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.

Julio Marín Díaz

I trully believe that art is about ways of understanding a language. Music, as a way of art doesn´t get away of that idea. Understanding this statement is one of the reasons why I think that the musical journey of any artist is based in the non-stop searching of your inner language. Read more>>

Brian Schweiker

I always took pride in myself to being a self-taught freelance photographer. Since I was little, I always been an artistic person. I was an avid drawer, took some classes in video production in high school. Read more>>

Gizem Atalay

My journey into motion design has been a mix of formal education and self-directed learning. And let me tell you, in this field, you’ve gotta keep learning because technology never stands still! Read more>>

Travis Macklem

The first and arguably most important step in the process is to get yourself right. You’ll never be successful or useful to yourself or anyone else if you can’t get yourself under control. Read more>>

Joy Tang

I bought my first sewing machine in 2019 with the intention to turn one of my dresses into a jumpsuit. I thought I could simply cut the dress down the middle and sew up the sides into pants — turns out that didn’t work and I had ruined a perfectly good dress, so I thought I should properly learn how to sew. Read more>>

Strayn

(Urian Medina – Bassist) As a musician, my journey of learning has been multifaceted. I took formal lessons in my youth, a very common starting point for many aspiring musicians. Read more>>

Trey Gordon

I’m eternally grateful for the instructors that I’ve had along the way that have taught me what I needed to know, and I’m especially proud of for myself for casting aside my self-doubt and putting my foot forward. Read more>>

Claribell Nunez

It started off as a hobby I always enjoyed taking photos and uploading them on social media. Content Creation really scaled up for me when I decided to turn it into a revenue stream. Read more>>

Michele Ross

My journey to become the best vocalist, actor, and truly impact people as a performing artist was paved in wins and losses, but they all taught me valuable lessons and lead me to where I am today, I first taught myself how to match pitch at only 6 years old, and by age 14 I was singing opera songs in 5 different languages, thanks to the steadfast mentorship of my secondary school music instructor, Linda Dusenberry. Read more>>

Dr. Roger Leslie

Naivete is one of life’s greatest gifts. At age 13, I felt inspired to become an author. I knew no writers, didn’t have any mentors for it, and didn’t even know how people made a living at it. Read more>>

Anya Labella

It took many years to get where I am today as an artist. I was always around music my whole life. A few of my friends are established artist. So I spent a lot of time watching them perfect their craft. Read more>>

Stan Kowalski

I wanted to become an actor since I remember. Two years ago I had a great opportunity to join the American Academy of dramatic arts in Los Angeles. After first two weeks I realised that I have much more to learn to become a good actor. Read more>>

Samara Jimenez

The training it took for me to become a hairstylist included me going to cosmetology where I had a ton of hands-on training and the opportunity to study all things cosmetology in depth. Read more>>

Nicole Maloof

It’s quite funny how I began using one of the most essential materials to my practice. As someone with Type 1 Diabetes, and a major sweet tooth, I have a complicated relationship with sugar and specifically candy. Read more>>

Luke Fischer

My journey in music, evolving as a songwriter, guitar player and audio engineer has been filled with numerous ups and downs, as I’m sure many musicians can relate to. Read more>>

Loreal Byers

I’ve had an obsession with cameras, both gear + the act of documenting, for as long as I can remember. My parents bought me an iZone camera way back when I was just a little girl and it was truly the best thing ever. Read more>>

Yotam Weiss

I was playing and studying music and sound design since a young age, at school, private lessons, self thought etc’. With both music and sound design I just tried to go through as many instruments and softwares that came across my world. Read more>>

Joe West

I learned to write by reading. Sounds simple, but it takes about a million written words before you begin to develop what others will call your “voice.” Those million words come at a slow trickle. Read more>>

Ellen Durkan

My interest in blacksmithing started while i was in graduate school around 2008 ; while I was getting my MFA in fine arts sculpture. The program had a gas forge and i started paying around with heating metal and manipulating it. Read more>>

Craig De Lorenzo

I learned from seeking out others who were doing what I wanted to do. I sought out teachers who knew something that I didn’t. From a young age, I was lucky to discover that I was passionate about “movie making.” Read more>>

Meagen Svendsen

I was first introduced to ceramics while living and teaching just outside of Tokyo, Japan. My teacher was in the process of opening her own teaching studio, and I had the privilege of working privately with her in the weeks before her space was completed. Read more>>

Don Tassone

I was an English major in college. I wrote for newspapers. And writing was a big part of my long career in the corporate world. But I had a hard time making the transition to creative writing. I’d become a strong business writer, but I needed to learn how to write creatively again. Read more>>

Rakhi Raikar

Being creative, whether it’s writing or painting, has always been a passion of mine since I can remember. Having the ability to take concepts, ideas and visions that I had in my mind and turn them into a beautiful written poem or abstract work of art came effortlessly for me. Read more>>

Ashley Wagner

I credit a lot of my writing know-how to my formal schooling: the grade-school teachers who noticed me filling pages and pages of notebook paper with stories and suggested me for Honors English; the doors that opened up to me in college; those educators who supported me to graduate school and beyond. Read more>>

Jennifer Stroup

I first started Disneybounding (creating Disney character-inspired outfits) in 2015 after discovering the hashtag on Instagram. I saw other people dressing up in the Disney parks and I knew I wanted to do it too! Read more>>

Ralph LaGuerre

I learn by being part of the experience. Put my hands in the mud I need to be immersed in what I am learning, whether I am in the physical spaces or just deep diving on the internet. Read more>>

Jerry Cunningham

One day in my freshman year of high school, I was inspired to pick up a pencil and start drawing. The person who inspired me- may they rest in piece, is the departed Akira Toriyama. Read more>>

Florapa

I learnt the craft through the years, almost 11 years ago I fell in love with pottery. I don’t believe in speeding up or saving time, I think there is no time when in learning crafts. Read more>>

Sara Gonzalez

My artistic journey began with abstract landscapes on paper, brought to life through the fluidity of watercolors. Gradually, my canvas expanded, , as I transitioned to crafting abstract seascapes on larger canvases. Read more>>

Mike Larson

A couple of us have been writing songs for 20 years. That process has changed significantly in that amount of time. There’s really no better teacher than time and failure. Read more>>

Amara Hark-Weber

I began learning how to make shoes more than a decade ago, and I will always be learning. Because there are no schools that taught the skills that I wanted to learn, I found a more experienced maker to teach me. Read more>>

Lori Rhodes

Sometimes not having a plan is the best possible plan. I had long enjoyed looking at works of art and trying to figure out “How did they make this? What techniques did they use? Read more>>

Gabriel Da Silva

I consider myself a self-taught artist, my knowledge about art history and techniques came from reading magazines at the newsstand in my neighborhood (I never bought the magazines, just read them in the place and left), so I had to run straight home and put into practice before I forgot what I just read about anatomy or whatever I’ve read that day. Read more>>

Kshitij Kapil

I learned a lot when I first moved here. My Bachelor was very much focused on history and learning different kinds of art forms with an ephasis on film, but even then, it was more so catered to writing and directing, and I always was more technical and cinematography-focused. Read more>>

Mariela Bastidas

Enrolling in a local photography school in Miami in 2022 was the first step in my photography journey. There, I gained both fundamental and advanced skills, laying a sturdy foundation for my passion. Read more>>

Randall Lane

I learned to write by . . . wait for it . . . writing. I just had an idea one day and decided to do something about it. It was a gnawing that wouldn’t go away. Read more>>

Ysa Fernandez

I fell into the world of music production in college, when I walked into the wrong classroom and it ended up being a full recording studio. I was going to College at Daytona State, in Florida for my AA at the time, and absolutely loved to sing and play guitar, but I didn’t think I could make a career out of it. Read more>>

Tendai Morris

The Hair Whisperer: Tendai Morris’s Journey to Natural Hair Empowerment In the vibrant world of hairstyling, there exists a luminary whose journey is as inspiring as her creations—Tendai Morris, fondly known as the Hair Whisperer. Read more>>

Audra Verona Lambert

Curating is difficult to define precisely, but easy to understand in the context of what we see when we go into an art exhibit. These presentations of art are often in museums, institutions, community spaces or in private collections, where artwork is presented to us in a particular way to create a narrative or offer new insights into the unique works presented on view. Read more>>

Leah Cunningham

My journey into the world of fabrication began at a workshop in Boston back in 2012, where I delved into the art of silversmithing. However, it was during the challenging times of the pandemic that I found myself drawn deeper into the craft, specifically towards Lost Wax Casting. Read more>>