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.

Jieun Cheon

I have been doing art since when I was a middle school student. Originally, I was heavily influenced by Japanese anime like Studio Ghibli’s works, and I wanted to be an animator. My parents respected the things I wanted to do and supported me to apply for an art high school in Korea. However, after getting into the art high school, teachers taught me about the contemporary art which was very new for me at that time. Also, they asked my classmates and I to try different ways of artmaking from the academic drawing and watercolor painting. Through my education, I realized that there were some indescribable experiences in my life, and I could enjoy creating artworks by reinterpreting these experiences. Also, I felt that I have more talent on making fine artwork than creating animation. Therefore, I decided to be an artist and major in sculpture because I can deal with more diverse materials and formats in the sculpture department. Read more>>

 Sebastian Brewer

Growing up, I was very inspired to help others. I wanted to be a superhero, really. This was all because of Tobey Maguire’s portrayal of Spider-man. After trying out theater, and figuring out that I love it, I realized that I could use movies and shows as a way of inspiring others to be better people, just as I had wanted. After a showing of the musical, Into the Woods, that I was lucky to be a part of, I went to see my family and friends who came to see the show. Before making my way through the crowding audience, a mother stopped me. She politely asked for me to take a picture with her son, who was quite timid. After the photo, though, he started talking about my role and just how much he adored the show. He had this passion in his voice that I could tell was the start of some inspiration. That honestly made me feel like I did my job as an actor and I inspired someone. I haven’t seen this kid since, but I hope to on the big screen some day. Read more>>

 Deb Jungin Kim

I fell in love with performing at the end of my senior year in high school. My school in Staten Island hosted this event every year called International Festival, and it was a performance night that students would participate in based on different culture clubs. I became captain for the Korean Fan Dance team and I honestly had no idea what I was doing. But I had an idea to replace traditional Korean music with a modernized K-drama soundtrack that played with traditional elements. Read more>>

Julie Williams

I have two moments when I knew I wanted to perform professionally. My mom waking me up to see the Rockettes on tv for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and the first time I saw Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre in concert at 11 years old. I was blown away! From the sparkling costumes and high kicks to dancers that looked like me moving gracefully to spirituals my ancestors once sung. It had me in a chokehold! I fell in love with the art. I danced around the house in scarves and created my own choreography. I told myself one day…that would be me. Read more>>

Des Meis

As a child, I always gravitated towards the arts vs. academics or sports. (I did made the C team in middle school volleyball…) So when I was 6 I was in the church Christmas play, in middle school I was in our local Community Theatre, and I was in every school production in high school. However, I didn’t study theatre in college or pursue it professionally as a young adult because I saw it as something I did “on the side”, that acting is something I do as supplemental to what I “really should be doing”. Yet as I entered the professional world, while I had worthwhile experiences, I always had this ache in my heart to perform. To act. To tell stories with my voice and body and to be in community with those who have that ache as well. So in a way, I have always known that I have wanted to pursue the arts professionally, I just never knew HOW to integrate it into the life I had built. So when I was postpartum with my second baby, listening to audiobooks while I push a stroller, wondering who on earth am I listening to and loving the acting choices the narrator was making for the character…little did I know I was about to come face to face (or should I say ear to ear), with a way to integrate the arts into my life. I found a door to a path where I could pursue the arts in my everyday life and I not only opened it but knocked it down. Read more>>

Elvira Zamora

The moment I wanted to pursue my creative path was when I felt a feeling of happiness and calmness when I designed. Creating the clothes, managing the photoshoots and the runway shows was the way I could express to the world my creative side. Being in corporate all my adult life has accomplished my bills paid, but not a feeling of fulfilment. Read more>>

Rachel Spangler

I suspect I am an outlier in this area. I’ve always been a storyteller. I come from a family of great storytellers and it’s a skill we really lift up and value, so I learned early on that great stories got me attention and praise, but I didn’t think of myself as a writer, much less a professional writer, until after I’d published my third book. I know that might sound convoluted, but it’s the way it was for me. Read more>>

Ashley Frazier

Ever since I was little, the love of fashion has always been with me. I can remember being a little girl going to 34th street and shopping at Macy’s with my mother and grandmother. I loved to look good. Because if you look good you feel good right. Fast forward to having my own kids. My then 2 year old son took to the camera at a very young age. My husband and I saw how well behaved he was and the way he showed so much personality when it came to photos. So I decided to combine my love for fashion with his love for the camera and boom . 3 years later he is on the Nordstrom website for a Black Owned Brand called King And Lola and he has now walked for NYC fashion week alongside his older brother and sister a handful of times and we are preparing for another runway show with me as a designer in 2025. I am so proud and amazed at how far we have all come with fashion. I absolutely love styling and designing. I am currently working on a children’s brand called CONCRETE ROSE 🥀 it’s going to be filled with vibrant colors mixed with earth tones. Read more>>

Anna Barnett

There’s this book I read in my early twenties, Letters to a Young Poet, by Rainer Maria Rilke, where he’s talking to this soldier about whether the soldier should change careers and become a poet. Rilke basically goes: Would you die if you could not write? And when I first read that, I was like, no I wouldn’t die, I could do something else. But ten years later, I opened the book again, and the answer was yes, I would die. I can’t do anything else but be an artist. Read more>>

Paulette Perhach

On the day that changed me from someone who wanted to be a writer to someone working to be a writer, I was a twenty-six-year-old Peace Corps volunteer in the capital of Paraguay, on a swamp-hot bus packed mostly with office workers on their way home. The bus squealed to a stop, and the driver opened the door. Since so many of the stories, both hilarious and traumatizing, that I told my family and friends back home started with someone getting on the bus, I’d developed a reflex to watch that door, waiting for whoever or whatever was next. Read more>>

Brooke Weidauer

I graduated in social work in 2004. Throughout my college career, I knew what I actually wanted was to create! There is something so magical about creating something out of nothing. I had always loved taking photos but my passion for photography really struck me when I had my kids. I initially wanted to take better pictures of them and for the camera to capture the way that I saw them, or close to it. I fell madly in love with photography. I was not planning to take photography beyond a hobby status. My husband was in the fire academy at the time and we didn’t have a lot of money and yet, I wanted a pair of jeans that were out of our meager budget. So, I told myself that I would start taking on clients to buy myself a pair of these pricier jeans. After a couple of paid shoots, I purchased myself some fancy pants. And then, I just kept on going. I realized how much I loved interacting with new people and even having that time with people I did know. I was able to connect with people on a different level. I appreciated the ability to be creative. I loved the way I saw the world differently – I noticed the hair light of people at the park and the way the light shone through the kitchen window. I saw the world differently after I fell in love with photography. Read more>>

Ej Brad And Kai

We would always watch other creators on YouTube and decided we wanted to create content that would be entertaining. We’ve always wanted to represent all people in a positive way. In December 2019 we started our channel with trying different snacks. We didn’t know a lot about lighting or backgrounds but we just wanted to create videos. When the Covid-19 pandemic hit in 2020, it allowed us a chance to think about the content we wanted to create and expand on that vision. We made a great amount of content in 2020 & 2021 traveling to Las Vegas wearing our masks and playing slots and filming our foodie moments. Read more>>

Destinee Alera

So I’ve always been really musical, even as a baby before I could talk. I would sing along to every song, not knowing the words. My mom used to play music constantly when I was in her belly, and so much of my favorite music now echoes what I heard before I could register it. There were definitely a few moments over the course of my life that confirmed to me that music was something that was a piece of me. But the first time I realized I wanted to do it professionally was probably after I released my first single. Read more>>

Tati Clanton

The first time I knew I wanted to be a creative was when I was a senior in high school. When I was in high school YouTube was a huge thing! I was obsessed with the makeup gurus such as Jackie Aina, Jordan Lipscomb, Patrick Star, Desi Perkins, etc. etc. These creatives inspired me to falling in love with makeup and the beauty space. Then,I would watch vlogs and lifestyle content and story times. I would watch all theses amazing content creators and be mesmerized how people are being themselves in a creative way. As time went by I would focus on little things such as the aesthetics, fonts, music choice in their videos, and many more. I realize that now this is art and it’s creators telling their story. I loved that and wanted to do that. So in the summer of 2014 I decided to take my android phone and make my first YouTube video of me telling a story time . It actually did pretty well my first time and ever since then I got hooked ! I slowly started taking it seriously and would post videos in my dorm room, my freshman year of college and edit on my phone. I did not care what people make say or think I just loved it! Then it dawned on me that I was so passionate about this that I can see me being a creative as a part of me. Throughout the years I would have my ups and downs and would not be consistent, but I still held that passion within me. It was almost a year ago that I took it very seriously and the fruit of my labor is definitely prospering. I am now working with brands in the beauty space and I am only getting started. People say you should do what you love and that is what I am doing. Read more>>

Maria Brea

Growing up in a violent slum in Caracas, Venezuela, my father, a music teacher, guitarist, and Cuatro player, made sure that my sister and I always had music and books. He encouraged us to listen to all kinds of music, from our traditional music to jazz and classical. When I was 11 years old, I had to do a project (a PowerPoint presentation) for my school’s computer lab, and because my dad worked at a music school called Johann Sebastian Bach, I chose this composer for my project. I needed some music to accompany the presentation, and he brought me a CD of cantatas that changed my life! I told him, “Papá, I want to be an opera singer,” and that’s when I knew this was my lifelong artistic path. Read more>>

Jon Mullane

I knew the moment I started songwriting and recording. I had been a performer for a number of years before that, but once the creative process got a hold on me, there was no turning basck. I had submitted a few of my early songs to a local radio station contest, and was pleasantly suprised that I was picked as one of the five finalists. Through this process, my songs were recorded in a pro studio and were included on a compilation album that the radio station released, and played on their station. The first time I heard my song on the radio, that resonated with me like nothing else, and propelled me into doing this as my life’s work. Read more>>

Carol Golemboski

When I was a child, I always thought I’d be a writer. I loved reading and inventing stories. I didn’t take a photography course until I was a sophomore in college. Eventually, photography replaced writing for me as a creative outlet. It provided me with a visual basis in reality that I could manipulate to create fictional scenes. When I graduated from college, I didn’t have a specific career path in mind within the broader context of the field. Now I teach at the university level, which allows me the freedom to pursue the kind of creative photography I prefer. As a bonus, it turns out I love teaching. My students inspire me all the time. Read more>>

Fernanda Perez

I’d say my first real spark came from my stepdad, actually. He was always the one inviting me to illustration workshops. Even before that, I was constantly painting and drawing—any surface or spare moment I had, I was sketching something. But it wasn’t until I attended one of those workshops that I realized, “Wait, I could actually get paid for doing something I love?” That moment hit me when I met some incredible illustrators—who, by the way, weren’t just amazing at their craft, but genuinely good people. I made friends who, like me, enjoyed sitting around drawing and coming up with new ideas. I loved the experience so much that I just wanted to keep doing it, for as long as possible. Read more>>

6ixolina

The first time I realized I wanted to pursue a creative path professionally was as a child. I dreamt of becoming a high-end fashion designer, creating statement pieces that would steal the runway and spark conversations for years to come. I spent countless hours sketching concepts in my journals and watching competition shows such as America’s Next Top Model. One of my favorite pastimes was visiting the fabric store, where I envisioned crafting my own wardrobe. However, I soon learned that everything comes with a price. Many of my classmates were enrolled in expensive sewing classes, which my frugal parents were not keen on funding. Still, my dream persisted. After years of begging and pleading, one Christmas, I was finally gifted a sewing machine of my own. Instead of renting someone else’s equipment, I now had tools that belonged to me. While I no longer design clothing, this experience taught me that good things take time and that sometimes we receive what we truly need rather than what we think we want. Read more>>

Christopher Greiner

During Covid (2020) I started dabbling in the music arts. I created beats on a free software and posted them to Soundcloud. I then added rap lyrics to them and became this Christian Rapper. I got a name for myself and had some what of a foundation. However, I started to find that it’s very hard for a christian rapper to make it. I grew up playing the drums and listening to country music so I figured i’d give that a shot. I produced a beat with samples and wrote country lyrics to it. It was the first time I actually sang on a song. I found quickly that people enjoyed this new genre I was putting down. After a further dive, I taught myself how to play guitar and started figuring out my voice. I learned a few cover songs, and hit the stage. Ever since i’ve been growing and working on my craft to the point where I am now! Recently i’ve had the chance to open for Zach Bryan in Philly, which was incredible. I would have never expected to be here. Read more>>

Billy Ellmore

I think my very first true inkling of wanting to pursue an artistic career occurred after performing in a high school musical. I realized how fun and exciting it was to assume the persona of a character and, frankly, I thought I was pretty darn good at it. Now to the candid and somewhat embarrassing chapter of this story. I wanted to be Anakin Skywalker. That’s right; my decision to pursue an artistic career was highly motivated by the desire to play the teenaged Darth Vader in the Star Wars prequels, which were casting at that time. My mother took me to get headshots and we mailed these out to a variety of talent agents in my home state of Wisconsin. She was very supportive of my passion and really made me believe it could be possible for me to get that role! Read more>>

Mari Blake

I really can’t remember a time when I wasn’t interested in creative pursuits, particularly performing for friends and family members, so it’s something that has always been with me. Being born in NYC, I was put into child modeling at six months old because my older brother had been a child model for years and I think we both enjoyed the novelty of that experience. It felt like a natural progression to move into performing on stage. Read more>>

Velaviee

The first time I realized music was the path for me was in 2017, thanks to an unexpected moment that I’ll never forget. It all started when I met my friend Fabian, an artist and songwriter who lived and breathed music. I was invited to one of his gigs, which is funny because I had actually met him at one of his previous shows! At that time, my mom was visiting from Venezuela, so I thought it would be fun to take her along to enjoy the show, which was at this cozy little spot called Alloy in downtown Miami. Read more>>

Leslie Urena

When I was a kid I would go to the theater with my dad every Sunday, it became a tradition. Every Sunday we were there ready to watch the upcoming films. The smell of popcorn still brings a nostalgic feeling. Sitting under the large screen and getting lost in a film was my favorite thing to do. Growing up, I did not see a lot of women like me in leading roles. Therefore, pursuing an acting career brought me inspiration, specifically to bring Latin representation to the big screen. I knew this was a career my younger self always dreamt of. It’s also not a common career that’s talked about in my culture and if I wanted to create change, I knew I had to take on a challenging path to pursue an artistic career. Read more>>

David Rios

We came from a small town called Snyder in Texas. It’s one of those small towns you see in movies where everyone knows each other. We all were in high school together throughout the early to mid 2010s and knew of each other not knowing we were all walking the same path. A couple of the boys wanted to play at a talent show for the school and that’s when they reached out to me to drum for them for that one specific show. From the moment we got into our guitarist’s (Pete) cellar and started to play our first song, we knew we had something special. Even though we may not have been really good or even sound remotely close to what we do today, we knew that this was meant to be. We had to pursue this further because nothing else in our world’s felt better than playing music together. Read more>>

Delani Taylor

I have always loved to work with my hands. As a kid in elementary school, I wanted to be a professional cake baker. Then for a brief moment, I knew pottery was the ideal job. Had I ever worked with clay before? No, I had not, but it was the ultimate way of working with your hands, and you can make so many practical things! I eventually changed my views and cycled through a litany of possible career choices. I ended up being a cook, which I loved…except for all the bad parts, of which there are many. I tried my hand at woodworking but it was too structured. Too much math and too many mistakes. Read more>>

Aditi Hazra

I grew up in an artistic household in India. As far back as I can remember and based on my parents’ stories, I have shown a passion for art since my early childhood. At home, I grew up watching my father experiment with different media, and most of the time, I would participate with him and create art at home. I enjoyed making art wholeheartedly. It was all I could think of when I was little. Additionally, I would accompany my father to art shows, workshops, and other creative events and participate in seminars, workshops or exhibitions. Being exposed from a young age, I realized that making art was something I wanted to pursue passionately, and I decided to make it a career choice for myself. Read more>>

Irina Kuzina

Growing up, I dreamed of making movies, acting, and dancing. I began dancing at the age of nine, after exploring various sports such as gymnastics, acrobatics, and figure skating. I soon realized that dance was the common thread I loved in all these activities. Read more>>

Mar Mcintyre

I’ve truly been a creative and practiced creating all my life. I started to paint in 2016 artistically vintage and antique furniture pieces and sold the pieces in our furniture store, which has been in business since 1992. It started out with small pieces like end tables. Before I knew it they were selling fast so I kept painting and refurbishing as much as I could in my spare time. Read more>>

Thatguy Flight

The moment when I wrote something in my book and someone wanted it and I said sure but my cousin was like you know you can get paid for being a songwriter and after that I took music more seriously and start becoming a songwriter before I became an artist Read more>>

Lorena Somers

I first knew I wanted to pursue a creative path professionally during my childhood. Ever since, I was a child , my family would often find me coloring the faces in the newspaper. I was captivated by the idea of bringing new look through color and creativity. As I grew older, I started experimenting with makeup on my family and friends. Read more>>

Rachel Sutherland

I knew since a young age I wanted to own a creative services business. I dabbled in different mediums but was never able to pick ‘the one’. It wasn’t until 2021 when I had major change that I knew my creative adventures needed to shift. I loved doing my art too much and had so many ideas to just have the finished projects sit around collecting dust. I have a huge imagination, drive and passion for all things handmade, and it seemed like a waste to not pursue my dream and share my work with others. Read more>>

Shawneki Wright

I first realized I wanted to pursue a creative path professionally during a period of personal transformation. Art had always been a part of my life, but I never considered it as a career until I went through a challenging time that pushed me to seek healing and self-expression. In the midst of emotional struggles, I found that creating—whether through music, drawing, painting or even just imagining—offered me a sense of release and peace that nothing else could provide. It became a tool not just for expression, but for understanding myself and the world around me on a deeper level. Read more>>

Isabella Bonzani

I think there were several little moments as I grew up that led me to pursue music. I can say for sure that Interstellar sparked my love for film. I come from a big movie family, but something about Interstellar just unlocked something in me. At the time the movie came out I was obsessed with space, so I was already crazy about the movie. But it was the first time I started paying attention to the score. Something about Hans Zimmer’s score just resonated so much with me, and it still does ten years later. Read more>>

Gabriela Venegas

I’ve been an artist since I was born, since I first scribbled on the walls in my parent’s house and colored with crayons. I figured I wanted to be a professional artist because of the feeling I would get in the movie theater after watching an animated film. When I was 14 watching “Spider-man: Into the Spider-verse” for the first time, I subconsciously decided that one day I wanted to work on something that made people feel the way I felt that day sitting in that theater. I felt pure passion, pure hope, and pure wonder. In the finished film, I can see all the hands that were involved in breathing life into these characters. I can see the thought put into crafting the set designs, the color choices pushing and pulling your feelings along the storyline, and the expertly staged compositions and shots used to support the visual storytelling. All this is the work of the writers, visual development artists, storyboarders, animators, and so on. I get this feeling whenever I go to the theater and watch a beautifully crafted animated film. I got this same feeling watching TMNT: Mutant Mayhem, and recently Transformers One. There’s just something about storytelling through artistic eyes, hand-crafted composition, and beautiful animation that speaks to me on a different level. In this age of stylized 3d animation, I’m even more inspired and determined to find my way into a studio someday so that I can be a part of the magic. Animation and art have become my whole life and I can’t see myself in a world where I wouldn’t want to pursue it. Read more>>

Matt Macfarland

Everyone can draw. As an art teacher, I know this is true. Around the time of adolescence, doubts and peer pressure creep in, and that can stifle creativity. As a kid, I was encouraged to make art. My dad was a talented drafstman. My mom loved the arts and put me in art classes outside of school. By the time I got to fifth grade I started making “comics” inspired by my love for Mad and Cracked Magazine, called Sad and Tacked. They were full of dumb jokes, caricatures of celebrities and politicians, essentially blatant rip-offs of the aforementioned publications. But I had put my own spin on them, and my parents made copies and i sold them for a quarter a piece. To my surprise, most of my classmates wanted one! For one of the first and only times in my childhood, I was popular! Everyone wanted me to draw them or draw someone they knew from class. I even had a few classmates make a rip-off book of MY rip-off. Though my popularity faded near the end of the year, I had been bitten by the bug. I knew I wanted to make stuff, and I wanted to share it with people. And if I made a little money doing it, that was gravy. Read more>>

 Sheila Karbassian

It was 1986, I was fourteen years old and Iran was deep in a war with Iraq. It was a time of scariness and ugliness, and fear was always looming over our heads. I was about to enter high school in Tehran and I had to choose between Mathematics , Sciences, Literature or visual Arts. As far as I was concerned Math and Science were behind the planes, guns and bombs threatening our lives everyday and I wanted nothing to do with that kind of world, I longed to create my own world focusing on the beauty and harmony of things. And despite it being the unknown, I needed to forge my own path to feel a sense of control at a time of instability. Read more>>

Stefani Morton

Like a phoenix that rises out of the ashes, on August 25 of 2023 I was faced with a the near death experience in a hospital in South Carolina due to Sepsis. As I was lying helpless and scared in the ER/cardio ward I knew it then. The staff kept asking me if I had anybody that could come be with me, clergy to contact, did I have a will etc. I had just turned 56. Divorced, single retired school teacher with nothing but a cat, dog and some guitars/paintbrushes to my name. At that moment, I knew that life was way too short, and I’ve never regretted my move to Music City or my choices from that eventful evening. Moving to Nashville to chase a dream was a clear choice, no matter how long or hard it would be because nothing would be harder than coming back from a near death experience. Read more>>

Díanna Gooden

I was in high school and there was a career fair. Growing up, my mother and I were in poverty. At this fair my mother had $500. I was interested in the modeling program, creating a demo for my singing abilities and track and field. The modeling agent said I had the potential to model so my mother asked me to pick one. I was interested in all the opportunities but our funds were limited. I ended up choosing track and got a scholarship. Ever since then I’ve wanted to do all three but life sometimes gets in the way. Read more>>

Kyle Langford

When I was in school I always was interested in art. I loved to draw. So any elective classes I had I wanted art. From basic art to advanced drawing and even a little airbrush. My mother is an artist and I spent summers with her and I was introduced to oil painting. I did my first oil painting when I was 14. As I got older I kind of fell off the artistic path. I mean I still would draw or doodle but my oil painting supplies sat in my closet. Fast forward several years into my 30’s I started working at a frame shop in Lakewood Colorado. That really reignited my passion for painting. Read more>>