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.

Denise Brislin

While we were living in Merritt Island, FL I earned a promotion that required us to relocate to Tallahassee. It was a difficult and conflicting decision to make but my wonderful husband stayed in Merritt Island to sell our home and continue working while I moved ahead to Tallahassee. Read more>>

Cole Davis

When I finally picked up a guitar and realized I could make some noise with it that’s when I realized I wanted to do that for the rest of my life. I’m always trying to get better at the guitar I’m always trying to find different ways to play it in different genres. I am a really creative person at heart so playing music and singing is perfect for me because I can create whatever song I want or whatever noise I want. Read more>>

Carlos Ku King

It’s difficult to pinpoint a time when it became clear art is what I wanted to do with my life. I suppose it’s been one of those things that has always played a part of my life. I can go back all the way back to Pre-K, and remembering myself just sitting there drawing or writing silly stories I’d have my friends play out with action figures. Read more>>

Catalina Magee

I can vividly remember my childhood days when I was constantly impersonating those around me – it was an instinctive art of mimicry, if you will. I suppose it was this deeply ingrained fascination with assuming another’s persona that naturally guided me towards the craft of acting. Read more>>

Senasha Price

I have always loved music, but was scared to take a leap of faith. Solely depending on a creative passion for income is scary, and it requires flexibility, ingenuity, and tenacity. I started doing music on the side as a therapeutic release. To be honest it took a life of its own. Read more>>

Jeremy Biggers

I knew early on I wanted to be an artist, even before I knew being an artist was a legitimate career. My earliest memory of being an artist I was in kindergarten and my teacher gave us a homework assignment over one weekend. She had taken the comics from the Sunday paper and removed the last panel from each strip and asked us to draw what we thought was coming next. Read more>>

Seiko Hashimoto

Let’s say I decided to pursue a creative and artistic path professionally when someone told me that I have some talent I didn’t know! My answer could be long for this question because I have to explain how I got here and transferred my career. Turn around to say that I have a very lucky life that has been. Because here I am a creator of jewelry now and I have been a professional dancer since 18 years old until I retired at the age of 47. Read more>>

Jimy Bousek

I’ve always wanted to dedicate myself professionally to music, and although it has been difficult to me sometimes, I believe that the most important thing is todo do what you love with passion, pushing beyond your own limits. That’s what I’ve tried to do since I started in music when I was a teenager, and now, as an adult, I am increasingly committed to following my path , which is the art of making music. Read more>>

Adele Webster

As a child, I discovered my natural talent for art, and the recognition and praise I received for my artistic abilities became a crucial part of my journey towards becoming a full-time artist. I found comfort and solace in the world of art. The positive reinforcement from teachers, family, and peers further fueled my passion and confidence in pursuing a career in the arts. Read more>>

Acadia Kandora

Even as a kid, I had an itch to make things. Whether it was making houses for my Pokémon figures out of old milk jugs and tissue boxes, maps to nowhere in particular, or putting together silly chroma-keyed videos with my little sister, I always had to keep my hands moving alongside my brain. Read more>>

Quantavious Worship

Ive always wanted to be an artist since a kid. I would tell my mom that I will be an artist, go to art school, and buy her a house. I completed 2 of those still working on buying her a house. Art was all I did, it kept me from getting into mischief and it help control my emotions. Read more>>

Arantza Valdivia

Since I was a kid, I always knew that I would love to pursue a career/path related to art. However, once I got older, and the time came to decide on a career, illustration wasn’t my first choice. From the beginning, art and creativity have been a big part of my life. It shaped my childhood through drawings, crafts, and creating games. Read more>>

Juliana Purcell Sheehan

Being an artist was chosen for me and made clear early on,. As a baby, my first word was the color was ‘yellow’ and my second was ‘blue’., from then on instead of basic words like “ball”, I was learning colors. Abnormal because no one in my family was an artist. As a kid growing up, I remember always knowing how I wanted to run my career as an adult. Read more>>

David Matlock

When I started this journey I was looking around the tattoo shop at artist’s equipment and I realized they were all the same, cheap and boring. You’re building a brand around yourself and your equipment should speak to that brand. Why be boring when you can stand out above the rest. Read more>>

Shelby Ouellette

I have loved art and drawing for as long as I can remember. I started drawing on a wacom tablet and desktop when I was in middle school, even doing commissions for my friends. Making a living through art had always been my dream. My mom and grandmother are both very creative, artistic women, and so my family always fully supported my ambitions, and for that I am incredibly grateful. Read more>>

Keiko Gonzalez

from the moment i realized my father (a very succesful architect) had been convinced by his own father to study architecture instead of art (painting) – in order to have a lucrative paying career (and stay away from the bohemian financial insecurity of the life of a painter) i knew that i had to pursue this path for myself Read more>>

Enola Bedard

When I was 16 years old, I won a scholarship at a dance competition to go for a week in LA. It was the first time I saw how amazing the dancers were in LA and how extraordinary the training was as well. I then had the goal to move in LA and become an dancer, singer, choreographer and actress. Read more>>

Natasha Azari

During the time that I was a preschool teacher I had a burning desire to seek my purpose. I loved working with children, but I felt like I was called to take a different path, and one that aligns with my true passion. I was reading a lot of self-development books, and one of them was called Leveraging The Universe by Mike Dooley. Read more>>

Destiny Soria

I knew I wasn’t accepted by people because I am different. I’m autistic and I have ADHD. People like me don’t really get chances to show what we can really do. We can act, sing, play, and other amazing things just like everyone else. They see us as difficult beings, we are, and we can’t help or change that. Frankly I don’t want to be normal, never have. Read more>>

Elysa DeMartini

As a child, I asked to go to museums for my birthday and wanted to be an archaeologist. I was fascinated by design, art, culture, travel, dance, fashion. My head was constantly in books and with a dreamers mind. My mother, a divorced woman with 3 kids in the 70’s, exposed us to as much culture as possible. Read more>>

Christi Lee

Since I was small I enjoyed being creative but my first dream job was not being an illustrator or creative in any way. I wanted to be a vet, but the lack of math knowledge and an unfortunate and traumatising vet visit as a teenager gave me first existential crisis. Read more>>

Benedetto Angelo Zoe

I knew I wanted to pursue the arts as a professional the moment I realized that a brand name was either someone’s actual name, their pseudonym, or even just a word with a meaning behind it. I wanted to create my own Read more>>

Kara Jackson

Growing up there has always been a spark of creativity in me, from experimenting & inventing cosmetics, to slaying Girls hair and even discovering I can make beautiful Melodie’s with my voice. I knew I wanted to pursue a professional creative path when I realized Styling hair/ brows and acting has always came so natural to me my god given talents began to keep my Pockets full and keep smiles on people’s faces. Read more>>

Desirae Maldonado

In seventh grade, my family’s rich tradition in hairstyling inspired my desire to become a hairstylist. Growing up surrounded by aunts, uncles, and cousins who were passionate about various creative fields like makeup, nails, sewing, and jewelry, I naturally gravitated towards artistic expression. Read more>>

Mason Wiley

I started my art career at a later age. I was a part of the surf industry for many years and during that time I was always interested in art and expressing myself. So, one day I decided to pursue a career in art. I was accepted to the 27th Annual Juried Exhibition at the Athenaeum art museum in La Jolla with a painting I just finished and wanted to see what would happen if I entered it. Read more>>

Bobby DeJesus

I was a junior in George Washington High School and had been in an acting class taught by Robert Stonebridge. The funny thing about that is that acting is not anything I had ever thought about. I was a DJ originally and rolled with a DJ crew called Dy-Nas-D Productions. Read more>>

Ash ‘WOLFDOG’ Hayner

I had always grown up creative — coming from a web design background at a very young age, I started having an eye for composition early on. Throughout high school, I continued to learn various programs, ranging from Illustrator to early 3d. Read more>>

Jane Steelman

I’ve always known that I was most interested in the creative process and explored many media from high school to the present. I was pursuing a double major at Appalachian State University; one of which was art. Read more>>

PiKaHsSo Verbadelyck

I knew i wanted to pursue a creative & artistic path professionally when my mother Fahimah Catherine Moore from Aberdeen, Mississippi took me on a trip to Washington, DC to hear Warith Deen Muhammad speak when i was a teenager. Read more>>

Ciaran Short

Growing up, I never considered art to be a viable career path. Neither of my parents or anyone we knew worked in the arts. My family encouraged an interest in art as a way to have a balance and well rounded life but never as a true vocation. Art was simply a hobby or pastime. Read more>>

Nancy Marks

I didn’t think I had a creative bone in my body! I loved coloring as a child, but as I grew up, nothing felt comfortable or made me excited. My folks are in a local assisted living facility and Mom was taking classes in fused glass. I wanted to have something we could share so I took a course. Read more>>

Keonia Saulsberry

I first thought about wanting to pursue my artistic path mid 2023, when I started taking my craft more seriously! I went through things as a young teen mom going into adult hood , I triumphed over a lot of difficult things in my life and I want to take wht I learned and possibly teach the youth from my past mistakes to prevent them from going through things they don’t have to. Read more>>

Nicolas Valenza

As far back as I can remeber I was always doing something creative. my mom jokes that I came out of the womb with a pencil and paper in my hands. for me art has always been a priority, it runs in my family, both my mother and grandmother are fantastic painters. Read more>>

Buster Moody

I always liked drawing as a kid, but when I was in maybe first or second grade in elementary school we had an assignment to do a drawing recreating a pose from a photograph or pre-existing graphic. I copied a Joe Montana pose from a 32oz plastic Chiefs cup my parents had gotten from going to a game. Read more>>

Edwin Fry

As a teenager I was pretty lost, I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I knew what I liked, but I didn’t look far enough ahead to think about making it a career. When I was 18 I randomly started experimenting on Garageband using the loops that came with it. I realised I had a knack for it. Read more>>

Jaron Wallace

This is an interesting question! I suppose I‘ve always sensed that art was something I wanted to create. For as long as I can remember. Now turning art into a career? That’s not something I started to consider a real option until halfway through college. Read more>>

Sheri Gill Dixon

Growing up I was a very creative person. I played the piano and the trumpet and acted in plays. My very first job was working at the local movie theater. I fell in love with movies. Every aspect…the acting, cinematography, music, production, etc. I loved acting and the art of making movies. Read more>>

Gagan Preet Kaur Virdi

I’m Gagan Preet Kaur Virdi, an independent producer currently navigating the vibrant landscape of Los Angeles, originally hailing from the quaint town of Mailani in Uttar Pradesh, India. Read more>>

Noah Gray

I think the moment I realized that I wanted to pursue making music and performing as a career was around the age of 11 or 12. I had discovered the band Evanescence through a Pandora radio station around that time, and I had become so entranced by their music. Read more>>

Lotus Flow

My journey towards pursuing a creative and artistic path professionally began at a young age with a foundation in 10 years of classical piano training. Growing up in China, I immersed myself in the intricate world of classical music, developing both technical proficiency and a deep appreciation for the beauty of composition. Read more>>

Sharwari Kale

Well I grew up in an artistic or creative environment. I am a trained Kathak (an Indian classical dance form) dancer, Hindustani classical singer and a painter in mediums like acrylic, oil, pencil and charcoal. I was a very active part of the theatre. But I never knew making films was on my cards. Read more>>

Davis Bashungwa

I have been drawing and creating art for as long as I can remember. But it wasn’t until I was about 18 that I realized I wanted to actually pursue art seriously. I started doing online art commissions and was absolutely thrilled to find an audience in the online sphere. Read more>>

Anna Tjernlund

Drawing was something I had an affinity for from a young age, but I never considered a career in the Arts as a young person. In college, I studied English Education for two years. Then, when I was twenty-one, I became a mother and I left school to stay home with my newborn. Motherhood inspired me to live as a role model for my daughter. Read more>>

Moon Chang

When I was young, I wanted to become a fine artist, especially paintings and sculpting, for a long time. However when I was 7 years old, I started to draw human figures with clothes, dressing up them, writing the years and styles, and also price as well, and I guess that was the moment that I wanted to become a fashion designer. Read more>>

Erin Kosovan

I knew that I wanted to write a book after countless traumatic relationships. It took me years (fifteen to be exact) to realize that the behavior I was allowing was creating chaos in relationships. I let poor self-esteem and past trauma determine my worth. Read more>>

Amber Shea Hodge

As a child, I always said I wanted to be a singer, and as I grew up that changed slightly to also focus on acting and dancing. I was told that as a kid I loved being on stage and grabbed every opportunity to perform. When people asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, the answer was simple. Read more>>

Teliah Dounis

It was always a prominent thought, a loud, knocking desire I had at a young age. I wasn’t entirely sure how the puzzle would piece together at the time; however, in 2013, I made an intentional decision that occurred while completing my Bachelor of Business (Human Resources) degree and applied to also complete a Music Industry degree. Read more>>

Lisagaye Tomlinson

I made this important life decision in 5th grade. We used to periodically have a drama teacher come to class to teach us some acting basics. One day, our regular teacher announced our class would be putting on a play. She went over the characters and said there would be a voting process that would determine which student would play each part. Read more>>

Eki Shola E.

I grew up in a musical family and my mother started teaching me piano at age 4. My first introduction to jazz was years later as a premed student at Cornell University, where I played vibraphone in the jazz Lab Ensemble. During medical school and residency I started making beats and writing songs whenever I had free time. Read more>>

Whitni Resides

There are two moments in my life I always remember when I think back to when and how my love for the arts/entertainment industry began. The first, I was four years old and was casted in my first ever acting role in a play. I only had one line but that’s all it took. I remember stepping on stage for the first time in front of a live audience and giving my all for that line. Read more>>

Allie Joseph

I was privileged to grow up encouraged to create. Starting in first grade, my school in Arizona would give us all the assignments in the beginning of the week. I would rush to finish it as quick as possible so I could spend the rest of the week in the art room. The need to create has motivated me consistently since. Read more>>

Jalisa Mosby

I knew first I wanted to pursue a creative and artistic path professionally when i discovered my gifts and talents could allow me to help others and impact my future as an entrepreneur. Taking classes in high school opened my horizons to a career path in Beauty. Read more>>

Cedric Stephens

I first wanted to purse a creative/artistic path professionally when I saw Michael Jackson in person at the Super Bowl in 1993. Read more>>