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.

Harold Reid

Well music has always been a big part of my life. When I was growing up I didn’t have the best home life and I guess I kinda used music to distract myself from everything around me. I would always have headphones on listening to some sort of music. It wasn’t til I was a preteen in middle school that a friend of the family that I referred to as an uncle talked to me about playing an instrument. He eventually told me that the one thing that people are always looking for in the music industry is a good Sax player. I had at this time started teaching myself how to play the drums and started playing drums in a small country band that he had. I finally decided to take band in middle school and was supposed to play percussion but due to a change in directors the new director called my parents and told them I would be playing the saxophone in the school band. So when I got home one day there was a Saxophone on my bed and I was kinda stuck with it. Read more>>

Cherelle K.

I have always been the little girl who was performing all around the house then I started writing raps at 19 and kept writing raps through finishing college. I wanted to move to Atlanta Georgia in the middle of college and then the pandemic happened. So I just kept writing silently to different beats and learning how to create a song. I moved to Austin, Texas once i graduated college because i got the job at CBS Austin as a morning director and then finally decided to start taking my dreams serious. I found the nearest recording studio and got started. That was a little over a year ago! Read more>>

Daniel Potter

Since I can remember, I’ve wanted to pursue a creative and artistic path. Growing up was hard. I lost my parents at the age of 7 and was taken in by my grandmother soon after. She taught me everything I know, especially my love for movies. I remember sitting on her lap watching classic slasher horror movies like Nightmare on Elm Street and Halloween, as well as films that had these fantastic worlds like Jurassic Park and King Kong. The first thing I would do after every movie was leap from my chair and begin reenacting my favorite scenes, trying my best to mimic the voices of my favorite actors. I think my grandmother knew, even before I did, that I wanted to be part of those worlds one day. Read more>>

Mel Smothers

You might have seen me as someone down on his luck. My profession in real estate was on a quick decent. My wife had decided to take up smoking crack with her new friends. Our credit cards were maxed out. Our list of creditors far surpassed any possible income options. I was stressed. I found my material world dissolving in divorce, losing my house, car, family, and facing that I was now alcoholic and living in my parents house. Read more>>

Jay Plush

Coincidentally, right now is an excellent time for women in hip hop. I’ve always been amazed with the genre since being introduced as a youth. I started going to the studio working with some well known producers back in 2015. I kept working on my craft but ultimately decided to take my rap career as a serious profession in 2019. I had a few friends in the music industry and we started collaborating with each other on various records. Dedicated our time to learning the business, recording more music, making music videos and going to networking events Read more>>

Mark Mckowen

I had been surrounded by music my entire life. My earliest music memories include listening to Grieg, Mozart, Sousa. Atop that, my family (being from Southern California) had some connections to some of the SOCAL pop artists and their influences…so I also grew up listening to the Mamas and the Poppas, Jan and Dean, the Beach Boys, the Carpenters. A bit later, my brother became a huge fan of pipe organ, so we listened to a lot of Bach…and then (justifiably) prominent Broadway productions with pipe organ (e.g., “The Phantom of the Opera”). My mother was a gifted organist, pianist, and soprano vocalist, so music was played often. Read more>>

Joyce Lieberman

Painting was a great source of joy and concentration for me as a young person. There was never enough paper in school for all the figurative gesture paintings that I had the energy to create. I had friends to paint together with. It was a great way to live. I went to Art School in Michigan and Texas. I moved to California because of all the great creative energy. . And got to work. Read more>>

Kaleb Sullivan

It was 2014 in the living room after I watched Disney’s Frozen. Kind of ironic because I didn’t even know that movie was coming out. My mom got it on DVD, not knowing what it was, and we watched it at home. I can’t explain why, but I fell in love with the way the characters looked, the way the snow moved, and that incredible ice palace. It was at that point I decided to become an artist and one day make movies of my own. Read more>>

Abraham Bec

I knew I wanted to pursue a creative path professionally when I realized the power of music videos to tell stories that resonate on a deep emotional level. Growing up in Texas, I was surrounded by a rich, music culture, but it wasn’t until I moved to New York that I saw how visuals could amplify music and create something truly transformative. I’ll never forget the first time a music video completely captured the energy of a song and made me feel something I couldn’t quite put into words. That was the moment I knew I wanted to create that kind of magic for others. I also felt the urge to create work that represented my own experiences and those of others often left out of mainstream media. Read more>>

Martinius Solum

I was in a rock band when I was in high school. We played many shows in our hometown, and became quite popular. We mostly played covers, but wrote a lot of own material as well. As a guitar player and songwriter, I was heavily influenced by the music of John Mayer. I listened to his music every single day, learned all his songs and practiced his solos. Day in and day out. There was something about how he expressed himself through music, that resonated more with me than any other artist or band before. And as I wrote my own songs, I took a lot of inspiration from his playing to his lyrics. Read more>>

Sink Lindsay

Music in film and TV has always inspired me. I vividly remember “Pirates of the Caribbean” having me in a chokehold as a pre-teen, thanks to the score. And growing up as a dancer, music has always been the backbone of so many art forms I love. It does so much heavy lifting to shape the emotion behind storytelling. I worked at Starbucks through film school, and being a singer-songwriter wasn’t even on my radar. Then one day, a regular—a wise yoga teacher—asked me about my career goals and said, “I think the world needs to hear your voice. Have you ever thought about singing?” I brushed it off at the time but jokes on me—a year later I was starting to collaborate on music projects. Funny how life works. I owe her a great deal of thanks.  Read more>>

Joshua Hempstead

Well it started when I was just hooping with some friends during Covid and I really loved the fact I could hoop with freedom and loved how I was gaining confidence. One day I was watching some content creators like flight, cash nasty, friga, and Chris white at work and I thought to myself, “they really look happy recording their hoops. So why can’t I”. So I hit up one of my friends to see if he wanted to record just a small idea for me and he agreed to see how it would go. We went to the park and I started to just hoop. Even though it was a camera there, I got so locked in on just hooping I forgot that I was even hooping. I posted the video and got great feedback from my true supporter and the rest was history. Read more>>

Tavon Gibbs

My Mother’s death is a big part of the reason why I wanted to pursue a creative path professionally. I’ve always been talented at many things in my life, but I never really used my creative vision to it’s full potential, it would always be idea after idea and then I would continue to shelf them. For me the reason for not pursuing it earlier was because the timing was off for me, it didn’t feel right internally to do so. I would always find ways to express myself in different ways subliminally right? So people knew that I was ‘ME” and what I mean by that is doing things in a unorthodox way. I would intentionally leave people guessing and that’s hard to do, coming from where I come from. Growing up in the projects, I learned early on how to play the game of life and think for myself. I was a troubled kid, not because of my environment but because I didn’t understand the circumstances and I would question everything around me, the cards that were dealt if we want to put it that way. Read more>>

Pyro Lucain

The moment when I knew I wanted to pursue the creative path, it was two instants, first one was being around my uncles who had a independent label, and also seeing them manage my older cousins rap group. Second moment was when my dad took my to my first concert at 9 years old to the Ruff Ryders and Cash money tour, that really had me and that’s when I made my decision on me being involved. Read more>>

Taehee Kim

I saw my potential when I saw how my art homework was displayed every time, no matter which country I was residing in. I was born and raised in Seoul, South Korea, then moved to Vancouver, Canada, to study abroad for about four years. Afterward, we moved back to Seoul, and in my junior year of high school, I moved to California and graduated high school here. I have two middle school transcripts and three high school transcripts in total. Read more>>

Sypriah Tann

The first time I knew I wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally was designed as I was born. I grew up dressing up , using my imagination and taking photos/videos. My parents always started me in performing arts and theatre in grade school. Following up to a Fashion, Business and Arts Highschool where I really transformed my perspective and found a lot of my creative personality in the Visual, Business and merchandising aspect of the fashion industry. I love being on camera and my confidence shines with it. Influencing others to show their confidence in themselves. Read more>>

Vincent Salvati

My artistic journey began as a teenager when a high school art teacher encouraged me to make my first painting. His words inspired me, and I was immediately captivated by the limitless possibilities of color and form. Once I discovered painting, it had a strong emotional effect on me. It offered an unexpected outlet for self-expression. Read more>>

Natashia Deon

I was thrown out of a courtroom. I was eighteen years old. That’s when I first knew I wanted to pursue a creative path. That morning, I was in court with a friend, being her moral support during her small claims action against an abusive ex-boyfriend and I was so emotional as she tried to explain the abuse. He kept interrupting without repercussion so I interrupted him. Worse, I couldn’t shut up. Read more>>

Susan Sinyai

Thinking back, I can say that there was no “aha “ moment. I believe there were little whispers that guided my path. Some of these during my adolescence, such as my love of sewing – the texture and design of fabrics, the constructive process, the fascination with design and being able to change it, the getting lost (being in the zone) while immersed in all that. Later, after completing an uninspiring but typical BA in Sociology, with no thoughts of art, in a few years I was married and had young children. After taking a few little art classes for fun, and rediscovering I did have some skills, I enrolled at UNCA for some “serious “ art courses. That was my moment , I believe. My mind was on fire and I knew I had found my passion! The path was laid out for me! So I committed to receiving the BFA, taking seven years to complete, as my children were always my priority. And, the journey continues, always with bumps in the road and unsuspected opportunities. Read more>>

Scott Ampleford

I’d always had an interest in music, but with the exception of pop stars there weren’t really many visible musicians for me to latch on to growing up. I was however, also very interested in acting and actors were EVERYWHERE. So for the longest time, I wanted to be an actor! I threw myself into school plays, amateur theatre, small parts in TV and film. All the while, making music on the side. With a group of friends, I’d begun making silly little films to post on the internet. To avoid copyright troubles, I started composing the music to those films. Read more>>

Shani Sibrian-boyes

In high school, I was enrolled into art class as an extra-curricular subject. After the first required year was over, I signed up for a couple more years because I really enjoyed the art classes. I was learning new techniques, new mediums, discovering how to express myself, and how to see objects/subjects in different ways. Because of those years in high school art class, I grew interested in figuring out what artist careers I could pursue for the future, which is how I discovered graphic designing. During my senior year of high school is when I began to set goals for myself to become a professional artist, by gathering a portfolio together, researching colleges, and practicing my art during my spare time. Read more>>

Nikki Hayes

It was when my best friend in middle school got a camera and wanted to record a video of me singing for YouTube. I believe it was the beginning years of YouTube. It was a cover of “Melt my Heart to Stone” by Adele. Over that year, I saw people from around the world commenting on the video. I’d always loved music and I’d always loved singing. As a child, I always said that I was going to be a singer when I grew up but I didn’t really know how to do it so the YouTube video definitely formed a spark. From there, someone who worked at a record label sent me a message on YouTube and that was when I knew that I could do this. Read more>>

Aleah Vassell

I’ve been singing, dancing and acting on stage since the age of four years old. My parents always encouraged my passions – they took me to see The Lion King on Broadway when I was eight, and then In The Heights starring Lin Manuel Miranda and Jordin Sparks when I was in high school. But what really solidified that musical theatre was something I wanted to do professionally was seeing Legally Blonde, the Broadway musical performed on MTV. I’d never seen anything like it and it was everything I didn’t know I was looking for in musical theatre – a fun, exciting, energetic, and relatable show that I could see myself in. Don’t get me wrong, Lion King was a beautiful experience and so was In The Heights, but Legally Blonde spoke to my fifteen year old soul. After watching it, I told my parents I wanted to study Musical Theatre to make it my profession, and that was the beginning of it all. Read more>>

Chris Leoutsakos

I know it sounds cliché, but I think I knew very early on that I wanted to pursue a creative career. And I was fortunate enough to have a family that would not only fully support me, but also plant the creative spark very early on. Growing up, I would absorb everything artistic, whether that was movies, shows, music, or visiting museums and art galleries. In school, I was involved in every show and event, painting backgrounds and sets, creating posters for events and booklets, and participating in drawing and art competitions. Outside of school, I would often have drawing as well as voice acting lessons while I also learned to play guitar and had an amazing time playing music with my school’s orchestra and choir. So, in a way, art was with me from the beginning. Read more>>

Dominic Wheeler

The first time I knew I wanted to pursue my artistry as a career was back in college. I already had a background in writing, acting, dancing, and poetry, so my transition into writing my own music came naturally. I remember being with my dorm mates playing Pick Up And Kill and In The Classroom from Wild N Out (I was goated at In The Classroom). Although I can’t particularly remember who encouraged me to write my first rap, I do remember sharing little verses I’d make with my friends during my sophomore year. At the end of said year, I performed the first version of my remix to Chiraq by Nicki and G Herbo, and I remember the crowd loving it. I had always been ostracized to an extent for my music taste compared to everyone else’s music taste at PV, however, when I saw that people actually liked what I spit, it filled me with this burning desire to continue writing. Read more>>