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.

Margaux Halloran

Growing up, I had never taken any art classes. I always knew I wanted to be part of the art community, but instead of painting, I was focused on fashion design. The summer entering my senior year of high school, I had the opportunity to attend a summer pre-college art program in New York City. This changed my life. I met people that to this day remain my closest companions in New York. The second day of the program, I made the choice to switch from a fashion design class, into a drawing class. Read more>>

Joey Thurmond

I think I first knew that I wanted to be a performer when I was cast as Charlie Chaplin in one of my elementary school plays. I didn’t audition or even know who Mr. Chaplin was in fourth grade but, my teacher must have seen something in me that led her to put me into that role. I really didn’t want the part or any part for that matter but, she insisted that I learn about him and that I would be great at it. I remember the first performance when I stepped out I was the only one on the stage and it was just me and a huge room full of parents who had came to watch and before I was half way across the stage I heard one of the parents say “That’s Charlie Chaplin! That’s Perfect!” and just like that I was in love with performing. Read more>>

Lisa Kaw

Unlike many professional artists, I didn’t pick up a paintbrush until I was in my late 20s. I was living in Boston at the time and had experienced burnout at my first career. I was dealing with massive anxiety and looking for ways to cope. Read more>>

Charlie Durso

The first time I knew I wanted to pursue photography was honestly in the fourth grade. My grandparents signed me up for a week long summer arts camp at church and I chose photography, they bought me a teeny little point and shoot and after that I just couldn’t put it down. At first all I was taking were overexposed pictures of flowers in the backyard but my love for taking photos was instant and I was just like yeah this is probably the only thing I’ll ever care about now. Read more>>

Lauren Davis

I truly always knew dance was it for me. I never questioned it. My mom wrote letters to me as a baby/toddler, and in the earliest of letters to me, she wrote, “you’ve said you want to be a dancer, I wonder if you can know this at such an early age.” I never had to be coaxed into dance, because the desire to pursue it came from so deep within that no one ever had to motivate me that way. The kind of love I have for it is unending, as is my desire to share that love with other people. I continue to find new levels to that deep love, and new reasons to continue with it, but it never goes away or lessens, even through the hardship associated with a career in the arts. Read more>>

Kevin Toy

I knew I wanted to pursue a creative/artist path in the film industry professionally junior year of college. They say your dreams and purpose talks to you or comes to you clearly. They don’t. Your dreams and purpose in life whispers to you throughout your life. They give you omens, signals. Call it whatever you want. You must watch closely for those signs. Only then, you will figure what your dreams and purpose are in this life. Read more>>

Blakley Dancy

I remember always being fascinated with the community that hair and makeup can create. Growing up I was predominantly in several of the performing arts so hair and makeup would always play an essential role. I would often watch and enviously be around to see why it felt so special, hoping that I could make others feel that way some day. Right before beauty school I was also fully committed to changing my hair color every week or two. Having the feeling of a new self was always very much a feeling I craved and the transformation behind my own appearance wIth dying my hair every month gave me a source of inner strength that I was looking for. All in all I see the beauty industry as building others up, that is the best feeling ever. Read more>>

Clare Aaker

I’ve always loved being creative but wasn’t sure how that would translate into a career until college. I knew I felt fulfilled being involved in the creative process, whether it was writing in my English or journalism classes, or creating websites in my web design classes. I had been photographing people and events since high school, and I remember finding a site called Flickr and it showcased professional photographers and their work.Read more>>

Gabby B.

I knew I wanted to be in the entertainment industry since I was just a little kid. I’ve always loved to sing and dance. Being born in Brazil and having a mother who was a Samba performer and music artist, I learned to dance as soon as I could walk, and began to sing shortly after. Read more>>

Anthony Shagan

Like most kids I had a real love for drawing. I would draw my favorite characters like Buzz Lightyear or Blues clues. As I grew older and time marched forward, my love for drawing would only increase. I would still draw my favorite characters. I would sit in front of the TV, Read more>>

David Obuchowski

Probably seems like a cliche, but I’ve simply always known. I don’t come from a family of artists. My father worked for large corporations doing things like auditing; my mother was a teacher. I’m not saying they weren’t creative in their own ways (whether at their job or in their personal lives), but they didn’t play instruments, nor did they write, draw, paint, sing, etc. But I was always obsessed with both music and writing. Read more>>

Skye Crews

I knew I wanted to do some form of creative work since I was a kid, around age 9 I’d say. I remember watching the bloopers and behind the scenes of the Cat in the Hat (2003), and it looked like so much fun to make a movie. I think that’s one of the moments I realized my interests were in the creative industry. About a year later, my parents had the idea of putting me in a magnet school for theatre, something I definitely wouldn’t have known about on my own at such a young age. Read more>>

Chris Del Camino

Although my musical inklings really begin on saxophone when I was around 10 years old, the first time I started to envision a professional music career was in high school when I began composing instrumentals on the computer. I used to link up with other musicians in an awesomely nerdy way–the text based internet chat protocol, IRC. Read more>>

Valencia Snow

I was probably about 7 or 8 years old. I was still living in Indiana. Every year there was a city wide picnic that mostly everyone attended. This year in particular they had a stage setup for people to do karaoke. I ran up there and sung The Shoop Shoop Song by Betty Everett. I got a really good response from everyone that was gathered around and in that moment I knew I wanted to be a star. Performing even at such a young age gave me a rush I never had experienced. Read more>>

Regina Ting Chen

As a kid, I wasn’t allowed to pursue drama or partake in theatre so I would put on little talent shows for my family on holidays. I used science fair boards as set decor and my mom’s clothes as wardrobe. I’d force my siblings to perform the sketches and dances with me, ha! They were never on time to practice! At the time, I had no idea I wanted to be an actor, I was just basically doing all the things that made me one purely because I loved storytelling. Read more>>

Dalton Sessumes

I first knew that I wanted to pursue a creative path professionally when I found myself sitting on the kitchen floor in my tiny college apartment, casting circus props I invented out of specialty urethane rubber instead of studying for my upcoming PhD. qualifying exams. I was in graduate school at the time on the path to become a PhD. quantum physicist. Read more>>

Charon Scerra

I definitely gravitated towards the arts from a very young age. I was born into a family of artists with my mother being a painter and my father helping her make puppets larger-than-life for local festivities. At the age of five, I started taking ballet classes and performing in dance shows. As time went by, I began showing an interest in music and acting, which led me to move from a small town in Italy to London, where I continued my training and performed professionally. Read more>>

Cole Bain

I think some would call this typical lol but I knew at an early age. I was put in band growing up and in choir, church and school. Life had its way of taking me in other directions that I planned on but I never lost touch. While playing sports (High School, College, Professionally) I would keep in touch with my gift listening to an array of artist or sneaking into the band hall at school. It wasn’t until a friend of mine had me come to his studio as he was working on an album and had me make a few beats for him. At that moment I understood my purpose, I didn’t know where it would take me but I understood my path. Read more>>

Nic LeBrun

At the time I was managing a world renowned tattoo studio with some well known resident and guest artists who’d been involved in tattoo culture for 20, 30, 40+ years. All of them amazing artists with many of them having shaped what we now know as modern tattooing. I couldn’t help but notice their passion for their craft, their depth of knowledge about tattooing’s rich history and the feeling that they were part of something so much bigger than themselves. Having a natural drive toward artistic endeavors and creative pursuits coupled with a not so subtle burning desire I knew I had to tattoo. What I didn’t know was that one does not simply choose to tattoo, tattooing must choose you. Whatever it took, I was going to become a tattooer. And that’s exactly what I did. Read more>>

James White

The seeds were planted early on in middle school. I always had a passion for writing, storytelling and being able to convey my thoughts. It provided an uninterrupted outlet to get any ideas or things jumping around in my mind out on paper. That carried on through high school and was one of the catalyst for me changing my major in undergrad from criminal justice to mass communications and then media studies. Read more>>

Shakeera Springs

I knew I wanted to pursue to a creative path after my professional career in accounting was not meeting my cravings. I love to create and it rather hard to do when you are sitting behind a computer crunching numbers everyday. Alongside the boredom and redundancy, I had my fourth child which made it more difficult to be present. After having my now 7 year old I left my six figure career and have never returned. Read more>>

Allison Price

When I was little, about 7 or 8, I was really anxious and shy. Then one night, my mother decided to take me to see a production of West Side Story in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. This was a risk since she didn’t know if I would enjoy it or even be able to get through it all without getting too anxious and having to leave. However, the moment the music started, a feeling washed over me and I felt brave for the first time. Read more>>

Emily Hersh

I had been a creative all my life. Before cooking, dance was my first great passion. I danced for 20 years, making it up to the collegiate level. Once I secured my spot on the college dance team, dance then took a sour turn. I was experiencing negative leadership and body image issues, later causing my diagnosis of an eating disorder. In order to heal, I needed to give up dance. I had lost my creative outlet. During this time, I was studying Kinesiology at The University of Texas at Austin. Read more>>

Mike Thomas

I honestly felt like I knew I wanted to really pursue streaming, after a number of things happened that grabbed my attention. I found a content creator/ YouTuber(CoryxKenshin) that I found that had morals and values I stood on. I found him due to me trying to find someone that my little nephew could watch on you tube. That was one of the signs. Read more>>

Deeana Lee

I’m going to start off by stating the obvious: my decision on becoming a full time artist did not happen overnight. (Although I hoped and prayed and wish it could.) It actually started out as a joke. Before my midlife crisis began at 23, I had no idea what value I wanted to bring to the world. Of course, i was drawing back then, in highschool. But honestly, I was just winging it. I had several interests; however that is where they ended. Read more>>

Kimmie Gillespie

I started my professional career as a kindergarten teacher. I did that for two years and then was able to transition into the role of the art teacher at the same school which I did (and loved) for three years. The last two years of teaching I was also going back to grad school to pursue my MBA (Masters of Business Administration). I loved teaching but it was becoming so political and I knew I needed to open up another door for myself. Read more>>

Julio Vazquez

Well, I’ve always knew i wanted to be an artist since i was a little kid. I fell in love with music at a very young age maybe at 6 yes old? I started my music career at the age of 16 when i signed my first record deal and after 8 years of making music all of the sudden the passion was gone. Not the love for music but the love for making it, i knew i wanted to be involved with music in one way or another and here we are today, I run my own podcast which are music related and provide audio/video services for other podcasters here in Houston. Read more>>

Subramanyam Nataraja & Phantom Legs Of Br00tal Productions

Although we were raised in two extremely different homes, we can both agree that we were aware of our artistic abilities, and our abilities to see things differently than others from very early ages. We both used to draw and daydream a lot as children, write stories, create comics, do crafts, etc. Both of us were drawn toward music as well. Read more>>

Eddia Jane

The first time I knew I wanted to be more of a creative was when I was younger, around the age of ten. This was when I started to write my first book. Writing is in my blood as both of my parents are unpublished–I plan on changing this soon–poets. As I grew older, I realized that the traditional nine-to-five wasn’t for me. At first, I thought that maybe I just wasn’t a hard worker, but I soon realized that I wanted to work for myself and offer my creativity to the world in my own world, and choosing a nine-to-five that makes me happy and pays the bills in the meantime. Read more>>

Ra’Cheria Goode

I love this question! because whenever I’m asked, I always say since birth. I truly believe your younger self knows who you are, and what you’re called to do—you know, before you experience the world, and are swayed in another direction for survival purposes—My younger self had the game plan, she just needed the platform, a.k.a her adult self. Read more>>

Juan and Marvin Luna and Paz

I remember on a cold autumn day in 2016 I had returned home from college. I woke up thinking to myself, was their more to life? The questions stemmed from a deep resentment I had developed while at school. The reasons behind these new found feeling were financial in nature. The pursuit for a college education was robbing me of time, money, and direction. Read more>>

 Jessica Thomas

Wow, I have always had a love for the arts since I was a child. Whether it be drawing, poetry, dance, fashion, or creating dope visuals! At a very young age I knew in my heart that I was different, I was never afraid to dress how I wanted to dress, live how I wanted to live, or do whatever my heart desires. I was always labeled “weird” or “different” but I never let that dictate my life! Once I graduated high school, I went to the Art Institute to study fashion design and merchandising; shortly after I packed up and moved to Los Angeles, California to pursue my dream as a Fashion Stylist. Read more>>