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.

Chelsea Tikotsky

Art has always been a part of my life, thanks to the encouragement of my parents, but it wasn’t until 2012 that I decided to give it a real try and pursue becoming a professional artist. In college, I earned a BA in Studio Art with an emphasis in painting and had the incredible opportunity to study abroad in Florence, Italy, where I was surrounded by centuries of art history and inspiration. Those experiences ignited my passion for painting. Read more>>

Emelia (mia) Archer

From a young age I have always been surrounded by art! My dad was an incredible cartoonist, and my mom was very crafty with home projects like scrapbooking and making decorations for our home. Growing up I always loved art projects and drawing. As I got older I took all the art classes in school and my art teachers were always impressed with my work. In High school one of my projects made it all the way to state in the reflections contest. In another art class one of my teachers asked if he could keep a sketch study on the human face to show future students! So art has always been a part of my life. After school, I made some extra money by drawing custom portraits for people! Read more>>

Pierre Martin

Straight out of high school, understanding the academic path was not in line of my aspirations, and having family support to pursue either photography or music studies, both endeavors i was already very much involved in. Read more>>

Valentina Kamenova

Growing up in the artistic industry, creativity was always a big part of my life, but the first time I knew I wanted to pursue a creative path professionally was when I was 10 years old and cast as the lead in an Italian two-part mini-series. The experience was so wonderful, and even though I was so young, I loved the process of embodying a character and being part of bringing a story to life. At the same time, music has always been a huge part for me, I began singing practically before I could talk and over time that passion led me to composing music as well. I love both, because both acting and music allow me to express emotions in different, unique ways. They go hand in hand for me. It has shaped who I am and I love incorporating both into my work. Read more>>

Farrukh Adnan

The first time I knew I wanted to pursue an artistic path professionally was during my time working at an advertising agency. I remember sitting at my desk, surrounded by the hustle and bustle of deadlines, pitches, and client demands, and feeling a strange emptiness. It wasn’t that the work was inherently bad or uninspiring, but something about it didn’t resonate with me on a deeper level. I kept asking myself, “Is this really where I see myself? Is this the kind of creative expression I want to dedicate my life to? Read more>>

Helin Bereket

The journey to pursuing a creative path professionally was almost serendipitous for me. It all started in 2013 when I received my first camera as a gift. It was a simple, compact camera, but I carried it with me everywhere, especially during my travels. Over time, I found myself capturing moments, textures, and scenes, slowly developing a deeper connection to photography. Read more>>

Marina Ibrahim

I knew from when I was very young that I wanted to pursue a creative path professionally, I just didn’t know exactly what it was going to be. In my first year of middle school, I fell in love with the trumpet. I was outgoing and loud, so it suited me perfectly. I dreamt of performing in the Nashville Symphony. About a year or two later, I got my first real pet– a creamsicle cat named Mishmish– and he became a real source of inspiration for me. I was (and still am) obsessed with him. So much so that I wanted to capture his majestic visage and eternalise it in some way. This started my pursuit of the visual arts. Read more>>

Jeremy Furnish

My interest in a creative life started early, and quite possibly by accident. It was in preschool where I had my first art lesson in a classroom setting. Prior to this, I did enjoy the yellow and blue Crayola finger paints, but now I’m at a table in a new place surrounded by strangers. Mrs. Ingamils came around to each table and handed us a sheet of paper with a circle drawn in the center. Using the provided crayons, the goal was to color inside the circle. I had no idea how serious this was supposed to be as I proceeded with my crayons. Disregarding the apparent objective of coloring inside the circle, I went all out on this sheet of paper. Read more>>

Eugenia Renteria

When I was in high school, my family and I took a road trip to Zacatecas, Mexico, every summer. My dad bought a VHS camera, and I eagerly took on the role of documenting our family adventures. That experience sparked my interest in filmmaking, and over the next few years, I spent countless days writing stories in my journal, often inspired by personal experiences. Read more>>

Jaz Palmer

From a very young age, I was expressing myself artistically. Whether it was markers, playground rocks, or the weekly redesigns of my Doodle Bear, anything that I could “artify” was fair game. Art was simply intrinsic to who I was. In kindergarten, when asked about my future, I’d declare I’d be an illustrator, a fine artist, a muralist—anything creative! However, adolescence brought challenges. Social pressures and a difficult family dynamic chipped away at my confidence, and I internalized the belief that my abilities were insignificant. I shifted my focus to music and performance, the art forms where I felt “allowed” to excel. Read more>>

Mike Leavitt

I was a Freshman in art school at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY about 28 years ago. I thought I wanted to be an art teacher, or maybe a graphic designer when I entered school. But I realized neither of these fields would allow me the freedom and flexibility I wanted in my life and career. So I left school, took a year off, traveled and self-produced my own art shows at the age of 19. After that year “off”, I realized I wanted to try making a career of it, found a college that suited my ambitions, and went for it. Read more>>

Brandon Salerno

I caught the acting bug during sophomore year of high school while rehearsing for the annual fall play with the EHS Players Club. The show was While the Lights Were Out by Jack Sharkey, a murder mystery farce with eccentric characters and physical comedy. I remember immediately falling in love with the genre and my particular role as Roderick Remley, the creepy dracula-like butler. Prior to this, I was on track to pursue a path in science, possibly as a doctor or researcher. However, everything changed when I started to catch myself daydreaming about acting while in my Chemistry Honors class. I realized I didn’t get the same feeling of fulfillment from my classes that I did from being on stage. I knew at that point that my heart was calling me to perform and since then, I have never looked back. Read more>>

Marley Wright

I’ve been practicing art for most of my life and have always dreamed of turning it into a career. In 2008, I even attended art school briefly, but my art advisor crushed my confidence when they told me that making a living as an artist was as unlikely as becoming a movie star. Hearing that made me question my path and led me to explore other options, including moving to new places and trying different careers. Read more>>

King808god Aka Maxpayne Shawty

I knew what I wanted to be since I was about 6 years old. My mom sings gospel and was the first person to take me and my siblings to a major recording studio. I was watching the engineer and control room the whole time that’s when I knew this is what I want to do. My whole family on my mom’s dad side my late Grandfather Rosevelt Ellison, can play music and sing very well. So, I come from a family full of talent. Read more>>

Téa Emerald

As a kid, I always felt like there was no where for me to fit in. I didn’t really belong or conform and I have felt like an Alien for as long as I can remember. I would say the wrong things, get in trouble for being too loud and un-focused, and felt things so intensely that I was always just a volcano of emotions that I didn’t understand. Being Artistic and Creative really had saved me. Not only my soul, but I feel like it has saved my life. I have always worked with kids and had a passion for art, singing and dancing, but had started modeling at age 13/14. Being creative was always something I was actually good at and because I struggled in school due to mental/physical health, college never really felt like the best option. In my teens is when I really knew that I wanted to make a career out of being creative. Read more>>

Malcom Cannariato

I have been exercising my creative muscles since a young child. Before understanding how I wanted to place myself in this world, I wanted to be an Architect. I was fascinated with structures and sculpting reality. When I turned 15, music became a vital form of expression of ideas & emotions for me. I stuck with it, progressing to interning at a recording studio, to running my own Studio for 3 years. I was apart of this music collective ‘Da Blckhouse’ for a couple years. So much passion and memories were created with these genuine artists. At the height of working with this group, I felt my path was aligned to be in music & creativity. But it wasn’t truly till’ I honed in on myself, that I understood; Read more>>

Hope Schumacker

The first time I knew I wanted to pursue a creative path professionally was during my senior year of high school. Up until that point, I had no idea what I wanted to do after graduation. I had always admired my dad, who started his own business, and I dreamed of becoming an entrepreneur someday, but I didn’t know what that would look like for me. Read more>>

Iraima Alonso

My artistic journey began in an unexpected place: the solitude of the early pandemic. Like so many others, I found myself grappling with a sense of isolation, disconnection, and the overwhelming uncertainty of the times. The world seemed to be spiraling in ways no one could control, and I, too, was searching for a way to process the chaos that had engulfed our lives. Read more>>

Ellie Welker

I started learning music when I was 5 and have always loved playing in front of crowds. I entered the elite music schools in Taiwan since the age of 9, but it wasn’t until I turned 20 that I discovered I wanted to pursue music for the rest of my life.

As I grew older, I began to realize that music was more than just a passion—it was a calling. Throughout my years of training, I often found myself torn between fulfilling school work and fully embracing music. But when I heard Jenny Oaks Baker’s CD, everything changed. It felt like a moment of clarity, where I finally understood that music wasn’t just something I did; it was something I was meant to share with others. Read more>>

Jessie Glennon

I realized I wanted to pursue being a musician professionally when I was around fourteen; I had been learning to play guitar for a couple months, so my dad took me out to a local live music jam at Knuckleheads in Kansas City. I hadn’t really seen live music before, and I hadn’t realized I could play with other musicians without being in a band, or that I would even be capable of doing something like that. Seeing other musicians from around town get up and play with people they’d never met on songs they might not have rehearsed or ever heard before really motivated me. At the time, I could barely play a single song, which pushed me to keep practicing so I could get on stage as soon as possible. Read more>>

Jesse Lundberg

I knew from a young age that I wanted to do something in the arts. When in kindergarten they ask you what you want to be when you grow up, and my answer was illustrator. Over the years, it changed here and there. I was originally interested in going into animation, but ended up going to college for graphic design. I graduated with a fine arts degree, then I was able to go into the newspaper field where I did ad creation and page design to help produce weekly local newspapers in my home state of Vermont. It wasn’t until my wife and I had moved to New Hampshire that I started getting into creating comics and doing conventions. Since then, I’ve been able to have steady work with freelance graphic design and independent comic doing interior work as well as covers. Read more>>

Emily Shepard

I’ve always loved making art. I remember the joy of painting in kindergarten, and spending my free time as a child drawing and making small books using paper and a stapler. My Mom was my first drawing teacher, and guided me on the trickier details of perspective when I was stuck. She outfitted me and my sisters with tiny wire bound sketchbooks so we could record what we saw on family vacations. I was also fascinated by hand lettering. After learning cursive in school, I worked to develop my own lively, distinct handwriting. I read “how to” books about calligraphy, and practiced multiple styles of lettering. Read more>>

Tré Hale

I grew up doing musicals and acting on stage. I was always into entertainment. I used to dance privately in my room and then it got out that I actually knew how to dance. Art in general has just always been a part of my life. One night I was up watching Usher perform live with mom, and she said that should be you up there. I was 17. Ever since then, I’ve been in pursuit of making entertainment and creativity my lifestyle. Read more>>

Khushbu Zaveri

Realizing that I wanted to pursue a creative path professionally felt like the natural culmination of a lifelong passion. From an early age, I was drawn to artistic expression—making handmade greeting cards, sketching, and immersing myself in any creative endeavor that sparked joy. What began as a childhood fascination soon turned into small entrepreneurial ventures, from selling handcrafted cards to teaching calligraphy and drawing classes during summer vacations. These early experiences weren’t just about creating; they were about sharing creativity with others and finding fulfillment in bringing joy through art. Read more>>

Anawetha

The first time I knew I wanted to pursue a creative path professionally was in elementary school! We had an assembly in the gym where they invited a steel drumming group with a drum set player. I can vividly remember sitting on the floor directly in front of the drummer. As the groove infused with the rhythm of my own heart, I knew I wanted nothing else in life but to spend my days creating and performing music across the world. I can remember leaning over to one of my classmates and whispering “that’s going to be me up there one day! I’m going to perform music all over the world!”. Read more>>

Sydnee Cooke

When I became a single mom at 21, life felt overwhelming, and I knew I needed to prioritize my health for both myself and my daughter. I turned to Instagram as a creative outlet, posting simple smoothie photos to stay motivated. What started as a personal project quickly grew into something bigger, a passion for food photography, storytelling, and community. Read more>>

Litsie Monier

growing up in France, I was always passionate about dance. grew up dancing but more as a hobby. I went to a few dance schools back there. but one of them was doing competition, so I started to be interested in joining and getting better at it to get price and stuff. thanks to my hard work I started pricing and got French champion. which is the moment I realized I could maybe actually live from it. and then I started auditioning and got accepted to bigger schools, and then companies.. Read more>>

Golnaz Khazei

Since childhood, I was a child who would get lost in my own dreams, creativity, and stories, spending hours each day living in that imaginative world. It went so far that if two people were standing in front of me and my mother later asked, “Golnaz, what color was that man’s shirt?” I would confidently and firmly tell her that I hadn’t seen any man at all. This was why my mother decided to enroll me in music classes at the age of nine, hoping it might help me pay more attention to the real world and develop focus. Of course, it started there, but the philosophy that formed in my mind at the age of fifteen ultimately defined my path in art. Read more>>

Julia Andrade

When I was a little girl, I knew I wanted to write stories and help others tell their own. I never jumped on it until I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in December of 2019. I was devastated and felt like everything I had ever envisioned for myself was no longer possible. It wasn’t until I sat at my parent’s kitchen table that my mother looked at me and said, “You have always wanted to be an author; why can’t you do that?” I didn’t have a good answer for her, so I decided to only go after a career and a life I wanted. Read more>>

Suzanne Buckland

In second grade, I had the most amazing art teacher, Ms. Lammers. She told my mom that I had artistic talent but I think my mom already knew it. My mom’s sister was an artist and had encouraged me since I could hold a crayon. My Aunt Dorothy always gave me gifts of paint and paper, paint-by-number kits, and things like that. I must have been about ten when she gave me my first oil paint set. I found a huge piece of cardboard in the basement of our house and painted a big tree. My cousin saw it and gave me twenty dollars for it. I couldn’t believe it. I had been saving money for a bike, so the occasion was quite memorable. I knew I wanted to be an artist right then and there. It’s been a very long journey from then until now but well worth it. I’m very happy when I’m creating. Read more>>

T.k. Toppin

I’ve always been artistic/creative, scribbling and doodling wherever and whenever (behind doors, walls, under tables, in my mother’s magazines). But my formal training wasn’t in the arts or even creative writing, even though I did well in those areas. I’d wanted to be a veterinarian, though the amount of time needed to study for that made my brain falter, so I switched to management studies, specifically in the hotel/hospitality sector. It was during the time after I’d finished my studies, whilst searching for employment in that field, that I turned to art. Read more>>

Joe Schmmo

So I have always had the urge to help people; this also is reflected with my main job. So I have had people around me telling me that I should make YouTube videos, and so on. So one day I decided to just to it by making educational videos on Manga and Anime. I have always had this passion to help via education or by making people laugh. So If I had started sooner, I would have a wider reach to do more charity work as well as reach out to more people. I do not regret when I started though. I have made ALOT of close life friends through doing this. Read more>>