Often there is no book or course to learn how to do what you want to do – so how artists and creatives overcome such challenges? How have some of the most talented artists and creatives in the community managed to learn their craft?

Kelly Money

I always loved painting and being creative. Determined to pursue it, I went to art school and graduated with a bachelor of fine art majoring in Painting from Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University. That said, I still spent many years after graduation taking classes with various instructors and enrolling in different schools and workshops. Read more>>

Alex Lambert

I started playing guitar and singing when I was a little boy around 7 or 8 years old. My grand-dad was a country music singer/songwriter and was a huge influence on my early life. He’d show me chords to a song and then give me homework to learn the song all the way through so I could play it for the family. When I got into my teens I began using tabs online to learn new songs/riffs. Read more>>

Katin Pesarillo

When I first started photography, I had no intentions of it being my job and career. But, I love what I do and the people I am able to meet through photography is what keeps me wanting more out of it. When I first started using a camera in highschool, I never took any classes or anything like that. I would always watch youtube videos and then I would call up one of my friends to shoot. The biggest thing in my opinion that I could have done more, was to shoot more. Read more>>

Biviana Franco

I started my schooling in Colombia and finished at AIU in Atlanta with a Bachelors in Fashion Design. Afterwards, I studied under Chris diDomizio for 5 years with a focus on classical art. But really, I have had a passion for art and design my entire life. Experiencing art as a way to process life is what inspired me to use my skills to bring Arts in Health programs to cancer patients. In addition to my background in art, I found it necessary to invest in learning the use of arts to support patients’ well-being and mental health, so I completed several Arts in Health certifications. Read more>>

Theia Zo

At some point as a creative, you begin to practice the deep art of being a constant student to the vast knowledge available in this world. There were a few key things I learned which gave me the opportunity to integrate all different types of art, thus becoming a Renaissance woman of sorts. Read more>>

Kyle Fedasiuk

I started creating self-portraits as a way to practice self-expression. During the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, I decided I needed a new outlet. Being a nursing student during the midst of a global adjustment had been challenging. After class one day I decided to purchase my first camera from Walmart. It was a cheap old thing, but I was persistent. I shot for hours in my hot garage on Arizona summer days and I realized I found a passion. To this day I still shoot in my downtime between classes and my other professions and work. I find it the perfect creative outlet for me. Read more>>

Lea Caprice

I studied fashion very closely from a young age and learned a lot about the industry through magazines, books, television shows and movies. I studied videos on YouTube and learned the walk and how to pose. I practiced all the time. Each shoot taught me more about my craft and I learned more from every job that I booked, every client that I met and every place that I’ve traveled to. It’s not an easy industry. I faced rejection countless times. If I didn’t have thick skin, I would probably have given up on this career early on. Read more>>

Devika Blasi

Do not be afraid of what you do not know. What I did know: How to sew. What I didn’t know: How to shape a hat, how to cut glass, how to remodel a vintage trailer, how to make jewelry, how to grout. Yet I’ve done it all. The list of what I don’t know, was and always will be longer than what I do know. My grandparents owned a menswear shop and my grandmother did all of the alterations. I spent many hours with her learning the art of being a seamstress. Read more>>

Mia Scornavacca

My acting career started with improv training in Miami. I graduated from Just the Funny Theater in 2008 and performed in the cast for about eight years on and off. I really enjoyed performing in front of a live audience and hearing the laughter while on stage. Improv taught me acting basics such as listening and being in the moment. It also gave me tons of self-confidence. Read more>>

Angelo David Russo

My shift from being a painter to a mixed media artist happened in university where I was encouraged to experiment with materials and techniques in an innovative way. Many of my techniques are the result of of a playful approach to experimenting with materials combined with thorough research of pre-existing techniques used by other mixed media artists. The most significant skill in my arsenal has been the tape-resist technique which gives my layered work their signature look. Read more>>

Elvis Alvarez

I’ve begun learning photography when I was in my freshman year of college at the University of Houston. Back then, I didn’t had any money to afford a camera so I used my old Samsung Galaxy phone to learn the basic guidelines like adjusting the shutter speed and iso, adjusting the focus to get a sharper image, composition, etc. Whenever I had free time from my studying or classes, I would usually wander around the UH campus to take some pictures and learn some techniques from some YouTube videos between my session. Read more>>

Kenny Eng

As a musician, I consider myself to be self-taught on the guitar and singing though I have to give credit to my parents (my mom, in particular) for “forcing” me to learn how to play the piano at a very early age. I had four piano teachers over the course of about 10 years and then I went to college and studied Political Science and Music Theory and Composition, which all served as a foundation of what I do now. The piano and ear-training I did when I was young is essential to me being able to learn songs very quickly and the music theory and technical study allowed me to be able to anticipate where songs might go, Read more>>

Danny Green

I first started taking piano lessons at the age of five. I quit around the age of twelve and began teaching myself by ear off of recordings. It wasn’t until college that I began formally studying music again. I became a music major in my third quarter as a freshman at UCSD. There, I studied both classical and jazz piano as well as music theory and a whole host of other music-related subjects. I was extremely fortunate to study privately with Kamau Kenyatta. Prior to studying with him, everything I knew about playing jazz was based on what I could learn from recordings. Read more>>

DeJuan Boyd

How did you learn to do what you do? Wow…very good question. It wasn’t until I was older is when I realized I’ve been doing everything wrong…Lol. When you’re younger you just want to do what you see other people do who inspire you but there’s no manual so you create in your mind that there must be some type of official structure, protocol and/or outline to follow…only if we knew whatever & wherever that lives, right?..Lol.As a small child I learned the notes on my aunt’s toy air organ that had been stored in a hall closet at my grandmother’s house. Read more>>

Katie Styles

My journey in becoming a creative started way back in high school when I was on my school’s newspaper staff as a page designer. This is where I first started using the adobe suite, primarily InDesign and Photoshop. When I was preparing for college I then realized I wanted to major in graphic design instead of journalism. I loved the designing part of it rather than the writing. I wish I had honed in on my illustration and hand lettering skills at an earlier age but that didn’t happen until I was in college and took my first typography and illustrator class. Read more>>

Hannah May Allison

I’ve been singing my whole life, and grew up in a very musical household, so that’s really what got me started on this path towards becoming a songwriter and an artist. I first started writing my own songs when I was a freshman in high school (around 14 years old). I was in choir class, and every year they would put on a show full of original songs all written by students. I decided to try writing a song and I haven’t stopped writing since! Read more>>

LaRONZ MURRAY

I learned what I do now by having a business mentor who taught me how to become more business oriented as a creative. In order to speed up the learning curve, I would have put more concentration into the business aspect at the beginning of my journey. The most essential skills were simply opening up my mind to receive all this newfound knowledge of separating my creative mind from my business mind. Read more>>

Ivy Daugherty

I wish this was a short story, but it’s not. I have been a creative thinker and crafter my whole life. My grandma taught me so many valuable skills as a child including how to sew, how to crochet, play piano and more. My grandma was a very busy woman, she would drag me around to every fleamarket, garage sale, and auction she could find. As a child, I never fully developed the skills she tried to teach me or really cared about going to these places but even still, I think it rooted something inside of me. Read more>>

Brittany Zick

I taught myself much of what i know from mistakes and experiments. Self-learning how to preserve deceased animal remains was not an easy process, and I’d be remiss to day I’m anything of an expert, I consider myself to be a skilled amateur at best. I wish I had the resources available today back then. Trying to get someone to describe spreading a dried butterfly for display in text can be a bit tricky, but a YouTube video is perfect for instruction. Read more>>

Andrea Pro

The urge to create has always been a part of me. From a young age, I was quiet and kept to myself, so it was always easier for me to express myself through drawing, painting, writing, etc. When I realized that it was possible to do these things as a career into adulthood, I was determined to try and do the same. I believe that the best ways of learning are through firsthand experience, consistent practice and making mistakes. Read more>>

Esther Shokair

My passion to create things with florals drove me to spend hours online to research techniques from various florists. However, not having a lot of money to start, I looked to YouTube to learn whatever I could from various florists around the around. I honestly, wouldn’t change how I learned things. Because through trial and error, I gained experience. The one thing I wish I would have done more was to put myself out there to freelance for free for bigger floral designers just to learn more to help speed up my learning process. Read more>>

Alexis King

I learned essentially “modeling” by hands on doing collabs and test shoots with other upcoming photographers at the time, as well as working with local boutiques and taking notes from other models who had been in the industry longer than me on how to move and change poses up and just making them look natural that was the biggest struggle at first for me. Also a big thing that goes into modeling is just knowing the do’s and don’ts of the industry, Read more>>

Quincy Owens

As with every skill, I’ve learned how to do what I do through practice but also, and even more important, by constantly taking risks. And to add clarity to this point I should say that I am always pushing toward a direction where failure is a real option. I’m a true believer in the sense that I believe everything happens as it happens for a reason so I think that my learning process has been neither fast nor slow but an intentional trajectory I have been meant to follow. Read more>>