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.

Darian Finney

I always knew! I couldn’t wrap my head around working or creating a lifestyle that didn’t consume me passionately. I’ve been a chef for 13 years now and have been creating in music spaces for the last 7 years. Read more>>

Lugh Haurie

I never started with the intention of performing professionally. However, the very first time I played out a song I created I knew this was something I wasn’t going to let go of. I began with an obsession for mixing music, but I never felt more alive then when I am performing. As I became more passionate about the artform, I realized I needed to put more time into the project. Read more>>

Ron Stokes

Art has always been my passion, but when I started establishing myself as an artist, I realized there were so few opportunities and pathways for minority artists in the Richmond area. Yes, there have always been quite a few museums and galleries in the Richmond area, but minority owned and operated galleries and museums are almost nonexistent. When I first started getting serious about my art in 2014, projects would come along once or twice each year. Read more>>

Sara Jane Jacobs

Although I started writing before my children were born, it wasn’t until after they became adults that I knew I wanted to pursue writing professionally. I guess you could say I had a moment of clarity in May 2015. I can still remember setting up my computer in the living room with firm determination to make this my career. Read more>>

Nick Audy

My journey into the world of music began right at home. My mother was a significant influence; she’s a talented musician who would play the guitar and sing. Music was always present in our household, and it felt like a natural part of life. Read more>>

Monique Abbadie

I knew I wanted to pursue a career as a singer since I was 5 years old. That was the first moment I stepped foot on a stage at my school talent show to sing, My Heart Will Go On by Celine Dion. After feeling the rush of hearing the applause and a standing ovation I knew then and there that I wanted to do this for the rest of my life! Read more>>

Rae Miller

Abstract Junction is a creative studio ran by Rae Miller and Gabe Santos. Though the joint venture didn’t start until the end of 2020, the creative encouragement was there from the beginning of their relationship in 2018. Rae had been cultivating her personal art practice and Gabe also came from a creative background. They both were able to to emphasize that spark in one another. Read more>>

SweetKay

I took my first look into the creative/artistic world back in March of 2020. At that time I was on the journey of finding myself and trying to figure out what I really wanted to do with my life. My make up artist back in February had told me that I should look into modeling. Read more>>

Dario Lee

I actually didn’t. I grew up wanting to play in the NBA. Acting wasn’t something I grew up wanting to do at all but basketball wasn’t until I seen Michael Jordan’s ”come fly with me” documentary. I was picked out of the middle school hallways by a teacher/coach by the name of Eddie level. Eddie had one gold tooth, always wore leather and had a Jerry curl like Jerome off “Martin” tv show. Read more>>

Em Frank

This feels like something I’ve always known but just had to uncover in myself which I think was a lengthy and sometimes annoying process. I have little regrets in my life but the ones I do always seem to revolve around not fully committing or believing in myself because I was afraid I’d be alone, or abandoned if I did. I love this, Plato (I think?) quote that goes something like “we can only ever learn what we already know” and this feels so true to me when thinking about pursuing art more professionally, or giving it all of myself. Read more>>

Markeisha Brown

You know, it’s funny how life can take you on unexpected journeys. When I think about when I first realized I wanted to pursue a creative and artistic path professionally, it wasn’t one of those lightning bolt moments you hear about from childhood dreams. Initially, I was head over heels for science and dreamed of becoming a pediatrician. But as time passed, my perspective evolved. Read more>>

Keri Brown

I first realized I wanted to pursue art as a profession when choosing a major in college. I never really thought about making a living from my paintings until I realized I was more passionate about it than other career paths and I believed I could do it. One semester I even changed my major to nursing and quickly went back to art, because I realized that if I was going to dedicate that much time and energy toward something I really needed to love it. Read more>>

Kat Street

Whether I fully knew it at the time, I’d have to say that the epiphany came to me more like a feeling and less of a thought. I was fourteen and was going to high school at a performing arts school in Philly (CAPA) as a creative writing major. A friend of mine handed me a screenwriting book and I was hooked. How had it not occurred to me before that movies and television shows were made like this? But that wasn’t the moment. Read more>>

Javan Wallace

I first knew I wanted to pursue a creative/artist path professionally once I noticed the feedback I was receiving from those who have heard my music coming up. Read more>>

Ali MacLean

I entered college as a poly sci major because it was impressed upon me that theater was a hobby, not a profession. But my first poly sci 101 class lecture with over 200 students happened to be led by a professor who was the advisor for the Young Republicans Club. On day one, he asked who in the crowd was Pro Choice and I was the only one who raised my hand. Read more>>

Ken Gregory

First, I need to give a little backstory. The first time I knew that I wanted to be an artist was at the age of 12. For my birthday, my mother took me to see a film titled FAME. It was life altering! It was the first time that I saw a people like me, at a school that specialized in Art. I always knew I was different, BUT I couldn’t vocalize it because I didn’t know what IT was! And I finally got to see what IT was and I finally felt seen and understood. Read more>>

Looking West

I think we first knew we wanted to pursue music professionally when we reached that age that our parents wanted us to get jobs. It was a no brainer for us. We love what we do so when it came time for us to either work some minimum wage job or play music for a living, we chose music. Read more>>

Katja Rieckermann

When I was a teenager I felt like I wanted to do something creative/artistic but I wasn’t sure what specifically. At that time I didn’t play an instrument yet even though I had a big admiration for music and some of my friends who did play instruments. For some reason I felt like that was out of my reach because my parents didn’t support the artistic ambitions. Read more>>

Karin West

My first memories are wanting to make things and make presents for people. I have always been obsessed with creating new things. Fortunately for me I had a family that was very supportive. I truly feel if you follow your passions and do a lot of hard work that you will be successful as you will get to do what you love. Read more>>

Edurne Fernandez

I have always been interested in the arts since I was a little girl, but the first time I really appreciated and fell in love with costume design was in New York, sitting in the audience of the musical Wicked. I was very young at the time and wasn’t thinking about my future, but what I did know was that I wanted to be a part of that magical world. My first approach to design and theater was through dance. Read more>>

Berta Negari

know I surprised everyone with my art when I had my first show. But on the contrary Art surprised me when it came to me. And it came to me at a time when I needed it most. And I embraced it wholeheartedly. To me, it is just pure joy when I paint. Read more>>

Mark Raines

When I was in the first grade, my teacher took us on a tour of a local newspaper. I already knew I loved to write and tell stories, but that day I decided I wanted to be a journalist. As I continued my education in multiple schools in multiple states due to my father’s Navy career, I also developed a passion for acting and performing in the theater, plus I loved television and movies. In high school, I realized a great combination of these artistic endeavors would be to pursue broadcast journalism to become a television reporter and anchor. Read more>>

Lucia Matuonto

From a young age, I harbored dreams of becoming both a writer and a painter. I think my first love has always been books. Ever since I was a kid, I always loved reading and writing. I would create stories as a kid, I would prefer books over dolls…. Even if my friends would come over, they’d want to play with dolls, but I’d just want to keep reading, so I even preferred my books over my friends. Read more>>

Connor Dean

I actually kind of fell into a career in the entertainment industry. My older brother wanted to be an actor and so I always had to tag along with him to auditions and classes. After a while I decided I might as well start auditioning too since I had to be there anyway. Read more>>

Glen Farrelly

After twenty years of teaching in a top private school in London my wife had the opportunity to take us to LA with work. After lots of discussion we decided to take the risk and make the big move. A few months after moving in to our new home we were forced to evacuate due to a huge wildfire that was quickly sweeping towards us in Santa Clarita. Read more>>

Ray Buffer

I have followed an interesting, somewhat circuitous path getting to where I am today. I began working professionally as a teenager, singing at churches, opera companies and with pops orchestras, while also working as an actor in theatre. This led me to working as an actor in TV and film just as I relocated from Florida, where I was born, to California in 1999. Read more>>

Cruzer Urameshi

I knew as a kid that I was going to do something with music involved. In school people used to give me their iPods and let me add music on to their iPod very similar to people making their own playlists in today’s time. Read more>>

Daniele De Cario

Since I was 5 years old I have always been attracted by music. This magic art that has the power to connect people from different parts of the world, regardless of language, age and race. My parents bought a little keyboard and an acoustic guitar. My brother and I were spending most of the time playing music. Read more>>

Will Frontera

I first knew that I wanted to work as a filmmaker when I took my first screenwriting class. I had always been interested in film, but going into college I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with my life. I felt like I didn’t have a lot of options while my friends all knew what they were doing. I signed up for “Fundamentals of Screenwriting” as an elective and immediately fell in love with the creativity. Read more>>

Alexander Scelso

There were a few pivotal moments to navigate through the doubt of “should I just do this.” Read more>>

Delvia “ArtSoulistic” Wilder

As time went by, I started giving away my art as gifts to family and friends and that’s when I decided to take myself more seriously as an artist. Being self-taught, I wasn’t that familiar with the visual arts world, and I started to receive some criticisms with some good positive feedback. So, I leveled up, did a lot of research, and stepped up as a professional artist. Read more>>

Sam Lotfi

It was pretty early on, probably around the age of 6 or 7 when I discovered comic books and like most kids growing up in the 80s I watched tons of Saturday morning cartoons. I read everything I could get my hands on and constantly drew all my favorite characters from those sources. Comics like, Donald Duck, X-Men, Incredible Hulk to animated cartoons like Masters of the Universe, TMNT and Ghostbusters. Read more>>

India Hawkins

I first realized my passion for pursuing a creative and artistic path professionally during my senior year of high school. Growing up, I was surrounded by music, thanks to my father, a talented keyboardist and vocalist, and my mother, who had a love for country and alternative genres. This diverse musical exposure allowed me to develop a deep connection to the world of creativity. Despite being a shy child, I found solace and self-expression in music, making it my best friend. Read more>>

Xanthe Pajarillo

When I was six or seven years old, a family friend gave me a VHS copy of Jurassic Park. After seeing it, I immediately fell in love with dinosaurs and couldn’t stop drawing them. For the longest time I thought I would grow up to be a cartoonist for Disney, as I could draw for hours in my room until the sun went down. Read more>>

Jamie Scoles

All of my earliest memories are of me spazzing out musically. I could never just sit still when music is playing, or sit still for that matter, but It started out with a lot of air guitar, using my dad’s tennis racket as a guitar, then to the cliche story of how every drummer starts… pulling the pots and pans out and banging on them with spoons, or in my case, chopsticks! I think you could ask anyone that knows me and they will probably say that I was always obsessed with music in general. Read more>>

Miss Monday

As a child, my passion for music was evident from the very beginning. At the tender age of 4, my parents gifted me a toy drum kit, and I cherished it so much that it became my earliest sign of a deep connection with music. Additionally, I embarked on piano lessons at the age of 12, further nurturing my musical interests. However, it wasn’t until I turned 16 and became a DJ at my high school radio station that I felt a profound alignment with my true calling. Read more>>

Victoria Zapata

When I knew I wanted to become a Content creator was when the age of 5 I would grab my family members phone and start filming as if I were a “vlogger” saying your typical things “ hi everyone I’m here at JCPenney with my mom” true story I actually did say that, my mom would always tell me I was born with love being in front of the camera, high school came around I was in a media and film class for 4 years which expanded my love for filming either myself, short films, photography. Read more>>

D’andre Darrisaw

I first realized I wanted to take a creative path when I was a teenager. I created one of my first songs out of boredom one summer with a friend using a DIY setup with pretty much all things we already had around the house and an old desktop mic. We created a pop filter using a durag, hanger, and old foam finger from the high school we went to and and recorded a song on 2Pac’s “Ambitionz az a Ridah” instrumental. Read more>>

Pepper Basham

I didn’t consider myself a writer until I was ten and my granny called me one. Once she labeled what I’d been doing for as long as I knew how to (sort of) spell words, I realized it was a true joy of mine. After that, I had some amazing teachers who kept fanning the flame of that dream. Read more>>

Allison Robertson

I was born in Cape Town, South Africa, a place rich in culture and music. I was interested in many things growing up, and music was not the popular career choice. My community is one filled with violence, poverty and corruption and that really plagued me growing up. I always knew that I wanted to be in the business of helping people and making a difference, but the ‘how’ is what I struggled with. Read more>>