastin”, I am a professional performing artist /singer in the genre of pop/ world music in the farsi speaking/ Persian music market, and also working as a creative director and having my own creative branding studio “G4Design studio” . I will be sharing my experiences on both of these categories. As a singer, since I was 10 years old I have always loved music, playing guitar, playing drums, singing and performing in front of a mirror. throughout my childhood music always grew on me. I was listening to Rock music when I was teenager and created my first band in Gothenburg Sweden.  As a creative director, I have always noticed icons, logo types, branding , colors, compositions, typography when i was young and I knew I wanted to pursue this career when I grew up, to become a brand Ambasador for my own brand both in music and advertising world.  Read more>>

Smiz Smith

This has always been my goal from an early age. I taught myself basketball when I was 13, and moved into a love for Streetball. I loved creating new moves and trying them out on opponents. From there, I taught myself how to dance and entered my talent show with a friend in High School. I doubled down, kept dancing, and was able to pursue that path professionally. I did local shows, created YouTube videos and tutorials, and was able to peform with the group iLuminate! During that time, I got into Fitness and started to train like a bodybuilder! I loved the Art of making and shaping muscles. Then, when the pandemic hit, I went back to my core creative outlet which was illustration. Honorable mention, I used to make music and mixtapes in high school! Read more>>

Abi Prie

My parents are engineers, and while they’ve always been the biggest supporters behind my work, I didn’t really grow up in a space where I was watching adults choose art professionally and actually make money off of it. I’ve been making art since I was tiny — it’s how I explore the ways that the world is interesting to me. As a preschooler I drew the solar system to scale multiple times in the alley behind our house because I was interested in space. As a teenager I drew anatomical illustrations of animals I learned about. Right now I’m really into textiles, so I’m making a lot of quilt inspired work. Creating art is how I interact with everything and everyone else, but I’ve spent a lot of my life feeling shy about choosing it above financial stability, or even expecting to be paid for what I produce. Read more>>

Jasmine Rayam

The first time I knew I wanted to pursue a creative path professionally was when I was around 14. I wanted to be a singer/song writer. I attended a performing arts school in Newark, NJ by the name of Arts High. I would write songs and even performed some of my original songs at showcases. After graduating I discovered that I enjoyed being behind the scenes. I went to SAE to learn how to become an audio engineer. After years of recording artists and myself my dream started to die. Life had set in and bills were due so I became a flight attendant and I earned a degree in Business Management. I completely gave up in music but still yearned to be creative. My dream of becoming a content creator formed. I love how being a creative gives me the opportunity to use my mind and build a community of those who think like me. I love editing videos and sharing my true self on the screen with my audience. I am learning that consistency is the way to build so I am working on that. I can’t wait to see how far this journey will take me. Read more>>

Jaé Joseph

For me, it wasn’t a singular ‘”aha” moment but more of a gradual realization. Growing up, I was always fascinated by storytelling, design, and the power to shift perspectives. But the turning point was when I was roughly 16 years old I attended an art gallery opening that a well-known fashion designer curated. Witnessing the collaboration of the two creative genres spoke directly to my core. It was a fusion of these elements that made me realize the depth of creative expression and its ability to connect people emotionally. Read more>>

Darryl Evan Jones

About 30 years ago. I began to wonder if I was good enough to play professionally. At that time, I’d been playing on and off since I was 8 – mostly at church. I just felt like I was fulfilling my true musical purpose. So, I began the quest to answer the question and prove something to myself at the same time. Read more>>

Chris Abigt

Growing up, I was always creating something with my hands. My grandma, who also love all things artsy & crafty, was great at encouraging me so fro Christmas when I was in fourth grade she bought me all the painting supplies I would need to set up a little studio space and I started painting all the time! It was then that I knew “THIS IS WHAT I WANT TO DO FOREVER!” I took every class I could in high school and I had a fantastic art teacher. I was an art major in college and have been stitching together a career in the visual arts ever since.  Read more>>

Rozalyn Lecompte

I have a vivid memory of walking with my elementary classmates from our little school to a grand two story house in downtown Broussard, Louisiana, when I was about six. An older woman with gorgeous red hair greeted us at her door and she seemed to glow. As we toured her home studio I was in perpetual awe. There were paintings covering every wall. She was fascinating. I listened to every word she said as my friends chattering seemed to disappear into the background. I’ll never forget consciously deciding that I wanted to be just like her when I grew up. I recently asked my mother about this portrait of her that has been hanging on her wall since I can remember. She told me it was done on Main Street when she was little. She said every family in town would dress up and sit for portraits in that old house. Read more>>

Trapdanny Phantom

I used to play any instrument I could get my hands on, and play it by ear. I knew then I’d be a musician of some kind, but never thought I’d be a white dreadlocked rapper. My cousin DJ-C had a studio called southwest studios, I took my singing knowledge and paired it with his old school hip hop, and began to write my own rap. Read more>>

Ryan Hoppe

Born in 1993, I grew up in Chicago with a deep love for radio. From 2000 to 2006, without a television in my home, I relied solely on radio shows for information and entertainment, tuning in to local Chicagoland stations and streaming shows from other cities. I was captivated by iconic programs like “Roe & Garry,” “Eddie & JoBo,” “The T-Man Show with Rob Tepper,” “Mancow’s Morning Madhouse,” “Opie & Anthony,” “The Howard Stern Show,” “Jonathan Brandmeier,” and many others. It’s safe to say that my passion for radio runs deep! Read more>>

Claudia Pinel Iatalese

I have always had a passion for music since a young age, so much so that I started violin classes at the age of 6. By the age of 15 I had left violin behind, but I had picked up piano and guitar instead. I grew up playing these instruments and took piano classes for 10 years with an inspirational teacher from back home called Cleo Boechat. Even though I wasn’t the most passionate performer, I knew I wanted to work with music somehow and she not only helped me discover that music had other paths apart from performing/composing, but she also helped me with my audition to Berklee College of Music where I ended up pursuing a double major of Music Production and Engineering and Music Business/Management. Read more>>

Yuta

In my freshman year of high school, my friends and I would have rap battles during our lunch period. We’d slack off during class to prepare our rhymes and then once class let out, we’d have fun. I didn’t know how seriously I wanted to take songwriting until I got depressed one summer and thought about what I wanted to do with my life. I had different hobbies and goals I wanted to achieve regarding education, but I didn’t feel like getting a degree would define who I was. At the beginning of my sophomore year of high school, I finally found the courage to record my first song and release it on YouTube. Of course, when I went to school the next day, people were laughing and making fun of my song. It was bad I admit, but my friends supported me and begged me to keep going so I could see improvement. Read more>>

Nat Raum

I attended an academically rigorous prep school for high school, but my career and college plans felt uncertain until I took a leap out of my comfort zone and started taking photography classes outside of school. My first class was a two-week extracurricular and showed me my passion for creating art, but my second class, a four-week pre-college intensive, was the moment I really consider myself to have made the decision to pursue a creative future. By the end of my four weeks spent at the local art college I would later attend for my undergraduate studies (Maryland Institute College of Art), I knew there was nothing that would make me as happy as following my passion toward a career in the arts. Read more>>

Krista Cooper-schmidt

I don’t think there’s ever been a time I didn’t know I wanted to pursue a creative path! Even as a kid I was creating stories and getting lost in these characters and imaginary worlds I created for myself. That imagination and love of creation was always there and just never went away. When asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, “actor” was always the answer, without hesitation. Now, growing up in a low-income and less-than-supportive home environment, I didn’t have the means to start pursuing that dream until a few years ago. Even as a young adult, it was something I kept pushing back for a long time, telling myself it could only be a hobby. Then Covid happened and I was really forced to reexamine what was important in my life and what I wanted to get out of it. My own happiness in pursuing a creative career unsurprisingly came out on top.  Read more>>

Wei-fang Chang

My artistic brain started to thrive while pursuing my master’s degree in Interactive Media for Performance at CalArts, within the School of Theater, in which I do video projection design for performance. It is a artistic, crazy, experimental, collaborated, vibrate and unique school that I can feel and learn so much by just open my eyes and sensations. Coming from a “design” background to an “art” environment, I had an hard time to define myself and felt chaotic in an art school, because I used to follow a rules to plan my design, as opposed to art process, in which it takes time or space to experience or improvise. Within the numerous art practice and hand-on theater and dance production as a video designer, I learn how to be open to people, to be honest to myself, be soft to environment, and be patient to art during process. Read more>>

Tyler Wynne

I can’t remember a time where I wasn’t drawing. I loved being creative in any way growing up. I took dance classes from 4 to 9 years old and was in choir for most of k-12. When asked what I wanted to be when I grew up in kindergarten I said an artist but I believe that the true time I realized I wanted be an artist professionally was when I visited my family in San Diego when I was 7. My nana, my mom’s mom, lived with her older sister and her husband. My nana lived in the upper part of the house and my aunt and uncle lived downstairs. My aunt Bessie was an artist. She was a hobbyist who learned to oil paint later in life, she had her own studio in her house and she would paint portraits that were framed around the house. Read more>>

Raj Jawa

I didn’t have one of those “aha” moments where I suddenly knew I was meant for a creative career. It came together more slowly, kind of sneaking up on me around the time I started taking film classes at community college. Before that, I’d always had a casual interest in photography and video—mostly because my parents gave me a camera and a camcorder early on. My friends and I would shoot these strange, funny little videos that probably would’ve gone viral on YouTube if it had existed back then. But it wasn’t until those college classes that I realized this wasn’t just a passing hobby—it was something I actually cared about deeply. Read more>>

Sangina Sharipova

The first time I knew I wanted to pursue music professionally was when I was 12 years old. Music had always been a big part of my life—growing up, I was surrounded by so many different sounds and genres, from R&B and soul to traditional Kazakh melodies. But it was around that age when I made the decision to take it seriously and enrolled in a music school in my hometown. I remember being so excited to dive deeper into the world of music, learning theory and performing for the first time in front of a real audience. It was an emotional experience because I realized that music wasn’t just a hobby for me—it was the way I wanted to connect with people and express myself. That feeling never left, and it continues to drive me today. Read more>>

Valencia Washington

For me, the shift into pursuing art professionally came when I made the difficult decision to quit my job at the bank. I’d always had a deep love for all forms of art—whether it was books, music, or movies. But at that point, I needed to prioritize my mental health, and stepping away from the corporate world was the first step. Initially, leaving created a void. I spiraled into a dark space, unsure of my next move or what my future would look like. It was a period of uncertainty, but in that stillness, I started to tap into a part of myself that I had ignored for a long time—my creative side. When I finally picked up my tools, I realized that this wasn’t just a hobby; I had a real talent. Art became my therapy, my voice, and eventually, my calling. Looking back, quitting that job was the pivotal moment that set me on this path. Read more>>

Zia Uddin

The first time I knew I wanted to pursue a creative path professionally was when I discovered rock music as a kid. I remember being completely captivated by the sound, especially the drums. Something about the energy and rhythm spoke to me in a way that nothing else had. From that moment, I knew I had to learn to play. Growing up, my father, who was a music hobbyist, taught me the basics of piano and guitar. While I enjoyed learning those instruments, I always had a feeling deep down that I wanted to go further with music and focus on the drums. It was more than just a passing interest; I realized that music was going to be a big part of my life. That initial spark of excitement I felt as a kid listening to rock eventually grew into a deep passion. Looking back, it was a combination of those early experiences with music and the constant support from my mother (ironically not my father) that set me on the path to pursuing music professionally. It’s been an amazing journey ever since. Read more>>

Qiujun Ma

I studied dramatic literature in college. Writing was an interest of mine, but I never imagined that I would later make a living from it and become a professional writer. In my daily life, I often encounter interesting events and people, which I jot down and turn into short stories. My journey into writing began with a college professor who was also a screenwriter. He read my short stories and thought I was well-suited for writing scripts. I was very interested in this, so I started learning scriptwriting. Fortunately, after I graduated, my professor recommended me for a scriptwriting position at a film and television company, which marked the beginning of my career as a professional writer. Read more>>

Alexander Uithoven

A 3 year old Alex once sat in front of a 1980’s tube TV playing Super Mario Bros on the Nintendo Entertainment System, or more commonly abbreviated as the NES. My parents tell stories of how I would spend hours and hours huddled in front of the TV, basked in glowing light, playing Mario until I was finally able to beat Bowser and save the princess. And though I can’t specifically remember beating Mario all those years ago, I CAN recall the first game I have vivid memories of playing. A game that is most likely responsible for my life long obsession with video games and art: DOOM At just 6 years old I was introduced to the most influential piece of art that I would ever be exposed to.  DOOM was mind blowing. Read more>>

Evan Volk

For me, the passion of writing songs had a spark from the very beginning. Sitting on a couch in Canada at ~6am writing a few poems (which would eventually be merged into my first song) on the notes app of my mom’s iPad mini was the start of it all (excluding me learning Macklemore and Ryan Lewis’s “Can’t Hold Us” by heart). Fast forward a few months, the opportunity to perform at the middle school talent show popped up. Contemplating it, I remember thinking “I REALLY could actually do this…and rap on stage.” Although the performance of my song “Never Give Up” (over a self-produced track off some loop-beat making app I hadn’t used until then) wasn’t the greatest in retrospect (to put it lightly), the middle school I went to (High Tech Middle Media Arts) has a very supportive environment. Read more>>

Noah Vargas

Hello! My name is Noah Vargas. I am a stand-up comedian and the host of the OnlyKings Podcast based out of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Growing up I had a growing interest in film, video games, comic books, etc that most young boys do, and thankfully my interest has stuck with me well into my late 20s. However, the art form that always stood out the most to me was stand-up comedy. I thought (and still do) about how mind blowing it is that these performers are able to get on stage, with only a microphone, and entertain an audience. To the point that some audience members would lose their breath, fall out of chairs, spill drinks, and much more just from laughing uncontrollably. Truly blew my mind. I grew up in a deeply religious household, and due to this the first comedian I was able to convince my mom to buy me a DVD of was Jeff Dunham, clearly she knew nothing about his material, all she saw were the puppets. My friends and I watched and re-watched it dozens of times.  Read more>>