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.

Jordan Scott Gaunce

The first time I knew I wanted to pursue a creative path professionally was somewhere between eighth grade and high school. Having a dyslexic brain meant I learned differently and navigated problem-solving from a unique point of view. I saw the world through my own lens, nothing like the Normies. I had the dyslexic advantage. Read More>>

Drai$

I’ve always been a huge music fan and would always love learning the lyrics to every song I would like. But one day a friend of mine in high school made a comment to me about how crazy it was that I could remember so many words to songs in all different genres of music. Read More>>

Troy Hines

I knew that creativity was something I was passionate about at a very young age! My favorite classes in school were Art, Language Arts, Photography, and Personal Fitness. Which are all passions that still carry the same weight & importance in present day as they did during my childhood! Read More>>

Kimberly Terry

I knew from a very young age that I was meant to pursue a creative path. I can remember being in second grade, proudly dressing up as an artist for career day. As a teenager, I would confidently tell people that I was going to become a fashion designer and move to New York. Read More>>

David Oman

I’ve always been into music, I started collecting vinyl and saw there was a big community on instagram who also collected vinyl. I thought of an idea to interview people to talk about collecting vinyl. Then that lead to interviewing singers, bands and influencers. It all just took of from there Read More>

William Norton

I grew up in a military family, and so we moved every 2-4 years. At 8 years old my family moved from Waco, Texas to Japan.The USA was still considered a post war occupying force. Read More>>

Lindsay Wheeler

I guess the title ‘professionally’ hasn’t always been the driving force as to why I wanted to pursue an artistic path. I have naturally been drawn to the arts my entire life, and as I get older, I know I’ll continue on this path no matter where they will lead because it is what I truly love. Read More>>

Alex Bos

I’ve been writing since I was very young. In fact, the first time I was published was through a Scholastic poetry contest when I was in seventh or eighth grade. I wrote a poem called ‘Brown’ and I won my first computer, which I got to have in my bedroom. You have to understand that this was a big deal in the early 2000s. Read More>>

Iggy Aspen

I had started playing piano when I was 12 and immediately fell in love with it. I devoted so much of my time to the piano and knew within the first couple months that I wanted to play music for the rest of my life. When I was that young, however, I expected to find myself in an orchestra performing professionally in the future. Read More>>

Harmonique

(Harmonique is a singing duo with members Tatiana and Gabby. Each member answered this question below.) Tatiana: I started singing when I was in the second grade in my church choir. Read More>>

Jimmy King

The moment I realized I wanted to pursue music as my career is a moment that will never escape my memory. To provide some backstory, I grew up in Stamford, Connecticut, where the arts were a big part of the school system. Read More>>

The Artist ZIAZ

My career as an artist felt like the natural consequence of being a deaf child recovering from hearing restoration surgery with no way to pass the time except through drawing or sleeping. Read More>>

Karlton T. Clay

Growing up I was obsessed with Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Whether it was at school, at church, or in the neighborhood, I would gather my friends together, and we would play Power Rangers by “fighting older kids” as if they were villains. Then, I would come home and write about our adventures. Read More>>

Child King

The first time I knew this was real wasn’t planned I guess. It just happened to me. I had just gotten sober, and out of nowhere I started making music. That sounds silly but it’s true. My parents had a little keyboard in the house and I just started messing around. I didn’t know theory, couldn’t play piano, and didn’t know how to produce. Read More>>

Riggs Anita

Being a creative and a enjoyer of Art and fashion have always been a part of me. My love of ball culture, cosplay ,The Met Gala, known as ‘fashion’s biggest night and my time spent in Rome. All of these elements came together to form the type of event I wanted to produce. Read More>>

Duran Lucio

It truly took until half-way through college for me to discover I could have a future as a creative. I started college as a math major; it was always the one subject in school I could do in my sleep. Read More>>

Loretta Pulwer

I used to sit in my room and just… talk. Not even full sentences. Just sounds. Trying things out. My voice, different tones, weird noises. It sounds a bit insane when I say it like that, but that’s kind of how singing started for me. I didn’t really have a lot of friends back then. I felt out of place most of the time. Read More>>

Maria Cherniske

I have always been a “mover”. My parents signed me up for my first class at a local studio when I was 3. Read More>>

Celeste Robinette

When I was a child, I had music all around me. There was never a time I wasn’t surrounded by music, I’ve always loved it. I wanted a guitar as a child, but I never got one (at that time), instead, I ended up getting a ukulele at one point. Read More>>

Sydney Yeager

I never dreamed that I could actually make art a ‘profession’. I still have a hard time acknowledging that I am a professional , even after 25 years of showing with galleries in Texas. As a child, I loved art, and lived in my own little fantasy world of pictures. Read More>>

John Farris

In 2000 I moved to Humbolt county, Northern California and was Deeply passionate about growing medical marijuana, I absolutely loved gardening and making more money than I knew what to do with..I was living my dream life up until 2008 when I became allergic to the plant, even a vegetative leaf touching my arm would break out in a swollen red rash on my arm.. Read More>>

Daniel David

My Mom was a singer in her dad’s band (my grandfather). My mother had 2 brothers and a sister – all Musicians. My mother’s uncle taught at the Houston Music Conservatory – all of his 8 children were Musicians. I was enthralled by the guitar which my grandfather had bequeathed to me. During this time I attended my cousin’s wedding in Houston, TX. Read More>>

Sophie Hiroko

I have never been one to feel drawn to the boxes that society has placed in front of me, so in a sense I have always known that I would not follow a basic career trajectory. I have always felt a magnetic pull towards the arts, including a fascination with artists that dates back to my very first childhood obsession- Mozart. Read More>>