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.

Georgia Starnes

I always knew watching other artists growing up that I would and could do the same for my job and I’ve been pursuing it since the first talent show I did in kindergarten. I also participated in recital dance for my younger years and then competitive cheerleading for 4 years I truly enjoyed the performance aspect and would sing in the bathrooms backstage. I knew I wanted to entertain people. Read more>>

Quentin Pistol

I have always wanted to be an artist. When I was in middle school, I wanted to go to La Guardia High School for art, but I didn’t get in. When I was in high school, I gravitated to music. I was in a band with my classmates and collaborated with a friend who was a year older than me and was making electronic music. We wanted to perform under an alter ego and pretend the performer was our work’s author, but that never came to fruition. Read more>>

Andre Griffith

I come from a family of musicians and artists. So, naturally i was going to pick up something. I started in piano when I was 7, but it wasn’t until 15,16 years old that i started to DJ and produce music. That was the moment when I knew I had a shot in the entertainment business. Read more>>

Drea Lopez

The first time I knew I wanted to pursue a creative / artistic path professionally was in high school. I had just come from a middle school where I, unfortunately, dealt with bullying. This new school allowed me a fresh start and new friends. One of those friends signed me up for the school’s talent show. She was one of the only people that knew I liked to sing and would write my own songs. Read more>>

Kathleen Deep

There was always a drawing pencil in my hand as a kid. If I wasnt studying or playing my saxophone, I was teaching myself how to draw and was experimenting with every material I could get my hands on. In undergrad I pursued a major in photography, a material I had never tried before. I fell in love with the history of the medium and the experimental/chemical nature of it. Copious amounts of time creating in the darkroom turned into a job offer to run the darkroom. Read more>>

Alanna Washington

Since I was three years old, I’ve always known that I wanted to be an actress. Watching icons like Angelina Jolie, Halle Berry, Angela Bassett, and Reese Witherspoon (just to name a few), made me feel as if I could not only do anything that I put my mind to, but that I can also inspire people through my work. The only problem is that I didn’t know where to start. Unfortunately, due to my lack of knowledge about getting started in the industry, I put acting on the back burner for a long time. Read more>>

Kennedy Healy

Before the pandemic I was strictly an accessibility consultant. I worked mainly in medical, university, and corporate settings. I would give 101 workshops to 10-100 people and rarely saw the long term outcomes of those conversations. When COVID hit, I got tiered of seeing people talk about protecting disabled people without actually doing so and rarely talking to us. Read more>>

Kechi Okwuchi

I’m a burns survivor and I’ve always loved music. Music therapy at Shriners Burns Hospital healed wounds that surgery couldn’t heal. I sing all the time and my friend after urging me in vain to audition for music shows sent one of my singing videos to AGT online auditions. I got on the show and became a finalist. That was an impossible dream come true for me. Since then I’ve released a single and a full length album and I’m working on new music. Read more>>

Lala Jzhane

Wow, the first time I knew had to be as young as 4-5. When I was a kid I wanted to be an actress. I’ve always been theatrical and as my grandmother would say a slight bit dramatic. Although I wanted to act I wanted to sing but what I really wanted was to be able to dress up and be as fabulous as the Raven Symone, The Kimora lee Simmons the real IT girls. Read more>>

Anthony Patrick

From the moment I started walking, I just remember walking and moving to the rhythm of music. I remember watching the elder adults in my family at parties and functions and thinking to myself, “I can’t wait until I am older enough to join in on the fun. However, we I was 5 Years old, my parents took me to see Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Read more>>

Gilda Mercado

Ever since I can remember, I have wanted to act and perform. Since I was a child, I have had an innate need to express myself and create things. I always tried to participate in talent shows, dances, and plays at my school. As a child, I was always painting, dancing, and imagining myself in the world of acting. I did not know any actors, let alone artists, so I thought actors were similar to mythological creatures from a fantasy novel. Read more>>

Carol Perez Asuaje

After 12 years in the corporate world, working for companies like CNN en Español, Twitter, Lyft and WeWork, I came to the realization that we are Human BEINGS, not human DOERS, and that completely changed my perception of reality and the course of my life. I wanted to live a life with purpose, I wanted to be at the service of people and create projects that allowed me to transform and have an impact on people’s lives, respecting my own natural rhythm…. I wanted to make them feel, to help them connect, and that is how Insidology was born. Read more>>

Julia O’Bryan

I have always been artistic. My mother put a sewing needle and crochet hooks in my hands as early as 4 years old. I believe I’ve always known that I was meant to be a creative. I took my first pottery class when I was 16 and that launched into a great love of clay and process of making ceramic goods. When I began looking at college, it was a no brainer that I would be most successful and happy in a creative arts program. Read more>>

Blake McCowan-Martin

I think I kind of always knew since a pretty young age, I’ve always been super into music and art, but I think the turning point was probably like 5th or 6th grade, that’s about the time I realized I wasn’t gonna make the NBA lol, and I really started honing in on music. Been in love with it since, and I really started putting action behind it my senior year of high school, putting music out for sale and even making some money off of it for the first time. Read more>>

Jarob Bramlett

I remember sitting in the church pew as a young child trying my best not to squirm and talk. To help with this, my dad would doodle a character then pass it to me so that I could try to attempt to draw the same thing. This Sunday ritual began a passion for drawing and creativity. Soon after, my brother, Josh, and I dreamed up the idea of having our own comic book one day called “JB Comics” as well as our own rock band called “Tempered Steel”. Read more>>

Jing Dong

I wanted to be an artist even when I was little. My mother was an architect and dancer, she influence me a lot. I majored in computer science and worked as a software engineer for several years. I gradually discovered that art technology can do really interesting things. Also because I was fascinated with some artists and their works, such as Anthony Gormley, John Cage, Louise Bourgeois, and Ai Weiwei. Read more>>

Richard Carr III

For me, acting has always been something I’m passionate about. However, my parents always told my sister and I to get a good degree behind us then we could do whatever. So I had pursued nursing at Oakwood University (A small HBCU in Huntsville, AL). In the early parts of 2020, I got sick with something. Now I had heard rumors of this thing called corona, but wasn’t sure too much about it. I was working at an icu in GA at the time on my days off, just kept getting more and more sick. Read more>>

ALEX PURYEAR

As a kid, I’ve always wanted to become an artist, I always got in trouble writing on classwork assignments. My pursuit in the artistic field never dulled, as a kid, I had the perception of an artist living in Paris, wearingng a beret with a baguette. I don’t think there was never any moment that triggered me to go harder. I think more so it was the steps and accolades that I got throughout the years in high school that pushed me forward. Read more>>

Natalie aka Nattie Jean Koistinen

When I was younger, I used to watch my mother sing and perform in her band, Whiskey Creek. She would sing Pat Benatar, Stevie Nicks, Linda Ronstadt and so on. My dad was also in the band. He played lead guitar. Watching them perform all throughout my childhood really made me fall in love with music. I loved going out to the garage where they would have band practice and just watch the band jam out. I really was raised around music. I knew that music was going to be a huge part of my life. Read more>>

Steller

I’ve always known I wanted to do something with music. When I was in 4th grade I started playing guitar, a few years later I was taking vocal lessons. Fast forward and I decided to pursue a degree in audio engineering in college with the goal of eventually making production/dj-ing my profession. Read more>>

Derinica Fusilier

I began taking an interest in the beauty industry as young as 16 years old. Although I graduated honors and attended college for some time, I ultimately decided that wasn’t the route for me. I began accepting clients over the years, and with trial and error indeed, I birthed my business Cole Artistry. I have been able to fully sustain my life by only accepting clients for the past 3 years. Read more>>

Antonio Rael

My earliest recollection of wanting to pursue art as a profession was at 5 years old. Art was an escape. It makes me so happy to be able to create. It is a form of expression but also a form of meditation. In addition, I started getting accolades from my friends, teachers, family and peers. I received awards in excellence for Art in grade school and high school before getting accepted into U.C.L.A. Read more>>

Brandon Kent

I have been dancing professionally for 15 years now. I started when I was 11 years old doing solo and group competitions, I loved the experience and time I had competing!! But I realized I could begin to take it more serious when I placed 1st in the country in 2015 at National Fine Arts Festival in Orlando, FL Read more>>

Tianshu Wu

I enjoy imagining and telling stories. When I was so little that I couldn’t read, I made up stories from illustrations in picture book and shared with my parents. I would require them to listen and if I sensed that they were not paying attention, I asked: “ Are you listening?” Then they would say yes (may be just pretending). Later at school, I filled my textbooks with clumsy doodles which were usually weird abstract characters. Read more>>

ANINDITA ANAAM

I started dancing at the age of 4 but it was only after school that I was fascinated and driven to take up art professionally. I belong to a family of artists and it was natural for me to be inclined to performing arts. Throughout my school and college days, I won state and national competitions and became one of the youngest Kathak Dancers in my city to travel abroad (Germany) as a soloist. Read more>>

Dr. Radhia Afif

I have known that I was creative for a very long time. I remember writing my first poem in the 4th grade, making up dances for the family cookouts around 8-9 years old, playing dress-up (creating cool outfits with my wardrobe) and just…creating. Using my natural talent was never something I desired to do as a job. I was always told that I needed to pick a career path, go to college and get a good job. Read more>>

Bethany Krull

I’ve had an intense drive to create since childhood. My parents let me run wild, never doubted my talent and trusted me to steer my own ship and so I just followed the spark of interest in art that started off with drawing and soon switched to ceramics and sculpture when i took a class in high school at 17 years old. Read more>>

Mike Miller

Upon growing up in upstate New York, I had a big interest in television and movies as one of my hobbies. I was in my early to mid teens when I developed an interest in possibly pursuing an entertainment career as an actor. Then at age 15, I came up with an storyline idea for a TV series that I became motivated to write and hopefully create. Haven grown up with certain family related problems I wanted to at that point accomplish an important goal for myself. Read more>>

Dennis Mackie

Well it started upon hard times. I found myself doing 90 days in county jail. While there I began drawing for commissary goods like stamps, envelopes, and food. As I grew popular in my cell I kept being asked if I tattoo. It had truly never popped into my head to pursue that path until then. Read more>>

Jon Mack

I grew up in the theater because my mother was a both a drama teacher and theater director. As a child, I used to watch my mother direct productions and often got to spend time with students much older than I was. I developed a fascination with performance and story telling from then on. Read more>>

Rob Lang

Around a decade ago, my family was new to Seattle. I was crouched over my desk, scratching out some graphic design work for a heating and air conditioning company. In flutters my daughter, she was about five years old (I don’t think five year olds really walk, they have too much energy to actually touch the ground). I had some doodles of a situational comic that I used to tool around with laying next to my computer. Read more>>

Marissa Jackson

Around 2019 I begin to sit and think about how can i (myself ) help bring change to peoples life in a positive way and let them know that prayer makes a difference. So I used my life story growing up in Hempstead, Long Island, New York in the struggle and the only way me and my family made it out was through the power of a prayer and keeping faith. I use this real life method of ministry to tell the masses in form of Stage Plays, which has given others hope thus far, and my journey can continue to change lives and encourage. Read more>>

Sam Holt

I played in small bands in my twenties, but it was nothing significant. We played for fun and would get local gigs. I ended up becoming the guitar technician for the band Widespread Panic. Their lead guitarist Michael Houser heard me play when I would be testing his rig, and other times when we were in the rehearsal room or just messing around. Read more>>

Kimiesha Jones

When I was about 5 years old I remember seeing a Destiny’s Child live performance on television. I watched as Beyoncé, Kelly, and Michelle captivated the crowed. They didn’t just sing a concert they created an experience. At that moment I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I also grew up with music all around me. My mom traveled and sang before I was born, and my dad was a minister of music for our church. Read more>>

Jesse Smith

I don’t know if I ever thought I’d be doing anything creative professionally. I’ve always enjoyed building and creating things of all sorts it’s really my passion I really enjoy making things. Never would I have ever thought I’d be making “Art”. Read more>>