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

Brian Dickson

I knew that I wanted to be a professional artist since 4 years old. My first canvas was my grandmothers bathroom walls. Art has always been a way for me to speak without using words. I am free when I create, and art has strengthen my problem solving skills, self-awareness, and fuel my passion to increase representation of the black experience. I grew up in a Historically Black neighborhood in Fort Worth called Stop 6. I am a product of FWISD, and I didn’t learn about black artist until High School. I grew longing to see artist that looked like me, and paintings that feature skin the same color as mine. I used to watch a Black sitcom called “Good Times” it aired in the 70s and one of the main characters was a teenage artist named JJ. Read more>>

Motoko Yasue

I would say that the word, ‘professional-artist’ came into my mind the moment in 2012 while getting off the plane at the George Bush Intercontinental airport (IAH) with a suitcase and my life-savings in hand. I quickly realized what a big challenge/decision I had made to leave my home country Japan to study art, giving up many things there including my long professional career in the Tokyo business world. Of course, I had many dreams to be an artist since my childhood. I drew on all the glass windows in my parents’ house with oil pastels when I was 6. My mother was devastated and had to clean up the windows. Read more>>

Muge Li

I started to want to pursue art when I was at school. I would like to spend most of my time on drawings. It lets me become creative and gives me inner peace. I can use my drawings to create a scene or story. One time, I asked myself what do you want to do in the future, I think I heard my heart says to be an artist. Read more>>

Alexia Cracken

Well, it’s funny how life works sometimes. I remember it like it was yesterday, although it’s been years now. I was about Sixteen years old when my mom gave me my first camera. It all started as a hobby, until I took some classes, that’s when I knew I wanted to become a photographer and travel the world with my camera. Read more>>

Sindhu Pillai

It was after my children went off to college I tried few hobbies to fill the void. I felt fortunate to find out how much I enjoyed painting. I kept working until I felt truly satisfied with my paintings. After showing my works at the local galleries, I got opportunities with art fairs. The response from the audience gave me the confidence to pursue the artistic path professionally. Read more>>

Ines Silva

I believe that there are gifts that we are born with and I couldn’t see myself without this one. Since I was a child, colors have attracted me in an intense way, such as drawing, cutting, photography, art in all forms. And when it’s such an intense thing, I think I automatically understood that this would be my path, without a doubt. My father always awakened my creative side, as he is one too, and this support was essential to “nurture this gift”. I have memories as a child of him drawing me animals & persons and I creating the clothes and colors, and cutting socks to make dresses for dolls. Read more>>

Kayla Aalia

I guess the moment I realized I wanted to pursue film professionally was when I was on this kid’s cooking competition show back in Malaysia. I was eleven and wanted nothing more than to be a chef. I know, completely different from what I’m doing now. Crazily enough, I auditioned for the show ‘Chef Cilik’ without realizing it. I didn’t even know it was going to be broadcasted on TV! But the moment I stepped onto the sound stage, surrounded by cameras and the crew, a part of me was more fascinated by everything happening behind the scenes than the actual competition. Read more>>

Charlotte Loukola

The first time I remember saying I wanted to be a violinist was when I was quite young, maybe somewhere around 4th grade or so. Of course this kind of thinking is coming from a child and it hasn’t always stayed so clear to me, but I think I’ve subconsciously always known that I want a more creative career. I’ve never dreamed of a ”regular” 9-5 job, my dreams have always been out of the ordinary. When I was a teenager in high school, I used to play with the thought of becoming a business owner. I still think this is a very cool idea and maybe it will become true sometime later in life, but right now I’m very focused in my musical career. Or maybe later on I’ll combine these two and create some sort of music related business! Read more>>

Jordan Armijo

When I was in high school I can remember most of my friends and classmates knowing what they wanted to be when they were older. For me, that question was way too general because I loved learning new things and was paralyzed with options. When I was really young I would fantasize about playing drums in a band, or being an R&B singer as I would dance around to Usher, Aaliyah, and all the 90’s love songs. I also loved the pop punk era, and the late 90s hip hop, so I went through phases with all of it. Read more>>

Charlie Tripp

I feel as though I have had the desire or dream to chase music professionally since I was about 12 years old, but realistically I did not make the decision until I finished my Junior year of college in 2017. When I was 12 I was in a band with my best friends, and we all had the same dream to go on tour just like our favorite bands did. After a few years, however, the band slowly dissolved and everyone went their separate ways. It was around this time when EDM started making waves through my hometown of Miami, and I attended Ultra Music Festival in 2013 and 2014. Read more>>

Kate Stewart

When I was young I always thought I wanted to be an art teacher but never thought of myself as a professional artist. As I a started making decisions along the way I realized the choices I was making were leading me closer and closer to becoming a professional artist. I started painting dogs and then when I had my son I started painting families. I did some live painting competitions that I really enjoyed too. Then one day I heard about Live Wedding Painting and it really struck me as something I wanted to do. I dove right in and it has been one of the best decisions of my professional career. Read more>>

Amanda Lederle

In 2016, I had no choice but to take time off from working at a large company for my mental health. This was the start of my journey to pursue my artistic and entrepreneurial self. During my time off, I had to take care of my mental wellness and it was then that I recognized that mental health and creativity were two pieces to my life puzzle. I’ve always been an artistic person. I grew up loving arts and crafts and went to school for film studies. Being an artist and supporting artists have always been the foundation of who I am. Flash forward to wanting to help others recognize their artistic selves and their relationship with mental wellness, it became a professional calling. Read more>>

Selly Talley

Well for as long as I can remember, I’ve always had rhythm but i didn’t act on it until I got involved in my high school’s dance program. In that program we would learn the basics as well as the history of various dance styles. We would have to learn a class routine and perform it in front of friends, parents, and classmates every quarter of the school year. Once I graduated high school I got involved with a local dance studio and that’s when I started taking dance more seriously since it was a studio that enters various competitions. Read more>>

V Squad

It’s funny you know? Initially, what started out as a hobby and something fun to do to in my down time, transformed into wanting to learn more about the business side of my craft once I realized I could truly make a living by utilizing by gifts professionally. The moment my full-time job started “getting in the way” of lucrative opportunities, I knew it was time to make a decision. Read more>>

Naima Ramos-Chapman

I first knew I wanted to pursue an artistic path professionally when I was very young. Perhaps in the third grade when I wrote a poem inspired by the film Purple Rain. I remember watching that film and oddly feeling so connected to Prince and what felt to me, to be this longing to be seen that could only be expressed through creative expression. I could watch him perform and see him in the way that his higher power saw fit and I knew I wanted THAT. And yes, I knew this at age eight or nine…I submitted that poem which was a haiku in response to this work of Prince’s and I won. Read more>>

Chris Copen

Since I was a kid, my world has been all about creativity. My everyday adventures were drawing, building Lego, painting, and making music. As I grew into my late teens, the pull of music became stronger, and I had the incredible opportunity to learn from skilled musicians who shared their craft and live stories with me. But the real turning point happened during a trip to New Orleans in 2011. I was just 17, exploring the city’s vibrant streets with my parents, and I discovered a world where people lived and breathed their art daily. Read more>>

Kellen Meyer

I’ve always created so the start of my career is hard to track in that way. I can tell you when I learned to sew. When I learned to knit. When I wrote my first stories tucked in a corner of my room. When I did my first installation. My first underwater photography. My first knit wall sculpture. All of these skills have been led by the intuitive process that is Art and that’s hard to track. I believe that I’ve always been pursuing this path. Though, an important turning point in my career was when I finally committed to having a dedicated space/studio to create within. In doing that, I acknowledged myself as an Artist. As a creative. As a business woman. Read more>>

Devilz Playground

When I was a teenager my father passed of a drug overdose, I didn’t have an outlet. I tried everything to get rid of my depression and anxiety. It wasn’t until I started writing my feelings, that I started to feel some sort of relief. My mom showed me a poem she wrote about him, that I later turned into a song. The song “Struggle” out on all platforms. When I noticed that the songs I wrote impacted people, that my stories were relatable to so many. People have stoped me and said wow, that song made me cry, I felt it so much. And this is what made me realize this is what I want to do professionally. Read more>>

Gabs Samame

My first introduction to the world of creativity was at my brother’s party with his group of friends from clown class. I was fifteen at this point, and I found myself engulfed in curiosity, staring through the window, seeing a diverse group of people having a great time being their vibrant selves. My brother asked me if I wanted to join them, so I entered their realm. After that, I joined clown school, discovered a different meaning of being one, and soon realized my passion for creativity. Read more>>

Imani Williams-Sparks

At the age of 10 is when I knew that pursuing a creative career path was a part of my purpose. At that point in life I had already done things like commercials, magazines, played instruments, gymnastics, and other sports. The first dance class that I took at Price Performing Arts Center made it known to me that there was nothing else I wanted to do professionally than to be a dancer. This was many years before I discovered my love for filmmaking and realized this was something I could do professionally. Read more>>

BalJit Soul

Honestly I knew from a very young age I want to say maybe as young as 7! Since that age maybe even younger I had the mind passion and love for entertainment. I could always sing I’ve always had a unique voice and all day long it’s what I did! I remember every year my siblings and I would make our Christmas lists and unlike any other child mine was always a keyboard!! My parents were shocked the very first time I put that on my list and said “you better play this and you better not have us waste money” I had already known the “Santa” thing … Anyway lol needless to say they came through and I was a very happy soul Christmas morning! Read more>>

Lawrence Youngblood

While I was in prison reforming my life. I was tired of feeling like a loser and just wanted to do something constructive and positive in my life for a chance. And learning I was good at writing and story telling, I realized this was the path my life needed. Read more>>

Ada McCartney

My parents are artists. They owned a studio, Full Spectrum Stained Glass Inc. for over three decades. By the time I got to high school I was deep into marching and concert band, theatre-making, grassroots community organizing, and slam poetry. I knew my professional path would combine art, community, and teaching. The how continues to evolve. Read more>>

Qiuyuhong Lu

I’d say I felt the urge pretty early on in my life. When I was about 10 years old, I was so elated to be able to draw a recognizable cat, I went to my mother and told her I wanted to be an artist. She immediately signed me up for extracurricular art classes. Time fast forward to when I graduated from Boston University with a dual degree in Psychology and Painting, I felt lost about my future as I kept hearing the young me saying they wanted to be an artist, yet my identity as a non-resident alien in the States forced me to deal with other more exigent issues such as visa. Read more>>

Mae Owings

I have always been a maker or DIYer since I was a kid. I used to design and make my own small drawers or organizers using old boxes and cartons for my pencils, crayons, and other school supplies. I loved drawing, coloring, painting, and sketching. I started sewing when I was little and I even finished a huge cross stitch of Hello Kitty when I was in elementary school. I also made friendship bracelets using embroidery threads and paracords. Growing up, if I wasn’t doing my schoolwork, you’d always see me creating something. Read more>

Haig Hovnanian

For this question, I have to go back to April 5th, 2008. I was walking on the boardwalk in Venice Beach, California when I had an epiphany: Get in front of the camera, it could be good for you. As soon as I thought that, a seagull, let’s say, “unloaded” on my face! I took this as a sign of good luck, and the universe saying “good LUCK!” I believe in certain signs that pop up in your life, that was one I could not ignore. Read more>>

Ken Ozuna

When I was younger, I wanted to be a chef. I knew I had the passion and drive to be good at it but before I could commit to culinary school, I fell in love with image capture and had to chose. Working in kitchens and then transitioning to working as a full time photographer has shown me that I made the right choice. Read more>>

Franky Nines

I knew I wanted to pursue a creative and artistic path professionally after stacking a ton of boxes in a shipping truck, doing back-office clock-in work, sweeping floors, and flipping burgers. I was like, “Yo! I love drawing, I love art, and I love design. I think I can make money with this.” I already knew how to take apart websites, and with Photoshop in hand – which I used for street art and graffiti – designing logos kind of came naturally. I didn’t even know what “graphic design” was until after high school. Reading a few books, I learned, “Oh, graffiti is kind of like logo design,” and people will pay you for it. Read more>>

Lauren Cohen

I’ve never known what it meant to not be creative. A story I like to share is the time I was four years old and on a plane going from Mexico to California. The pilot announced on the loudspeaker that it was whale season, so first person who spotted a whale would receive a prize. Without a second thought, I took the clean vomit bag out from the seat back pocket in front of me, drew a whale, pushed the button to alert the flight attendant, and announced that I spotted a whale. The flight crew didn’t really know what to do for my prize, so they ended up taking a pillow case and filling it with bags of peanuts. Read more>>

JD Sisneros

I’ve always wanted to create art. I can remember being in 2nd grade and drawing things that would grab peoples attention. So I would fill all my school notebooks with characters and doodles. I took all the art classes in high school. And then entered art school after that. Once I received my bachelor’s in art I still wasn’t taking art seriously as a career. I was young. Then after starting a family my thoughts began to focus on the future more. It was the end of 2018 when my brother in law commissioned me to paint a canvas for my sister that something clicked in my head. While doing that piece I told myself that this is what I’m going to do for work for the rest of my life. Paint, draw, design, and create. I became focused on art as a career. It is something that I have to get out. It’s therapeutic and rewarding. Read more>>

Jimmy Bowen

My father bought me my first guitar when I was 5 years old. I began learning to play and actually started with my first band when I was 9 years of age. The band would play a local biker type bar actually only a few miles from my childhood home. It was so cool, especially as a kid, because we would play behind chicken wire and fencing because there was always a brawl before the night was over, Anyway, I was actually to young to be in the bar but if you played in the band you could play but had to leave and go out side the bar during the break. W e played this bar twice a week from 9Pm to 1AM and I got paid $10.00 a night. I was the richest 4th grader I knew. (lol) That is when it hit me, “This is cool, I can make at living at this”. The rest is so called history, Read more>>

Aliyah Salmon

Wanting to be an artist is the easy part, but finding the courage to actually pursue it wholeheartedly is the real challenge. There have been so many moments where it’s felt like the most foolish decision of my life, and running towards it instead of away from it is a choice every single day. Before my Target collaboration, I really struggled with the concept of “making it work” but every now and then you’ll have a big win or project that makes you realize it would be silly to do anything besides this. In the end you have to validate yourself and be okay with your decisions, but the rewards that come with choosing your passion really help keep you motivated. Read more>>

Shwesmo

Music has been around me and I was around it starting very early on in my life. I was sent to learn piano at the age of 6, and although I don’t remember really loving the lessons themselves, I already started taking the simple things I’ve learned and writing funny songs with my sister, Later on when I was 12 I picked up the guitar and knew that this would be my instrument. Fell in love and couldn’t leave it for a moment. I spent 6-8 hours a day practicing, composing, and diving as deep as I could into this endless world of music, which really felt like offered no limits. I think somewhere there as a teenager was the moment that I felt like I wouldn’t do anything else in my life, it almost felt like I didn’t even have a choice, and it was a great feeling. Read more>>

Bianca Love

I was always a singer, since I was a baby. As soon as I learned how to speak, I was singing at school and for my family. By the 5th grade, I was invested in choir class more than anything else – I learned Motown, Blues, and Soul through school and I saw myself as a professional singer in the future. I subsequently entered a number of talent competitions, often losing. I kept practicing, learning about music, and learning from my teachers and peers in New Orleans. Read more>>

Lia Corbitt

I think I first considered a creative path professionally when I was in middle school. During my middle school years, I was introduced to drama and orchestra. I began playing the violin and harp in the 6th grade and took my first theatre class. I enjoyed both, but initially I thought my future would be with an orchestra. It wasn’t until about midway through the 7th grade that I began to really embrace theatre and I decided that I wanted to do more. Read more>>

Liz Samora

Music has always been an outlet for me in many ways. It is something I know I can always turn to when I feel like I have nowhere to go. For as long as I can remember I was always singing. In the car, down the hallways at school, and by myself. Growing up I was exposed to a lot of different types of music and was always drawn to the complex world of rock and metal. The first time I found myself on a stage as a vocalist I was 12 years old in a band with my older brother. From that point going forward I was hooked. I knew in that moment that I had just filled a piece of my soul that had been missing. Finally allowing myself to let my voice loose and project my emotions to the world without any boundaries is when I first knew that I wanted to take a creative path in music. Read more>>

Chanel Brenner

I started writing poetry when my older son, Riley, died of a brain AVM hemorrhage at age six. The night he died, standing in my kitchen, I heard a voice in my head say, write. Instead of screaming and pulling my hair out, I sat down at my computer and started to write a poem. It was only the fifth poem I’ve ever written. It wasn’t good, but writing it was—the act of creating instead of destroying. Read more>>

Ellis Zhixuan Yu

I started my creative journey even before learning how to write. As the only art kid in the family, I was granted the freedom to explore the world of art and design without any limitations. Since kindergarten, I have joined various art classes to manifest the foundations of painting but later discovered my true passion was actually design. During high school, after several years of classical painting training, I came to realize how much I loved putting analytic and systematic thinking into the creative field, and graphic design was the one discipline that offered all the puzzles I was eager to piece together. Read more>>

TESSA BELL

I wrote my first play when I was seven. I had ulterior motives. My young heart was in love with a boy from school. I knew if I wrote a play in which I ran away with him, he would be mine in real life as well. The play was a success both commercially – all the parents bought tickets and the production costs were free, and personally – I got to kiss my love and we became known as the Richard Burton/Elizabeth Taylor of the younger set. After that, seriously, what other career would I have chosen? Read more>>

Darrell Rivera

i knew i wanted to become a professional dancer when i felt how good it feels personally. dancing gives me so much emotional passion where i can express myself freely. Read more>>

Blair Borax

In 2016, after I had just moved to Portland, Oregon, the city I’ve called home for 8 years now, my roommate gifted me a cheap old guitar. Since I was an AmeriCorps member living on a very modest at the time, I was very happy to have a new hobby that wouldn’t cost me money. So, I began teaching myself how to play my favorite songs, just for fun. Soon after, a dear friend and talented musician, Michael Wilbur of Moon Hooch, suggested that I try to write my own song. While, at first I found the suggestion unfathomable, I eventually decided to give it a try. From the very first go, I found such catharsis in the act of transforming raw emotion into song, and I was hooked. Read more>>

Debbie Korbel

For me, becoming an artist wasn’t a clear-cut objective; it was more like putting a frog into a pot of water that is slowly being brought to a boil—except instead of a disastrous outcome, I became a professional artist—and it seemed to happen so gradually I didn’t realize I had been “cooked.” I suppose in retrospect, I should have seen where I was headed, but in all honesty, I didn’t. Read more>>

Anna McKeown

I’ve always been a very expressive person and, honestly I’ve always been a big ham. I grew up the oldest in a big family and in that environment you had to shout to be heard. So since childhood I’ve been searching for ways to share my point of view. My maternal grandmother taught me how to embroider when I was around eight-years-old and I loved making my own patterns and embroidering words onto anything and everything. Read more>>

Brad Mercer

I get this question asked of me many times. I come from a show business family. my mom and dad did a lot of musicals and motion pictures as well as some of the “Babes” pictures with Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland. I made my first television appearance on live TV when I was five years old by picking my nose on live TV in Los Angeles. From that point on, I was hooked! The real turning point was in 1964 when I saw The Beatles for the first time and thought, “That really looks like a fun job!” So, my parents bought me my first real guitar and off I went! Read more>>

Mi Chen

My passion for pursuing an artistic path professionally started at a young age. I recall my initial connection with art stemming from a unique circumstance. During my childhood, I was constantly sick which kept me away from school. Struggling to keep up with kindergarten lessons, the school often had to contact my mother and send me home. It was during this period that my mother stumbled upon an art studio, which became a haven for me. This studio not only welcomed my presence but also allowed me to spend entire days there, nurturing my interest in art. This marked the beginning of my profound journey into the world of creativity. Read more>>

Michael Sun Lee

It was back in College when I had to take acting classes in order to get my grades up. I was failing and a counselor suggested I take a class I would enjoy so I took an acting class. Then, I started auditioning for theater and doing college musicals like “West Side Story”, “Leader Of The Pack” etc… (My GPA went up and I was able to finish College. Graduating College was the hardest thing I have ever done.) After that, I moved to Los Angeles, and 20 years later I am still pursuing this professional creative path. Read more>>

sana hafeez

I first knew I wanted to pursue a creative career in makeup and hair thanks to my mother. She was a talented makeup artist when I was growing up, and I loved watching her work her magic. As a little girl, I would sit fascinated in her makeup chair as she transformed women’s faces before big nights out. The way she could use cosmetics to accentuate her clients’ natural beauty was like art to me. Read more>>