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.

Felicia Black

I’ve always loved anything creative. Art, in all its glorious forms, has always been a passion of mine. I’ve pursued things like writing, drawing, lettering, the art of cosmetology, wood and paper crafts, music (piano, violin, guitar), and painting. It’s always been something that’s burned brightly inside me. I started my watercolor journey from a dark place in my life. I felt I’d lost myself somewhere along the way. I am so blessed that I was able to set aside some time to try to rediscover my creative spark. Rediscover me. Read more>>

Adam McPhail

When I was 13 years old, I was chosen to perform with B.B. King at the “B.B. King Coming Home to the Delta” Guitar Workshop. I was the youngest participant chosen to perform with him. For over an hour, I got the amazing opportunity to play guitar with B.B. King and listen to his wisdom; not only about music, but about life as well. B.B. King told me that even at my young age, I already played guitar like a professional and that I was destined to play guitar for a living. He encouraged both me and my family to pursue this with all of my ability. Read more>>

Jessica Kirkwood

Honestly, I’ve always knew that I wanted to do something creative with my life from a very young age I just knew I was unique and a “regular’ 9-5 and lifestyle wasn’t the avenue for me. I remember once when I was in kindergarten and being asked what I wanted to be when I grew up and I remember saying ‘I want to be a famous Fashion designer and design clothes for all the important people in the world. Read more>>

Adura

I was reared in church from birth and exposed to music through ministry at a very young age. I joined the children’s choir when I was 10 and it was then I realized I had some sense of vocal ability to offer. I loved singing in the children’s choir and one day mustered up enough nerve to try out for a solo. It was then my creative gene was sparked! As I got older, I started dabbling in writing music and picked up the acoustic guitar for the first time, but it seemed my style of music did not have the best fit in my environment. Read more>>

John Dabla

It wasn’t until around 2015 or so that I began freelance modeling, and it wasn’t until about 2017, that I started taking modeling more seriously. It’s not as that in 2015 that I didn’t take it serious, however, I found myself building my confidence up in the content that I began to create. I started connecting and reaching out to local freelance photographers who were looking for talent and/or, wanting to build up their portfolios. Read more>>

Mher (Max) Khachatryan

I always wanted to share what I like to do, and always been sure of there are many people who like to create but need some help to reach their goals. With the dream in mind, and not much savings I decided to open Cre8sArt School in Fort Lee NJ, www.cre8sart.com. Read more>>

Emma Kosanke

It all started from the time I was a toddler. My mom repeatedly tells the story of how when I was 3 or 4, I grabbed some permanent markers and decided to color the wall. What sounds like a funny anecdote of my childhood was actually a huge clue that I always had a creative itch. Life went on and I went to a middle and high school that didn’t really have art classes, so I took watercolor painting classes every Saturday morning for a few years. Read more>>

Matthew Dancy

I happened to be. working an odd job as a recent college graduate and I ran into a guy that asked me a simple question, “What quality of life is important to you?” “Do you want to have a family?” “Will your career allow you to be involved with your family?” Already having artistic talent and ambitions, this brief conversations helped me realize I wanted to pursue a career that brought me fulfillment while getting paid for my imagination. Read more>>

Donovan Beatty

Seeing the way my favorite artists are able to not only live but thrive on their own merit and artistry has been one of the biggest driving forces in my musical journey. They are able to do the things they love while making more than enough to live and that is a dream I’ve always had Read more>>

Meca Sica

The first time I knew I wanted to pursue a creative path was in 2018. As a cosmetology student, my instructors would set up hair competitions and allow us students to play around with hair coloring or do our makeup on Fridays. From then on, I knew my purpose in the hair industry wasn’t going to be just doing hair as a service, but I’d be working on projects with other like-minded creatives. In December of 2021, Read more>>

Keke The Great

The first time I knew I wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally was when I was 5 years old. I was a bit of a loner and enjoyed entertaining myself first. I started writing poetry first because I needed a way to connect myself to myself through my writing. A few years later the goofball kicked in and I used to drive my mother crazy. She would always tell me to stop being so goofy but who knew that it would work out for me later in life. Read more>>

Marchele Kimbrough

I knew for the first time I wanted to pursue makeup artistry professionally in 2020 after I completed a client and saw her initial reaction to her enhancement. Her reaction meant so much more than an enhancement as she stated how much more beautiful she felt and seeing herself enhanced made her jumpstart the journey back to her old self as she had lost “her” some time ago. From that moment, I knew that I wanted to aid in that same moment with as many people as I possibly could. Read more>>

Karmen Valadez

I have always had a creative mindset, but I knew for sure that I wanted to pursue a career in the arts when I met my high school art teacher, Calvin Banks. I was timid in high school, but I loved art and really felt like I could be myself in his class. It was Mr. Banks that convinced me that I could pursue a career in art. I started off thinking I wanted to be an art teacher like him, Read more>>

Karen Reynolds

Pursuing a creative path had never crossed my mind. I had always gravitated towards math and science as a child, and I ended up practicing as an exercise physiologist after graduate school. Art was never on the table. I despised art classes in school from the very beginning and still remember doing poorly on an art project in elementary school that involved snowmen. If I couldn’t draw a snowman, there was obviously no hope for me artistically. Read more>>

Adara Kay

I’ve always known I wanted to be singing from the time I was 3 years old. I would make up songs and perform them at family gatherings, but the moment I absolutely knew 100% was when Rick Springfield pulled me onstage with him to sing “Don’t Talk to Strangers” as a second grader. Feeling that adrenaline rush at such a young age, I knew I wanted to continue to feel that way! And so my life began to revolve around music. Read more>>

John Giorgio

My family greatly influenced my wanting to pursue a creative path professionally. I grew up in a family of musicians and storytellers, so there was always a lot of support when wanting to do anything creative. Coming from a family with a background in music and entertainment, naturally, I gravitated toward artists and the like. I was in a 7th-grade science class sitting in the front of the class when my teacher brought out the old VCR and TV on the rolling cart and showed the class a parody “music video” that some kids in one of her other classes made for a science project. Read more>>

Eric Dixon

I first knew I wanted to pursue a creative/ artist path when I was six years old. I use to draw in class for myself but then all my classmates started asking me to draw them pictures. I’ve been fortunate enough to know what I wanted to do and what I wanted to become at a young age.. Read more>>

LAV!$H

Growing up, both of my parents were always playing music. My mom was born and raised here so she listened to a lot of 90s R&B and southern rap music, my dad on the other hand was never really a big fan of that southern rap style seeing as he’s from Flatbush, Brooklyn, he always listened to mostly reggae and dancehall but he played a lot of the early New York rap music from the 80s also. Read more>>

Yakira Finkelstein

Funnily enough, I never looked at myself as a creative person. I thought I was meant to go into business and work a 9-5. I’ve always been really good at keeping to a schedule and checking things off the list. When I started creating makeup looks, I never thought it would go somewhere. I wanted to share my art with the world! When I got back from my year abroad that was disrupted by Covid, I started creating again. I discovered that I’m in love with not only makeup but art itself. When I got bored of creating makeup looks I started painting canvases, jackets and hats! Read more>>

Shyla Macaluso

By the time I was 13, I knew I wanted to wanted to pursue a creative and artistic career path. I started getting live performance experience by playing on some local band’s 15-25 minute breaks during their sets. I noticed quickly that the crowds were more engaged with my solo act than the band that was booked that night. I had my first professional gig when I was 14 and fell in love with live performing and seeing how happy I made people with my music. From there I started posting singing videos and went on to sing the national anthem for professional events and soccer games with crowds over 20,000+. Read more>>

Wavie P.

The moment I knew that music was the path for me was when I was a a volunteer counselor for a local summer camp and we had to put on an end of the summer performance. I had to be about 14 years old or so. The older counselor and myself decided we wanted to put on a live show tap performance using some of the pre teens and kids around that age as the main acts. From what I remember, we placed a basketball court on the stage and reenacted the moment of when young guys meets girls at the court. Read more>>

Tiffany Broxton

As far as I can remember I’ve always been creative. My original path was Fashion Design. I enjoyed creating for my doll’s, designing clothes, drawing for them and making things that they could use too feel better. Not that a doll could feel but to me they could and they had to be beautiful.I’ve taken the many opportunities and situations that I’ve been placed in over the years too help carve out the path that’s currently before me. Being a creative, I’m blessed to be able too learn from other’s in order to make things my own. Read more>>

SliKc

The first time I knew I want to be a musician was early on in my life. I grow up singing and later on actually playing instruments. Then as I got older I stopped due to life issues and finding my way. Then that one day I join my cousin in a quartet group and found the passion for singing again. But 6 year after joining the group where I really started pushing myself to grow in this field. Read more>>

Jason Shelby

I would have to say during my first “residency” as a dj is when I knew. A friend of mine owned a Mexican restaurant that had bands on the weekend and I bugged him for a year to let me come in an dj for him one night. He called me right around the year mark and asked “Do you still want to try to dj?” Of course I said. I had no technical skills, didn’t really know how to structure a club night ie opening set, rotating the floor, prime time music and so on. While I didn’t have that specific knowledge I played how I would want my club night to be and a lot of that structure came natural. Read more>>

Joshua igwe

Although today I live a fast-paced life in downtown Toronto, just six years ago my world revolved around the populated city of Lagos, Nigeria. Both my parents were entrepreneurs and as a result, I spent a lot of time working in both their companies outside of school and during holidays which I dreaded at the time. Other than work and school I spent a lot of time with my younger brother drawing comics and building clay sculptures which were my earliest forms of artistic expression. In my elementary school years I was known for drawing comic books and participating in art events, Read more>>

The bash Brothers

Freaky Focus and OK Cloud both as independent artist took music very seriously, so much so they signed to and indie label “atlanta city records”. Cloud had his manager set up a studio session between the two where they made “TikTok” . This studio built a genuine relationship between the pair and they locked in time and time Again, making songs like “moshpit” and “On The Road”, after making a number of song they decide to make a duo @therealbashbrothers and to drop their first project as the high-flying duo “Duck Sh!T” . Read more>>

Ethan Ford

Well before getting into artistry I first started as strictly a producer. Since I was 11 I’ve been making beats on my computer as a hobby but I never told anyone about it. It took until my senior year of high school before I confidently started diving into my music. But I first knew I wanted to pursue being an artist/producer during my freshman year at Belmont University. Being surrounded by other highly talented and like-minded individuals sparked my drive to be who I knew deep down I always wanted to be. After that year it was history. Read more>>

Marcel Dear

You know I kind of knew I wanted to be an artist when I first started listening to R&B and rap at a young age. I grew up listening to Common, Kanye West, Michael and Janet Jackson, LL Cool J Jay-z, Kem and Kenny G, and when I heard these guys on the radio and watched there music videos I just knew this was something I was interested in and wanted to do. My parents weren’t really convinced at first though they thought it would just be a phase but over the years saw how serious I was taking my craft and saw that this was more than just a phase. Read more>>

CJ O

So I grew up in a musical household, and really started messing around with instruments when I was very young. I believe one of my first instruments was an autoharp. But I used to have a double cassette deck karaoke machine that I figured out how to overdub by switching out the tapes and being able to record music, I instantly fell in love with production. Read more>>

Samantha Elice

My father initially influenced my love of music. My mother told me stories about how I would crawl to the door to hear my father play music in his in-house studio. She would practically have to peel me away from the door. My father played the guitar, saxophone, and keyboard. He also wrote music for the blues singer ‘Bobby Blue’ Bland and instilled the importance of writing and creating my own music in me very early on. When I decided I finally wanted to sing in front of a crowd, I was 11 years old. Read more>>

Tim Buono

My parents took me to my first concert in September 2004, I was 9 years old and it was at a campground a few towns away. I remember the artist coming out on stage wearing a white cowboy hat and I got lost in the music and the twangy sound of the guitar he was playing. The artist was Brad Paisley, and it was at that first concert that I knew someday I wanted to be up there having as much fun performing for people as he was. Read more>>

Asé Selah

The moment I experienced an epiphany that I wanted to pursue art professionally was when I searched within myself the reasons I felt the need to create everyday. I’ve always had the interest in art.. I was the student in classroom doodling in the blank spaces on the class work assignments. Not only did I have my own internal drive. I also experienced support from outer sources. These were the initial things that motivated me to take my art, my visions and my brand seriously. Read more>>

Nirali Schrader

I’m an Asian Indian born artist who moved to America in 2007 to earn a double Master’s degree in Education. Teaching in classrooms helped me realize that I wanted to continue to instruct and inspire but in a more creative capacity. After trying this profession, I knew I had to keep my artistic abilities at the forefront of what I do and make moves to transition it from a hobby to a profession. I started my own business, Akron Henna Art, with inspiration from the city where I completed my education and launched a career. Read more>>

Solomon Rodney

I knew at a very young age that I wanted to make something music related professionally. I was surrounded by music all my life. With my father being a drummer and my mother being a singer I was fortunate to sit in rehearsals, sessions, concerts, etc. Around my sophomore year of high school, I determined that I wanted to make beats for artists and tv/film so I began researching programs for college and also watching youtube tutorials to learn as I progressed in my music journey. Read more>>

Kenish Coleman

The first time I knew I wanted to pursue a creative professionally was at the age of five years old. I was a kid who picked out my own clothes since I could remember, I preferred clothes over toys and if I did like toys it would be dolls. I remember being in head start and I would sneak my favorite pair of shorts to school, (it had beads and butterflies on them, that was the first sign then that I was a true fashionista at heart) my favorite teacher, Ms. Perry would let me have my fashion show way. Read more>>

Jhai

I was a kid when I knew I wanted to pursue an artistic path professionally. I had to be five or six years old when my parents bought me my first guitar. I started teaching myself how to play and by the age of twelve, I was posting YouTube and Facebook covers online. It was then when I started to realize how passionate I was about music. Read more>>

Madison Bryan

I cannot remember an exact moment that I decided to pursue art professionally, I feel like it was a gradual process. Growing up I’ve always loved art, and it didn’t take long for others to notice I loved it as well. This quickly became a catalyst for my family and peers to label me as an artist, and it was a title that fit very well. Read more>>

Gabby Patrice

As long as I can remember I have wanted to be a performer, but I was not sure at a young age what the word “professional” entailed. I figured I just wanted to sing and dance forever and that was it. I grew up doing what I thought you were supposed to do. I went to school, played sports including collegiate sports, and then I graduated. I had a job out of college in Boston and would gig on the side. My job was working with young creates to help them make merchandise for their brand. Read more>>

Tracy Jones

I was a year into college with the pursuit in the medical field. I had worked for a doctor the last three years. I had always enjoyed learning about health and the body so it just seemed like the right path. I was only a year in and I started questioning things. I also had a passion for the arts but had never fully dove into it. So I decided to take one semester of nothing but art classes and I would decide which path to take after that semester. Well I was sold into the fine arts. It hasn’t been the easiest path but I believe it has been the best path for me and I haven’t looked back. Read more>>

Kelly O’Neill

There was always art in my life. My father was an artist, so I was always surrounded by his creations. I love to create. As a child, I sewed. I painted. I drew. I acted. I reinvented. As a professional marketer, I was creating every day. Now that I have retired from the corporate world, I feel like I have returned to my child-like wonder and the freedom it brings to create. Read more>>

Imani Woodard

Ive known I wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career since I escaped the womb. There was no doubt I would be working in a creative field. Even though I do have analytical aspects to my personality, I’ve always found joy in being creative with fashion and more specifically creating stories with fashion. I could finally put a career with its name when I took some of my family members on as my first ever Personal Styling clients! Read more>>

Perfect Diamond

October of 2021. That’s when it all started. I actively started to pursue my fashion model career. People would always tell me that I should model because I had the natural talent for it, my style, the way I did my hair, the way I walk and talk it was already written in stone. One day I took a risk and went to ATL for a photoshoot with my now good friend Tosh Damptey. When the photos came back I was so amazed at how they turned out, I could not believe it was me in the photo, Read more>>

DJ A-SKI

I’ve been playing records since I was 3 years old (1976). My parents and siblings had a huge record collection which gave me a huge advantage in gaining an eclectic range from Motown to Krafwerk in addition to my family being musically inclined as well. We had a piano, guitar and drums at my disposal which also gave me hands on experimenting in sound. Read more>>

Heather Kuehne

I’ve always had a creative mind. Art was my passion growing up, exploring different mediums and experiencing the ups and downs of each one. Life sometimes gets in the way of what we are passionate about, however, and I found myself wanting to find creative spaces every chance that I could. Deciding to make this business a reality was really dream conceived rather rapidly during Covid, when we all were trying to fill now empty spaces with something positive. That’s how Peppered Willow Home came to fruition. I had a lot of time to think about what path I wanted to pursue creatively while still allowing myself to set goals and grow. Read more>>