Do you remember the moment you realized what you wanted to do professionally? Was it magic? Was it scary? We wanted to hear from some of the most talented artists and creatives in the community and so we asked them to tell us the story of the moment when they knew they were going to pursue a creative career path.

Titania Hunter

My journey as an artist began at a young age, in elementary school. I often was found creating colored pencil drawings. My first art experience started in high school when I had an opportunity to display my work. I obtained a 2017 Congressional Art Certificate, signed by a U.S. Representative, Richard Hudson. Read more>>

Natasha Myrick

I knew very early on in my life that I wanted to pursue a creative path professionally. As a young child, I tried many different extra curricular activities such as puppetry, Tae Kwon Do, dance, baton twirling, basketball, softball, etc. Nothing I tried would “stick” or become my “thing”. I grew up watching old movie musicals. I would sing along to every single song, and watch and sing on repeat. Read more>>

Blair Woods

So I’ve been musically involved since I was really young. My grandfather was also a singer/songwriter, vocally similar to Bob Dylan. My grandmother also played piano and between the two of them, taught me how to play and sing. My parents both played instruments in school and all of my uncles played in bands at some point. So it shouldn’t have shocked anyone when I stayed in choral and drama programs throughout school. Read more>>

John Harrington

I think it happened when I first shot for a magazine back in 2018. I did the photoshoot for Emerald Coast Magazine and one of the images was a double truck in the magazine, seeing my image spread across both pages with the copy and text made me so excited. Eventually more and more assignments were given to me and I realized I was hooked on the process of producing the photoshoot, shooting it, and then seeing it physically. I was hooked from there on. Read more>>

Erin Hupp

I’ve been working with clay for 26 years; but it was 6 years ago that I made the creative leap to pursue it professionally and I’ve never looked back. I fell in love with the wheel in high school, and my passion grew in college. Those early years were transformative. Ceramics is a beautiful teacher and it taught me about letting go and having patience with myself. It was the beginning of a lifelong passion. Read more>>

Issac Alford

Growing up, in my high school years, I did not know what I wanted to do so I enrolled in Video Productions for my elective. I first thought it would be boring because it was bookwork and very repetitive until we started using a tiny film camera to make commercials and other projects. I soon realized it piqued my interest so I continued to take video productions for the last three duration years of high school. Read more>>

Kellie Swanson

I always knew I would work a creative job however I never thought I’d run my own business. I’ve been creative since I was a kid and through college, it was my dream to make photography and art my full-time job but after graduation, I didn’t really know how to make it happen. My clothing brand was my side hustle during covid until I realized I could make a full-time living wage doing it. Starting a business ended up coming naturally to me, as it’s a nice blend of all of my skills. Read more>>

Samantha Henderson

In 2017 I was struggling with my health. I suffer from chronic migraines with aura. Also at that time I was having a serious hip issue and ended up needing multiple surgeries. Since them I’ve come to learn I’m also autistic, which exacerbates my high anxiety. At that time though I didn’t know and my mental health definitely took a downward spiral after no longer being able to work a typical job. Read more>>

Calicho Arevalo

While I was working on design buildings I found a word full of rules and even when my imagination was with a lot of desire factors as budget and materialization was always a limit for how far you can go. the Art appears as my natural passion because I could feel freedom for design and develop any piece of art without limits. Read more>>

Tiffany Mathias

I have always been told that I should be a writer. I have a very creative and vivid imagination. I pay extra attention to the details in a story. I love storytelling. However, like most people, I allowed fear and insecurity to overshadow my work. So, I kept my writings to myself. Read more>>

Christina Morrison

I knew I wanted to be an artist as a very young child. My dad was the practical sort and discouraged me from following my heart where it wanted to go. “It’s great for a hobby!” I remember him telling me. It was not until I met and married my partner who asked with authenticity: “WHY aren’t you doing art as a career?” that I began to follow through on the desire that had been squelched for years. As an adult I realized that being an artist wasn’t just something that I wanted to do, it was who I wanted to be. Read more>>

Xavien Jackson

When I was way younger to be honest. I used to watch Ebert and Roeper discuss film all the time so that always had me interested in movies most people didn’t care about like watching “The legend of bagger Vance” at 9 years old. As far as podcasting goes people kept telling me to do it when I’d have controversial takes on Facebook. So I finally made one once I was featured on a close friends. Read more>>

Kang Ma

I view my journey as a gradual process, one that has involved a fair amount of back and forth as I’ve changed my mind about what I want to pursue. As a child, I was inspired to dream of becoming a pop singer/musician after watching a Chinese animated series about high school bands. It was the first time I had ever dreamed of being an artist. I attempted to learn to sing and play multiple instruments, but I struggled to excel in those areas. Read more>>

Michaela Ternasky-Holland

I dropped out of college, for nine months and performed as a dancer on Disney Cruise Line. It was there that I realized the power of immersive and interactive storytelling. Blending this experience with my studies in journalism and film, I began creating my own VR documentaries in 2016, which is how I was hired by TIME to support their LIFE VR initiative. Since then, I have created, directed, produced, and edited over 10 XR non-fiction/social impact-focused projects. Read more>>

Yuanhao Tang

My journey in the art world began in middle school, and it was a transformative experience for my younger self. Art quickly became an escape from the stress and demands of school, where I was not considered a “good student” by most teachers. As I discovered this creative outlet, I eagerly immersed myself in learning more and haven’t stopped since. Read more>>

Kimberly English

When I became interested in art in high school, there was never really this “AHA!” moment – I just couldn’t imagine pursuing anything else. I went to school at Savannah College of Art and Design not knowing what I wanted to major in, but knowing that I needed to be there. I quickly found the Fibers department, at the nudging advice of several of my professors, and soaked up everything like a sponge. Read more>>

Charity Green

I’ve been signing since as early as I can remember. The first time I knew that I wanted to pursue music professionally somewhere around the age of 6-8 . At the time I would sing all day long and listen intensely to artist such as Stevie Wonder, Beyonce, Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson, BeBe and CeCe Winans, and Christina Aguilera. Read more>>

Alexandria Richbourg

During COVID-19, I was working from home for a Tech Company. I’ve always had a natural talent for drawing and there wasn’t much else to do during that time because of quarantine. After a while, my skills started to really improve. I began to find so much joy in art during a time when everything seemed so uncertain and it allowed me the space to dream again. Read more>>

Divante Guest

I’ve never been a very outgoing person. I never thought I would be pursuing a career in music. Let alone be as good as I am at writing and creating songs that people like. I was working on a completely different type of business at the time but I was not happy. I was praying daily to know and understand what my purpose in life was. Read more>>

Chris Emerson

I never thought I could sing, until a girl in my high school told me to try out for the school musical. I thought it would be a good way to make some new friends. I figured they’d learn I couldn’t sing, and make me an extra. I ended up getting the lead role and later became President of the Drama Club. On graduation day, my teacher encouraged me to pursue a career as a pop singer. Read more>>

Daria Endresen

I fell in love with photography the moment I picked up my first DSLR camera, a gift from my father, back in 2007. He used to have his own darkroom and I was so fascinated by the process! Sadly, I didn’t take up film until much later, so in the beginning all my efforts were concentrated on learning digital. Several years down the line, when I felt more or less confident in my work, and opportunities started to roll in, Read more>>

Emily Neville Fisher

Since I was a child, art was always my favorite subject and I was a fine art major in college: studying painting, drawing, jewelry and ceramics. After college I began working with other people’s art, rather than creating my own. I worked in art museums, galleries and auction houses. I went back to school to get my master’s in Arts Administration at NYU while I worked full time at Christie’s Auction House. I felt fulfilled working around art and loved my time at Christie’s. Read more>>

Aubree Overfield

I had been talking about creating a small jewelry business for years. I realized that my job as a social worker in a domestic violence shelter wasn’t going anywhere healthy. I thought to myself “what am I waiting for?”, and I saw it as my opportunity to finally give it a shot. I knew that if I didn’t try it before I found a career in my degree field, I would never open a jewelry shop and would be kicking myself for the rest of my life thinking “what if?” Read more>>

Diamond Dej

Since I was kid, I was always into writing and music. I use to love when my older sister would turn on the radio and we would be singing Kelly Clarkson lyrics to the top of our lungs. I actually started off as a poet. I was a part of a poetry club going up and I just had a love for words and using them to express a lot of the pain and emotions I had bottled up growing up as kid. Read more>>

Aleena Axel

I was freshly 18, living in Los Angeles, and I had multiple people message me claiming to be photographers who wanted to work with me. At the time I was incredibly cautious and a bit paranoid if I’m being honest and I turned them all down in fear of being abducted or something 😂 until one day a photographer named Angel,(profile photo shows a beautiful blonde woman in a red corset) I looked through their photos and I had a great feeling about this one especially because I thought it was a female photographer. Read more>>

Joshua Fair

I was born and raised in rural Indiana. When my dad moved to Hawaii, I decided in my early 20s that I would make the move to the islands. My father had an idea to do live streaming for weddings (this is 2004) even though YouTube wasn’t even around and it was a primitive technology. After succeeding in that area for 5 years, I founded my own company in 2009 specifically focusing on weddings and the creative aspects of telling stories through that medium. Read more>>

Christian Cook

I knew I wanted to explore a creative path professionally since I was in elementary school. Any time the class would get asked what did you want to be when they grew up, everyone would answer confidently with responses like “teacher, firefighter, lawyer, or doctor” and I would pause because I wasn’t quite sure what it would be but I knew it wouldn’t be something like that. Read more>>

Lyn Rangel

Ever since I could hold a crayon to doodle on the napkins at restaurants, I knew I wanted to pursue art as a career. This choice was met with endless comments such as “you should have a backup plan” or “why not a real job”. But as a determined Capricorn does…. I did what I wanted anyways. Read more>>

Brandon Roland

So from high school I started taking arts and graphic arts classes which really ignited my fire to create. So I took art classes as electives I think every year in high school haha. When I wasn’t in school I would doodle and draw on things whether it be spray paint or pen on paper, I literally just wanted to draw cool/funny things. Read more>>

Brianna Carlock

I knew I wanted to pursue a creative path professionally since I was in elementary school. I started off wanting to be an art teacher but then later realized I wanted to do more. My love for Disney was also a big inspiration for wanting to be an artist professionally. I like how the artists made each character and their environment colorful and detailed. I was so inspired to be like those creators one day. Read more>>

Valerie Grossman

I had just graduated from the Cleveland Institute of Art with a BFA in Ceramics. I was working as a barista while teaching a kid’s Ceramics class and interning for a Ceramic artist in exchange for affordable studio space. I had heard about an opportunity through my internship for an artist to apply for a vacant building that would be part of an arts district. I started thinking about this opportunity and what it would look like if I took it over. Read more>>

Maya Kay

Music has been an outlet for me for pretty much my whole life but I didn’t even think about pursuing it professionally until I graduated high school. I have been apart of ensemble music since I was five and playing instruments since I was 8. I did not enjoy performing or playing music until i was a junior in high school, 16 yrs old. Read more>>

Hadlie Jo Pritchard

It was 2020, not only the year of the dreaded PANDEMIC, but also my most challenging year…medically! I was born with a primary immunodeficiency, but was not officially diagnosed until I was 8 years old. My treatment requires weekly plasma infusions. In February of 2020, we had obtained my service dog Lucy, and had traveled out of town to go through training with her. Read more>>

Ashe Thorne

When I was 8 years old, I learned to weld with my grandfather on a 1940 Ford truck. We were replacing a rusted piece of panel with a new panel and I got to tack weld it in. It was so scary and exciting, but oddly I did not pursue welding and metal work until much later in my life. Read more>>

Jena Collins

The days of college—bright, full of opportunity. The sublime first taste of adulthood savored by rolling into English Literature five minutes late and getting called out by your professor for your “continued tardiness”. Fall quarter of my sophomore year, I had the plan to conquer my classes by scheduling more hours than what was recommended, which meant not having any time to fit in an art class. Read more>>