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.

Summar Lababidi

I always knew that I wanted to do something involving creating. When I was young I was regularly drawing, singing and dancing, making up my own world. My older sister Yasmine would choreograph dances for my younger sister Iman and I, and I would take them absolutely so seriously, imagining it was my definite future. When moving into my teenage years I was especially enthralled with singing and playing guitar as my focus, but still loved to sew and draw, among putting together any materials that I could get my hands on. Read more>>

Alexander The Don

When I was younger I fell in love with the creation of music. My cousins and I used to create all day and night. We would freestyle and write music to all the newest records out. I decided to take music and this career path serious once I graduated high school. I started college for a little while then decided Read more>>

Dana Satterwhite

I was a psychology major. During my junior year in college, it suddenly hit me. I didn’t know exactly what it was I wanted to do. More accurately, I knew what I didn’t want to do. I didn’t want to dress in a suit and tie for work everyday. I wanted to be in a setting that encouraged creativity, one that, perhaps, would allow me to express myself fully and embrace me for me. One where I could potentially wear jeans and a t-shirt and have that be completely okay because it wouldn’t impair my productivity but, on the contrary, contribute to it. Read more>>

Donna Gafford

I went through massive grieving for my son who’s had health deteriorated because of a fatal disease. I literally woke up one morning and thought, “today’s the day I start acting!” I truly believe that it was my God’s way of moving my focus from my son to a new beginning! Read more>>

Nerea Barrondo

I started taking dance lessons at the age of 3 but it wasn’t until I was 11 that I decided I wanted to become a professional ballet dancer. You need to decide wether you want to be a dancer from an early age because the career starts early and it doesn’t last long. I knew ballet was my passion, I loved playing roles and dancing on stage. Read more>>

Jessica Rodriguez

The Idea of CANNAXICANACLUB came to me while working in the cannabis industry, I wanted to create a business that supports women, represents my culture and cannabis. I started creating resin art and created an infused intimacy lubricant, I wanted to combine a mix of my roots: graffiti, hiphop & cannabis culture. As women, we are the fastest growing consumers of cannabis but, we are still missing the recognition we deserve. Read more>>

Diana Leviton Gondek

My early years had a vital role to play in developing my creative side. Theatre was part of my educational curriculum in grade school as was music and fine art. Growing up in Evanston, IL I was close to Chicago. It allowed me to visit the best museums and see wonderful theatre, dance, and concerts.” In my youth, Pop Art had emerged as an art movement. It overwhelmed me and I adored it. I feel in youth, one didn’t over judge pop art, just enjoy the visual aspect of it. I was also influenced by The Renaissance, Impressionism, Expressionism and Surrealism.. Read more>>

Core Dj Hershey

The first I touched a turntable was when a friend of mine who asked me to attend a private function he was booked to DJ. He had to go to the bathroom really bad and asked me to cover the party for him while he took care of his “business”. Once I found out how the crowd reacted to my song selection I was hooked! Read more>>

Julia Betts

The first time I knew that I wanted to pursue an artistic path was in high school. I was taking sculpture classes in high school, but I felt that it was too impractical to pursue for a career. Sculpture was still my favorite class, but I had resigned myself that it wasn’t going to be my path in life. During one of the sculpture classes, my teacher Ms. King brought in a ceramicist to do a demonstration and artist talk. During his artist talk, he explained that his entire day-to-day life revolved around making his ceramic art. Read more>>

Shannon Purcell

I’ve wanted to be an artist for as long as I can remember. I was given oil paints by my father at a very young age and it was like a light bulb got switched on. I felt like I had found the way I could communicate what was in my head with other people. From that point on I spent most of my free time painting and drawing my world and my ideas. I’m very grateful that I had people around me who recognized that the visual arts were my path and supported me. Read more>>

Theresa Halvorsen

I’ve always wanted to be a writer. Like so many, I started daydreaming about what it would be like to fall into the various worlds I would read about. It was an easy jump from there to create my own worlds and my own scenarios. Then an easy jump to pretend to be someone else living in those worlds. Then, I found out how different words in different combinations could evoke different feelings, different attitudes, and different visualizations. I was hooked. Read more>>

DeAndre Byrd.

Thinking back, there really wasn’t a super specific time where I said I wanted to be a creative. I was always creative, rather it be drawing, painting, putting a class project together, even down to creating a song. I just knew I didn’t want to regular! Whatever I created I always had visions of it being the best because I gave my all creating it. Read more>>

J.G. LaFleur

I was exposed to music at an early age; it became my first love. I am a pastor’s kid. We are always put on the spot to sing, speak and play our instrument. Practicing with my uncle, attending rehearsals and piano lessons were always the highlight of my day. Growing up my uncle took me to concerts. He called them “musicals”. Read more>>

Darcel White Moreno

I’ve known since I could remember that I desired to be a creative. Debra ( my mother, I call her Debra depending on my mood) told me she always knew I wouldn’t work a nine to five. She tells the story of her taking me to a football game as a child and my face lighting up when I saw the shiny pom poms the dance line carried. There were and are so many sides of me. I fell in love with opera and ballet as a child. Read more>>

John Weber

In 1970, while attending Colorado State University in Fort Collins Colorado, I saw a local jewelry store owner demonstrate how to make a silver and turquoise pendant. It looked fairly simple to make and very pretty when finished. The store owner offered classes in beginning silversmithing, so i signed up for one of his classes. I purchased some basic silver soldering supplies, silver and several turquoise cabochon stones and began making pendants, rings and bracelets. Read more>>

Tyrani Milksz

I was born into a family with high expectations to go far and to achieve excellence in not only academics, but whatever we were allowed to do. This included any form of the arts such as music, sculpting, or painting. However there were a few chances for me to be imperfect and express my creativity with as much freedom as I wanted. When I was in the third grade my grandmother taught me how to sew, Read more>>

Emilya

I knew I wanted to be a music artist from a very early age. I remember being in elementary school and getting a radio. I spent hours in my room listening to music, dressing up, and dancing and singing. My stuffed animals were my audience and the feeling was so euphoric, I can still recall it to this day. I still get that feeling on stage and that’s how I know that performing is what I am meant to do. Read more>>

Russell McWilliams

Well, I’ve been a musician since the late 60’s. Didn’t do anything musically for about 30 years while trying to raise a family. When my wife passed away suddenly back in 2009, I decided it was time to get back to playing and formed a duo with my good friend, Lennie Tuck. We both had played rock n’ roll, but this time went in a different musical direction, a more folk, blues and country oriented approach. Also, we started writing music. That led to releasing our first EP in 2019 called “Better Late Than Never”. Read more>>

Linny Nance

I am the youngest of four Brothers and all my older brothers played instruments, take pictures, drew and painted. Brent the one closest in age to me became professional musician first and was my biggest influence. The other two Ron & Norvis took full time careers in Television, film tag and Photography. So I had great role models from the very beginning Read more>>

Jyoti Singh

I have always been a creative person, I have always loved to bake from my childhood but I didn’t have this idea until I was planning my Daughter’s 1st Birthday. I made my Daughter’s 1st birthday cake. First time I tried making 3 tier cake and I was so exited how it turned out. Everything I made from scratch. It was challenging but I loved doing that. everyone liked that cake in the party. I was not thinking about creating a business at the time. After getting many complements from family and friends, I decided to make my baking passion as a carrier and started my own home bakery “Celebrate with My Cake” in 2018. Read more>>

Joel Adimathra

It was the summer before my senior year of high school. I was thinking about what to major in, and think about what career path I should follow. Somehow, no matter what I was thinking about, it would always lead me back to music. I had a very serious talk with my piano teacher as well as his friend who was also in the creative field. Read more>>

Breyona Sharpnack

For a while, I put my art on the back burner for several reasons. At some point, everyone will experience a bout with depression. Anxiety, OCD, and bipolar disorder are part of my life and went undiagnosed and unmanaged for a long time. I stopped doing the things I enjoyed and creating art was one of them. After getting the help and treatment I desperately needed, I could pick back up a pencil and brush and start enjoying the one thing that kept me forever grounded. ART! Read more>>

David Ellenstein

My father, Robert Ellenstein, was a well known actor/director/theatre professional. He co-starred opposite Juliet Prowse on and off for several years in the musical Irma La Douce. At 4 years old I attended a matinee performance and watched my father cavort about the stage with such glee; such reckless abandon. He was so full of life and completely embraced with joy by the 2000 people in the audience, I knew there and then that was what I wanted to do. Though some of the specifics have adjusted and changed throughout my life, the desire and commitment to work in the professional theatre has never wavered. Read more>>

Victoria Voos

All it took for me was a friend telling me “you could be an influencer”. I didn’t believe her at first but once she said it a second time that’s all it took. I decided to really dive into it and I invested time and money. I took classes (shout out to Brianne Huntsman) and made friends who were also plus size size and had an online presence. At first I didn’t have a clear idea of what my motivation was other than proving I could do it. As I took classes and learned more I realized my motivation was about creating a community and providing a safe and inclusive space for my fellow plus size babes. Read more>>

Jose Mizrahi

As a young kid, I didn’t see a creative/artistic path possible or realistic. ‘It only happens in movies’ I used to think. It always seemed so distant. However, what I later realized is that the people that ‘make the movies happen’ are the same people like you and me. Someone getting coffee next to you, your next door neighbor, the girl driving down 2nd Street in traffic behind you, the guy laughing out loud in the back row of the cinema. Read more>>

Daniil Alikov

Pretty much all my life I was pursuing the idea of earning a living by doing what I love and where my passion is. And actually it happened to me three times. I succeeded twice and currently I’m working hard on achieving the main professional goal of my life. But let’s start from the beginning. First time I realized that I would like to be a professional artist when I was 20 years old. At the time I was interested mostly in two things – graphic design and computers. Read more>>

Lorrie Sanon

I first developed an affinity for design at the age of 14. i had always been a very detail oriented child, noticing and studying colors, textures, and the design of my surroundings. When doing my family chores around the house, for instance, I would sweep the carpet in the same direction so it would be the same color. and tone. Read more>>

Andrea Bogarin

Since I was a kid, I always loved painting, it was my favorite hobby. And for some reason I kept it like that for a while, “just a hobby”, but as time went by and through word of mouth I started to get commissioned paintings for offices, apartment buildings, houses, etc. Here is when I knew that my hobby could become a job as well. Later on, I started my own brand of clothing and merchandise with my artwork, creating a way that everyone could wear art, besides of having it hanging on the walls. Read more>>

Cali Ash

I started rapping when I was 14 at the lunch table because I was trying to impress a boy. We will just call him J. I remember it like it was yesterday. I was never really popular or well known and at the age I was I wanted to fit in of course. I didn’t have a lot of female friends in school either so I often hung out with the boys having a bit more to relate to being sort of a tom boy. The boys used to sit on staircases in the morning freestyling and I would sit there and hype them up , amazed with their flows. Read more>>

Yeonsoo Kim

I grew up on a little island without electricity where I got used to watching the sunrise and sunset every day. Living on the island opened my mind to all sorts of natural objects, such as mountains, sea, field, and eventually I fell in love with the soil and fire. I had been doing my art study with painting and playing with nature. From there I have learned the characteristics of clay, and I was attracted to its power of liveliness and vigor. Read more>>

Veronica Cisneros

My mom says I started talking when I was 7 months old, and by the time I was 1, I could speak in full sentences. Soon after, she gave me pencil and paper, and she taught me how to write my letters and numbers. We moved to Arizona for a couple years when I was around 2, and I started asking my mom how to spell words so I could write letters to send to my grandma. That’s where it all began. I also gravitated towards music and dancing very early on. I wanted to be a Fly Girl! Read more>>

Kevin Brooks

At a very young age. I believe 3 or 4. I would always stage action figures and create scenes. Also I would watch films with my mother or we would go to the movies. Watching performances and learning how the entire filmmaking process is done was really intriguing. Read more>>

Tianna Barber

I’ve always known I wanted to be a creative since I was a kid, but it was in my mid twenties that I finally decided to just go for it. After going to school for a major I didn’t feel passionate about, working dead end job after dead end job, I finally had enough. I decided in December if 2020 to create my art instagram. Read more>>

Munk Foo

There were a lot of culminating experiences that lead me to wanting to pursue my artistic/creative path professionally. It took me a while to realize and then accept that i was an artist, though every form of expression I choose was a different art medium. My earliest recollection of this was when I was about 6 or 7 years old. We lived with my grandmother and I think she might’ve dozed off watching tv and I changed the channel to PBS from ‘The Young and The Restless’ and on the tv was something I had never seen in my entire life. Read more>>

Kevi Morse

I knew that i wanted to chase this career in middle school when after being labeled a lunch table rapper to doing talent shows and seeing the crowd rock with my music I know I could possibly have a shot at this . I gained a lot confidence early on. Read more>>

Reggie George

I was inspired by tragedy and pain. One of my twin daughters was stabbed in the head w/scissors by a 15 yr old boy at school. Going through her brain surgeries, rehab, therapy, and suppressing the urge for revenge… aloud me to realize how much I appreciated the gift of bring a FATHER FIGURE. Read more>>

XOË MILES

I’ve always been involved in anything creative, whether it was performing in school plays or writing “books” in my free time as a child. I knew I wanted to do music full time after I went to a songwriting camp, where you got to write, record, and perform your own original song in front of an audience. It was so much fun, and everything was kind of a snowball effect after that. People started contacting my mom and offering me gigs when I was 14, so I’ve for sure gotten extremely lucky when it comes to being able to do music full time. Read more>>

Gya’ The Artist

So I had to be all of maybe 6 years old when I went to my first Earth Wind and Fire concert. The instruments, lights, energy, it all brought this rush of life to my brain super early on. I knew at some point in life I’d be on stage making girls faint and dudes groove. It took some time but I’m grateful to say I’m here in this position after that magical day. Read more>>