Wanting to be an artist or creative is step one. Following through means investing in learning your craft, but we’ve heard from so many aspiring artists and creatives who feel unsure about where to start and so we’re incredibly grateful to the artists and creatives who’ve agreed to share their stories of how they learned their craft.

Manasseh Croft

I grew up singing at home and church with my mother. I later on was inspired by family to stretch my ear and embrace all sound. Eventually, I went on to collaborate with amazing individuals of whom are my friends. My gifts are from God. my skill level is a result of iron sharpening iron. Read more>>

Emiland Kray

I have always been interested in the arts, and my grandparents will brag that they have some of my first drawings of horses framed! It wasn’t until I began taking art seriously in college that I began developing the skills that I cherish today. My first introduction into the book arts field was during my undergraduate program at the University of Nevada, Reno. Within the book arts lab was also a fine press studio called Black Rock Press. This was incredibly important, because as I was just a beginner at the time, I was also exposed to working professionals in the field. This environment helped me visualize and actualize skill-based goals for myself that I knew were valued within the book arts field. Moving forward, much of the skills in the book arts and fine press world are acquired through skill sharing. Read more>>

Holly Lorge

I was always interested in TV and Movies, as a young child. I was one of 4 kids in our family and we grew up around movies my dad played on the Film Projector at our house. He showed us the Three Stooges, Little Rascals, Shirley Temple, Judy Garland musicals and lots of John Wayne movies. I was also hooked on TV shows in the 70s and 80s: Little House on the Prairie, Happy Days, Laverne and Shirley, Mork and Mindy, The Love Boat to name a few. I loved the magic of big characters, big punch lines, big reactions and a new story each week. Read more>>

Michael Sorenson

When I saw a color-changing glass art pipe for the first time at a Grateful Dead show in the early 90’s, I knew immediately that I wanted to be a part of this newly innovative art form. I was just a lost young hippie kid, without a real home, and had come up from an extremely challenging and uniquely detrimental childhood. When I saw this revolutionary little pipe, I knew I had found my North Star and followed it to the Pacific Northwest in hopes of creating something unique and remarkable, to be a part of this burgeoning new community. Read more>>

Nathalia Coppa

Even though I’ve always had an instinct for creating, I had to try out many different things before I felt confident in my creative expression. Growing up I did a little bit of everything like painting, dancing, singing, and playing different instruments. This gave me the room to find different ways to express myself creatively and to get closer to what I really loved doing. Read more>>

Claire Richardson

I learned the craft of winemaking primarily by doing. My first harvest job was at William Chris Vineyards as an intern. A boutique winery, William Chris offered me the opportunity to be involved with all parts of winemaking from the very beginning. In this position I learned cellar work, lab work, and the most important job of them all – cleaning! Eager to learn and to travel, I took advantage of the opportunity to gain work experience overseas through an internship at Marisco Vineyards in Marlborough, New Zealand. My internship at Marisco offered me winemaking experience but on a much larger scale. In the months following, I returned to William Chris for another harvest, and again, I returned to New Zealand to take in more of what Marlborough had to offer. During my second time at Marisco I had the pleasure of working as a laboratory intern. Read more>>

Paris Baillie

On my first course advising day at CalArts I had a meeting with Stephen Chiodo to try to get in to his stop motion performance and directing course. I sheepishly shared that I was nervous to take his class because I’ve never had any “proper training,” and he laughed at me saying most stop motion animators are self taught and I had nothing to be embarrassed or scared about. He was correct. Read more>>

Grace Douglas

I got a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting, which is a degree that winds up being useful no matter your field. You learn practical people skills as an actor that are invaluable, but what that specifically means for me is that I spent four years studying story building. (It sounds cheesy, but stay with me) Working on documentaries and unscripted television is an exercise in mining the best possible story from the available content, which is EXACTLY what you’re taught to do as an actor. The foundations are nearly identical: from making sure that a storyline has a clear beginning, middle, and end, to building tension and finding enough conflict to create compelling drama, these two practices are interchangeable in my mind. And while I don’t think an acting degree is essential to television producing, it’s clear to me that it has helped immensely. Read more>>

Marquesha Mikell

I learned what I do by watching videos, being in Facebook groups, and doing my investigation on what services/products I wanted to offer. Honestly, nothing could have sped up my learning process. What’s most essential is staying open minded to gaining more knowledge on what I do. My only obstacle lol is time management. That was a real sticky part I needed to learn. Read more>>

John Freitag

In comedy, everything has been a learn on my feet experience. From doing my first open-moc, to doing my first paid spot, everything has moved so fast that I have had to learn on the fly. I have been fortunate enough to have plenty of friends and acquaintances who were willing to impart me with some advice as well. I have been fortunate to not have any walls or barriers in my way of learning new things in comedy. Read more>>

CiTeara Dent, Kijuan Wade

Kijuan: ” I began my journey into spirituality back in 2018. I remember seeing one of the main tarot cards, “The Tower”, on social media, and dreaming of it constantly. Which eventually inspired me to purchase my first tarot deck and learn everything I can about tarot. I began doing readings for everyone that would allow me, at my summer job in Southwest Detroit. I became amazed when people would report back the accuracy of the readings after they had unfolded. I also gained a ton of insight into my own journey by being able to connect with the spirits around me. All of this only moved me to want to learn more about Metaphysical Sciences which included, but not limited to, Astrology! Read more>>

Jazz Ponce

The way I learned photography was through trial and error. I started this journey in 2016, and tried my best to learn the basics first: aperture, shutter, and ISO. After a few months, I felt I got the hang of it and started learning more how to edit photos using Adobe Lightroom. Knowing what I know now, I don’t think I would have changed my learning process. You always learn something new in photography, and I feel even though I have been taking photos for 7 years, there is still ALOT to experience with it. Being a photographer, you have to take risks, and what I mean by that is constantly having your finger on the camera button and just shooting what is around you. We all need to find our niche. Once you find what you are passionate about, then everything will come easy to you. Read more>>

Leah McGarry

I took a beginner class at a local shop when I first started decorating cookies, but mostly I learned by watching tutorials online. At the time it was mostly blogs, but now instagram reels are my best learning resource. I’ve also taken online classes for lettering and color theory, which were fascinating and hugely helpful. There are so many aspects of cookie decorating to learn and master. Read more>>

Francis Sills

I knew I wanted to focus on Art from an early age. I was the kid that was always drawing and making things in grade school. I found it very soothing to make art, something that I was good at and came naturally. It also allowed me to live in my own imaginative world, and gave me focus. In college I had some very good teachers and examples of professional artists, and it gave me the confidence that it could be something to make a life’s work out of. Many hours were spent strengthening my skills and learning as much as I could about painting and drawing. Read more>>

Montika AllenAtkinson

The quilting sect is vast consisting of new, traditional, artistic, social justice. and modern. I enjoy the luxury of creating in all areas. I am constantly trying to find a way to create what I envision. Most of the time it’s the fabric that dictates the outcome of my final quilt. When it comes to longarm quilting I tend to create freely and on occasion I use rulers. I love a variety of thread choices to sandwich the quilts together. Because, I have never taken a formal longarm quilting class but have viewed CD’s, videos, study the longarm quilting on quilts in shows or events, I can say I am self-taught. I am constantly reading and studying what others are doing but all the while trying to find ME in the realm of quilting. I don’t want to mimic other quilter’s but focus on my style of expression. Read more>>