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

David Key

Actually I was fairly young when I came to the realization that I just wanted to be an artist. At a very young age I was fascinated by dinosaurs and fossils and after reading a book on Paleontology This book was illustrated with these superb drawings of the fossil digs and the artist would draw the excavation site and the fossils as they were unearthed and my little keen brain said to itself “Aha! I can combine the best of 2 worlds and do this in the future when I’m older!” In the meantime I drew dinosaurs and spacecraft and the Civil War and WW2. Read more>>

Mackenna Dugan

Growing up, I was always obsessed with cameras. In front of them and behind them, cameras always fascinated me. I loved reliving moments through photos and preserving time in photographs. I’m nostalgic as they come.

Because my parents couldn’t afford to get me a DSLR (professional grade camera) in High School, I adopted the belief system that it was too late for me. A few of my friends had already had professional gear and were experimenting with photoshoots, so I let the passion dim and focused on other things. Read more>>

Trevor Jarland

Got me interested in tattooing was when I was 11 years old I was watching TV and I can’t remember what the car show was called but somebody airbrushed a really cool pharaoh head on the hood of a classic car and I thought that’s really cool then the following show that came on was Miami Inc. and somebody tattooed something similar to it and right then and there was when I decided I want to Tattoo when I am older. Read more>>

Greed, The Artist

Ever since I was a little kid, I’ve always been fascinated with art. I would draw all the time, trying to learn how to draw my favorite video game characters at the time, or doodle in general. Then I learned about Leonardo Da Vinci. I was fascinated with his paintings. I wanted to grow up and paint just like him. But then I found anime. My 13-year-old self was amazed at how there were so many other stories that were being told with all this outstanding art. Ever since I’ve found my path, I want to chase it into the distant future, creating art along the way. Read more>>

Jevyn Lester

I began playing in an acoustic duo with a kid I knew – he sang and I played guitar. This was just before Covid. He and I would play bars and private parties all around Oklahoma. I was just 16 years old when I knew without a shadow of a doubt I wanted to pursue music as a career. Read more>>

Amy Ward

When I graduated high school, and I was considering going to college, I asked myself, “If I get done with school and can’t find a job in the field I pursued, what would give me enrichment that would be valuable regardless of if I make money at it?” Art was the obvious area of study that would be enjoyable and that I would love to spend time learning more about regardless. I had been doing clay sculpture, ceramics, painting and drawing since I was 11 years old. As I took the steps to study Fine Art at Portland State University, I was exposed to an artist that had recently finished a Tattoo apprenticeship. Read more>>

Kat Robinson

Ever since I was a child, I always preferred artistic outlets over the more fundamental learning such as math and science. I was obsessed with music, literature, paintings, sculptures, etc. I think I landed on photography because my mom was always taking photos of me and other things when I was a child. I always loved taking photos of nature and such, but don’t think I truly felt I wanted to pursue a creative path until the pandemic hit. People all around were losing their lives, and I felt that if I was going to pass on, I wanted to at least do something meaningful to me. From that point on, I refined my photography skills and set on a path to fulfill my dreams. Read more>>

Dayeon Jang

When I was six, I was watching a violinist playing the violin on TV. When I watched him playing, I felt a strong connection with the violin and was entirely mesmerized, wanting to learn how to play and be able to relive the moment that I witnessed as a child. For Christmas, my parents bought me a toy violin, and since then, the idea of being alongside a violin has never changed. Read more>>

Daun Suh

There was an impressionist wall calendar in my bedroom when I was little. I flipped the calendar everyday to see the paintings by Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, and Pierre Auguste Renoir. Even though they were printed, soft edges, visible brushstrokes and emphasis on light and color are still enough to appreciate them. I felt like I was standing inside the paintings, basking in the sun and breathing in the fresh air. The luminous colors and undefined lines drew me into the enchanting scene. That was the moment I knew I wanted to be an artist. Read more>>

Mary Soul

The first time I performed on stage with an acoustic guitar was when I knew! I was 12 when I was inspired to learn acoustic, I love the calming atmosphere that acoustic instruments create and I wanted to be able to create it as well. It was quite the journey of learning but I remember shaking when I was finally confident enough to step on stage and perform solo with my newly learned beginner chords! As nervous as I was the stage still gave me comfort and it allowed me to invite the crowd into a musical connection. I stepped down with a racing heart but I immediately knew I was going to be returning sooner than later! Read more>>

Maria Rogers

My intentions were never to become a photographer. I always thought I’d be a nurse. Growing up with kidney disease and being in and out of hospitals made me want to help people especially children, Just like they had helped me. I became a medical assistant working with children all while going to school for nursing… and then life happened. Read more>>

Brian

To say that my path as an artist has been a long and winding road would be an understatement of epic proportions. I started performing at a very young age, always being the first to jump up and volunteer for any school productions as early as second grade. I remember my very first lines as a performer, which were uttered while acting in a children’s production of select scenes from Shakespeare, As I stood onstage and recited the words, “boil, boil, toil and trouble,” as one of the three witches in MacBeth, I knew that I had found something which I truly loved to do. Read more>>

Roderick Martin

I wanted to reach out and network and stay connected and collaborate whether it’s for Filmmaking or creating media content. Read more>> 

Sandra Vucicevic

I’ve always felt destined to be an artist. From the moment I could hold a pencil, I was sketching, painting, and turning wild ideas into various creations. My work often surprised people—even as a child, they doubted I was the artist behind it because it seemed too advanced for someone my age. Though no one in my family was a visual artist, I grew up immersed in creativity. My father was a poet, my brother a musician, and our home buzzed with fascinating minds and soulful conversations. I’d attend poetry evenings with my dad, meeting artists and dreamers who left lasting impressions on me. Those early memories etched the idea of a creative life deep into my identity. Read more>>

PAT STONE

For me, music has always been a part of my life and I’ve had a passion for it since I was very young. I remember being like 5 years old banging on drum sets and strumming nonsense on the guitar but I knew I had fun with it. Rap had always been around me with my mom playing Tupac, DMX, and BIG but she also played RNB like Boyz II Men and Jodeci which let me appreciate more melodic songs. With all that in mind, I started finding my own favorite artists people like Kendrick, Isaiah Rashad, and Mac Miller which influence the way I make music today. Read more>>

Qiren Lu

When I was four years old, my parents bought me a piano. At first, I thought of it as a punishment; I would have to spend a great deal of time practicing, instead of playing with my friends. This situation continued for a few years and I felt very frustrated. One day, after practicing the piano, I was suddenly struck by an idea: I had always been playing the work of other composers. Why couldn’t I compose my own music for other musicians? At the age of 11, I began composing music for the piano, which I found far more fulfilling than simply playing piano music written by other composers. This did not mean that I had lost my interest in the music of other classical composers. On the contrary, my love for composers like Beethoven, Schubert, Bartok and Copland increased over time. My mother noticed my passion for composition and asked me if I had an interest in pursuing composition instead of pursuing the path of a pianist. The answer was an unequivocal yes! Read more>>

Rose Trimboli

I’ve always known that I’ve wanted to write and direct movies, ever since I was kid. The earliest film I remember making was after watching the 1997 movie of the year, Babe, for the first time. As soon as the credits rolled, I grabbed my dad’s VHS Camcorder and set out to make the sequel (not knowing there already was one). Read more>>

Richard Franklin

I knew from a very young age that art was my future. I sold my first painting professionally by high school. That led to achieving a college degree in fine art and then finally being able to fulfill a dream of being a full time artist. Read more>>

Nishant

I always had a natural instinct and reaction to music since young. Always had a deep connection to it and I was 9 when I knew I wanted to do that but growing up in the East and a more strict household, I was not able to express myself. My first real turning point is when I was 16 years old. Went to my first concert. It was ‘Slash’ Live in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Where I was born and raised. I was instantly blown away and liberated. Had a sense of calling that night. I have not turned back since. I’ve had the opportunity to even work with some of the band members of ‘GUN’S N’ ROSES’. Read more>>

Albert (Tre) Thomas

Music has always been a part of my life. Growing up, I didn’t realize it at the time, but it shaped how I understood connection and emotion. My parents were always playing CDs around the house—artists like Toni Braxton, Blackstreet, and others filled the home with sound. One memory that’s always stuck with me is them sitting on the couch together, reading the lyrics from the CD booklet of Toni Braxton’s The Heat album, learning those songs word for word or the way they’d sing along to Blackstreet like they were at the concert. Seeing them bond like that–in sync and full of joy–made music feel real, honest, and deeply emotional to me from an early age. Read more>>

Amelia Panico

As a child, I was drawn to the quiet beauty of the natural world. I vividly remember, at ten years old, capturing a photo with my Brownie camera—a dandelion puff illuminated by sunlight. Even then, I instinctively understood that light and subject would become both my lifelong challenge and passion. Read more>>

Michelle Lane

As I was growing up, we always had a pile of records to listen to. Yes, the vinyl kind. I can remember coming home from school and listening to rock music for hours. My favorite bands back then were Kiss and Styx, but I was also deeply enamored by The Carpenters and Jim Croce. By the time I was in middle school, I knew I wanted to play an instrument. I was drawn to the drums, but did not want to be stuck at the back of the stage. I wanted to be in front and sing, so I chose the guitar. Read more>>

Toni Jones

I first knew when I realized that I had an audience that responded to the message I was sharing through creating art. I was a life coach that helped women heal from workaholism, which was a very counter culture message and pursuit. In 2018 is when I prayed for an idea tp help my clients practice well being on the go and an idea to boost my coaching business. I got a download “Affirmation Music”, I googled “Affirmation Music” and the term wasn’t coined n at all and I was like wow I get to do this. I went Los Angeles for a month and wrote 9 songs to represent 9 months it takes a woman to grow a child in her womb. That album was called “Affirmations for the Grown Ass Woman” I wanted women at the push play to start growing the woman of their dreams within themselves. Read more>>

David Marr

In my late teens and early twenties, I was playing electric bass in cover rock bands in the late 70’s, in San Diego clubs and bars. My brother, cousin and I were renting a house together. My brother was listening to a lot of Jazz back then. One day I was in my room practicing, he knocked and said ” I have something I want you to hear.” So, I went out and he put on John Coltrane’s Trane’s Reign. It sounded completely different than anything I was listening to at the time. In one of the tunes there was a Bass solo. The player was Paul Chambers, one of the master Be-Bop players of the Fifties and Sixties. He started to solo and I thought, ” what is that sound?” He was soloing with the bow on the upright bass. Read more>>

Tina Glavan

I knew I wanted to be an artist from the age of eight, inspired by my uncle, Miroslav Barulich. At the time, he was a freelance commercial artist, later evolving into a dedicated watercolorist and wood carver. I followed in his footsteps and enrolled at Parsons School of Design, initially majoring in Illustration. But my interests leaned more toward composition and structure, so I transitioned into the Graphic Design program. Read more>>

Keith McCurdy

I knew I wanted to pursue the life of an artist at a very early age. From the moment I started humming a tune, the moment I saw Nirvana on MTV in the early 90s, and of course, watching my father play in bands, rehearsing with his friends in the basement…he would take me to underground, local clubs to see live music, which was entirely transformative for me. As I got older, the desire to create and pursue this life never truly left me, even when I felt like I had to pretend to be working toward a traditional career path. It has to be a calling, something you can’t live without doing. And it must be pursued with narrow, single-minded drive. You really can’t have a plan B, and there’s no guarantee of “success”, but to create a body of work that you are proud of cannot be taken away, regardless of what fate determines for you. Read more>>

Yvonne Kunz

My father was an artist. Growing up, I watched him work in his studio, which was often our garage (when we had a garage). Sometimes it was an extra room in the house. One time, we had no extra space, so his work station was on top of the washing machine. When I was 8 or so, he earned his MFA at the University of Illinois, Chicago. I remember going to visit his studio in the grad studios. The building was a stereotypical artists’ space: an old warehouse with a freight elevator that opened from the top and bottom. I remember riding up the elevator, arriving at his floor, and upon opening the elevator doors, I remember the smell of oil paint hitting me, hard. It was at that moment that I knew that I wanted to be an artist! That smell was intoxicating. It meant magic and potential. Alchemy. And peering into the studios of his fellow grad students, I saw, for the first time, creative people at work (who weren’t my dad). It felt possible! Read more>>

Tennysen Werttemberger

I never set out to become a metal artist — honestly, I didn’t even know how to weld at first. My husband is the one who taught me. I was curious about it, watching him work, and one day I finally asked him to show me how to use the welder. I had no idea what I was doing, but I was determined to try. Read more>>

JoAnne Lobotsky

When I was 9 years old, I had a wonderful art teacher in school. She must have had us drawing our hands, because I would spend hours at home drawing my left hand in different positions. At the end of the school year she told my mother that I was going to be a artist. I felt so excited! Not sure if my mom was as excited judging by her nervous laugh. However, it wasn’t until college that I knew I needed to be on that path in a serious way. I had considered psychology or sociology and was good at biology. But it just struck me one day, that I was supposed to be on the path of becoming an artist and that it would be a very long time before I could claim that title. Although now I think that was a mistaken understanding of what it is to be an artist. Read more>>

Laura Ballard

Since the second grade, I knew I wanted to be an artist. I loved doing anything creative and would happily spend hours imagining and drawing. It wasn’t until senior year of high school that I was made aware my artistic skills could be turned into a career. I toured a few art schools as well as in-state schools and felt a gravitation towards RMCAD’s illustration program, igniting my passion to hone my design skills.  Read more>>

Andrea Tosten

I entered college as a science major thinking I would be a veterinarian but left unsure about what I wanted to do. It took me four years of undergrad, and a job in veterinary pharmaceutical sales to see I should drop the farce and admit to myself I was interested in art. I took all the studio art classes that the school offered, as the university I attended did not have an art school. I also took a Shakespeare in film class that I thoroughly enjoyed. I joined the Visual Arts Society, too. I learned to hang paintings, I helped out at the campus galleries, and I entered the annual art competition at the suggestion of my painting instructor. I won third place overall with a painting of an eyewash station and got a gift card for art supplies. Read more>>

Dina DeSimone

I knew pretty early on in my life that I wanted to pursue a creative path. I can pinpoint when I knew to two separate events. The first was when I saw “Wicked” original cast (yes I am bragging) on Broadway when I was around 4 years old. It sounds really young to remember anything but if I close my eyes I can still see everything so vividly. I had never seen anything I wanted to do more. Funny enough I did not go to NYC and do the Broadway route because I realized that I was more into commercial dance than theatre dance, even though my Broadway roots run deep. In that same vein, the other pivotal moment I realized I wanted to be an artist was watching So You Think You Can Dance Season 2 (quite frankly the whole season because I mean come on it’s the best one) but specifically the “Ramalama Bang Bang” dance choreographed by Wade Robson. Read more>>

Amy MacHale

My grandfather was a photographer, and in high school, he gifted me his camera. That moment changed everything. I started seeing the world differently — through composition, light, and emotion. From then on, I knew I wanted to pursue a creative path and set my sights on art school. At the University of Arizona, I explored a wide range of mediums and ultimately earned my Bachelor of Fine Arts in Visual Communications. That foundation set the tone for the rest of my journey as an artist. Read more>>

Annabeth Mejia

I went to college to pursue a STEM degree. I thought it would be best for me to pick a smart degree and make a career for myself. When I came to the orientation I realized I would never be happy with this choice. I quickly changed my major to the visual arts. Starting with animation then switching to new media, I really wasn’t sure what I wanted to focus my studies on let alone my life. Half way through college I took my first photography class. I had always been interested in photography and film and had been taking extra classes around this area of study. Read more>>

Ruyi Yuan

I started playing piano when I was four, so music was a part of my life from a very young age. But the real turning point came when I discovered percussion at the age of 12. There was something about the physicality and variety of sounds that instantly drew me in, it felt like I had found my voice in music. Read more>>

Sydney Harris

I had just turned fifteen when I started taking dancing seriously, leaving school with a tutu and a dream. When I had begun homeschooling to pursue ballet full time, I was determined it would be my career for the rest of my life. Each day, I got up at the crack of dawn. I still remember my mom driving me to the studio every day. I would get there at 7am and leave at 10pm, and do it all over the next day. Often, I would come home with blood-stained pointe shoes and battered feet, but it didn’t matter to me. I did all of the ballet kid things- summer intensives, YAGP, Nutcracker (I was the Rat King). I was just starting to get pretty good, and my dreams looked quite reachable. Read more>>

Dario

I was very young when I discovered my passion for the performing arts… Perhaps around 7 or 8 when I moved to NYC from CO. I am so grateful to my family, friends, and mentors for their incredible support through my artistic journey. Although I may not have known exactly what I wanted to do professionally since I was so young, I knew I wanted to dance, be on stage, and be an artist in some capacity. When I was a baby, my parents would play Riverdance on the VHS and I would bang my hands on the high-chair to the beat, so I guess you could say that was one of my first experiences with music and dance! Since then, I have been fortunate enough to perform on Broadway, international tours, dance festivals, TV/Film, and more. Read more>>