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.
Jemal Carter
Once I saw LL Cool J on Krush Groove do his cameo, I knew what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. Before then it was a hobby and I was a fan of rap and hip hop but after seeing that particular scene in that movie I had an epiphany and saw myself doing this as a job. From there I got with the right people to set me up on my path with, music, recordings and shows. The rest is history! Read more>>
Drax Gal
Growing up in Mexico, my passion for the world of entertainment started early. I spent countless hours with my brothers watching cartoons, playing video games, and most importantly, reading comic books. Our home was filled with them thanks to my mom, who worked at a magazine distribution company. Every month, like clockwork, she would bring home a box full of magazines and comics for us to enjoy. For me, those comics became more than just stories, they were a window into another world. The dynamic poses, the vivid colors, and the way the art conveyed so much emotion without needing to move fascinated me. It wasn’t quite like a book, and it wasn’t like a movie either, it was something awesome in between. Read more>>
Azure Zane
This past July, I unfortunately lost two classmates to unrelated accidents that claimed their lives. As a 25 year-old, I didn’t think that life could be so fleeting and as a result I knew that I knew I needed to pursue my dream of sharing my music with the world as a singer/songwriter. Since July I have booked 5 shows as an independent act and people have started to take me seriously as an artist. I currently have been trying to take opportunities that will push me to grow. Read more>>
Garrett Luczak
I always loved creating as a young kid, but it wasn’t until high school that I knew I wanted to pursue an artistic path. I ended up taking a 9 or 10 art classes through out high school, but wasn’t sure what to do with once I got out. My senior year we got a new art teacher, Justin Bickus, after my long time art teacher retired. He really connected with the students by sharing his artwork and even knew of a few skateboard artists I was obsessed with at the time. I thought it was so cool he was an actual practicing artist and even brought in several printmakers he knew to our class to do demonstrations. That’s when the idea to pursue an art teaching degree came to me. What could be better then having a solid career in the arts while being able to work on my own artistic pursuits on the side. Read more>>
Arabella Brown
As a child, I always loved creating art. I doodled on everything I could find, whenever I could find the time to. I was always the art kid, but I never actually considered pursuing art as a career. In my sophomore year of high school, my friend and I went to a local park and she brought her camera. I had a few small point and shoot cameras to mess around with when I was younger, but I’d never really attempted photography as an actual medium. I fell in love with the art of photography that day, and that year for Christmas I asked for my very own camera. A few months after getting my camera, Covid hit so I was left with only my home and backyard to photograph. Photography was the first art medium where I thought, “Maybe I could do this forever and not get tired of it.” The closer I got to college applications, the clearer it became that photography was my future. Read more>>
Will Parra
When I was 18, I worked that summer as a river guide in Maine. I had never been exposed to the outdoor industry before, but I had a family friend who ran a guide service up there, and decided to give it a shot. This was my first exposure into non-traditional work opportunities, but being a kid without much self reflection, it seemed like the most logical and normal path to take. Read more>>
Stephen Wise
I’ve always wanted to tell stories, even at the earliest age. As a child, I wrote short stories, plays, and scripts for my favorite TV shows. When I was 8, my friends introduced me to filmmaking, as even then I was a movie fan. All through growing up, I made my own short films with friends and family—basically anyone I could recruit to be in the films. I knew then I wanted to pursue either filmmaking or writing as a career. In college, I was fortunate enough to be selected for a limited film degree program at the University of Central Florida. Read more>>
Geahk Burchill
I don’t remember every wanting anything else. My first real job was as a door-to-door salesman at thirteen, which I managed to work 30-hours a week while in Middle School. This helped me talk to strangers and learn to tell stories. At fifteen I started my first art business, by organizing my friends, all dreaming of drawing comics, into Youth Comix Group. I had an unofficial race with (the now well-known cartoonist) Ariel Schrag, who also attended Berkeley High, to see which of us could publish our comic before turning sixteen. Ariel won–by a lot. My first comics were made on a copy machine, hand-folded & stapled. I trucked them, by bus, to all the various Bay Area comic shops to sell them wholesale for $1.25, and when I calculated my earnings after a year of work, after printing costs and bus fare–not including the hours of drawing–I had made a demoralizing $4.72. Read more>>
Sauniks
The moment I knew I wanted to pursue a creative path professionally came during college in Pittsburgh. I had been DJing for fun at the time for college parties and such, but everything changed when I first heard Skrillex’s Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites EP. His music didn’t just open my eyes—it practically rewired my brain. I was blown away by the way he manipulated sounds, pushing the boundaries of what electronic music could be. Right then, I knew I wanted to be a part of that movement. Read more>>
Faustinus Deraet
While working for IBM I realized there was something missing and decided to to go back to school and study photography. A few years later I became a full time photographer. Photography was not only a way to earn some money or a visual medium of expression, it was also about expressing my feelings and learning about my self. People say “A picture is worth thousand words”, to me, it’s also worth a thousand feelings and a thousand memories. Photography became part of my life. Read more>>
L. Kelly Lyles 206-937-2058
Almost any of the questions would work for me, so I randomly chose this one: I always wanted to be an artist, fashion-designer, or work in advertising, all of which seemed so glamorous as a tyke! I wrote and illustrated my own newspaper and tried to sell them door to door to neighbors as a kid, copied and illustrated an entire book on the Beatles (when I didn’t know where to find a 2nd copy). Was thrilled to win my 1st art contest as a 7 year old on the Queen Elizabeth (we lived overseas ’til I was 12, & mom was afraid to fly so we always took ocean-liners). Read more>>
Kimberly Winn
I have drawn and painted since I was a child. I grew up with art in mind and took every class I could get my hands in in middle school. high school and even in college. My distraction to art came in high school when I was introduced to sports medicine and decided that was the pah I should take. I followed this new love for helping athletes who were injured with prevention and care of injuries. Thirty years would pass and art remained a hobby, a few commissions and creative moments with friends and family. In Jan 2020 my brother was diagnosed with appendiceal cancer, very rare and hard to detect. He was stage four by the time it was detected and I was devistated and eleven month later he passed away. Read more>>
Fraser Radford
When I was in elementary school, I was always fascinated with different creative pursuits, whether it was watching programs like ‘America’s Castles’ on A&E, shows on fashion, art, and architecture or having fun in art class. While this wasn’t the tipping point for wanting to pursue a career in the creative field, it was certainly a good starting point. However, between the second and third years of university, I decided to pick up painting again as a way to take a break from constantly writing essays (I was pursuing a degree in Art History with a minor in Religious Studies) and it sort of stuck! Read more>>
Dominick Delfino
I started playing bass and guitar in my early teen years. I started listening to a lot of music and going to concerts often. As I continued to discover more music and practice my instruments something just started driving me. I think I was 16 years old when I attended my first Vans Warped Tour and I remember seeing all my favorite artists on stage performing and connecting with thousands of people and I just knew that’s what I wanted to do. I’m honored to now be able to create music that inspires others and connect with people in such a special way. Read more>>
Elle Levy
For the last 7 years I had a very successful airbnb buisness, the last 2 years after Covid the city of Los Angeles decided to enforce certain laws and restrictions on airbnb rental units. My last property was on a very quiet block and the Neigbor’s did not want an airbnb on that block. They would make daily complaints to make sure we got our license revoked and that’s just what happened. I was 35 a single mother with a little money to spare but not sure of what to do with my life since I had my airbnb permit taken. I always wanted to entertain. And I’ve been seeing people succeed in the podcast space that I felt I could do a way better job then. So I decided considering my age and circumstances there’s no better time then now, I am not getting any younger and I can’t wait till I’m 45 to decide to want to pursue my dreams , so I went for it, and as I thought , my fourth video I ever posted went viral. Now a year and a half later I’ve accumulated over 100 million views on social media. Read more>>
Kevaun, The Sunflower
I’ve always known I wanted to do entertainment since I was two years old. I would watch Barney and although I wanted to meet the purple dinosaur, I was focused on being on camera. As I got older, the dream of becoming a creative grew more and more. I feel like I was made to do nothing more than create. Read more>>
Deandre Young
Around 10 years old I saw how cool it was to be a rapper. Coming home everyday and watching 106 & Park and MTV Jams, made me want to grow up and be a rapper so that I can get my own music video on there one day. It’s a bummer that neither one of those shows is still around but it’s what got the thought proccess started. I didn’t start taking it seriously though until my senior year of high school in 2016. My best friend Mike started showing me the beats he was making and during that summer I would go to his parents house and we’d record songs in his sister’s old room almost everyday. I remember one song that Mike and I made called Hold On Tight got around 2,500 plays on Soundcloud and since then I truly felt like I could do something in this field if I really wanted to. Read more>>
Emily Reusswig
When I was 4 years old my aunt and grandmother played The Phantom of the Opera soundtrack in the car for me and I fell in love with it. I begged my parents to let me watch the movie and eventually knew the entire film by heart. For my 5th birthday they brought me to New York City to see the Broadway production. It was my first Broadway show ever. We also went to Ellen’s Stardust Diner before the show! After the show, we went to the stage door and the stage manager came out and pointed to me and a teenage girl. We were invited backstage to meet the cast, take photos, and talk about the show. As we walked out of the theater and my mom was telling me “That NEVER happens. Don’t get used to that!” I turned to her and said “That is what I am going to do when I grow up.” The rest is history! Read more>>
R033y
Music has been a part of my life since I was child. My family on both ends have always had music playing whether it’d be at gatherings or in the car on the way to school. My father specifically has always had the taste for multiple genres and as I grew up, he would always show me the music he listened to. At the age of 13, I found electronic dance music which caused a shift internally to want to create the same sound. It was a peak moment defining the coming years of my life. Read more>>
Angel Sessions
I started singing when I was a little girl. When I was 11 years old, I began writing songs and singing in the choir. When I got older, I knew this was my passion so I started seeking a studio and meeting people to help produce my songs in the studio. I later met someone who started managing my career. I went to lots of auditions to perform for many major Record Labels. Read more>>
Ash Caylor
Gosh, it’s been such a while since I’ve answered this question. Honestly, I believe I knew I wanted to be a creative since I was little. Sure ‘paleontologist’ was the first job I ever dreamed of having but the second one was ‘artist’. I drew a lot as a kid. Most people grow out of that, I didn’t. I leaned into it. The older I got the more I felt drawn to art and to that particular form of self expression. Not to get too personal but I faced a few hardships in my earlier years so drawing was not only a form of expression for me but an escape from the grief that came with those hard times. Read more>>
Lanaesya Burrell
The first time I knew I wanted to pursue a creative path professionally was during a pivotal moment in 2023 at Dreamcon, a convention I attended with my online friends. Up until that point, streaming was more of a hobby for me, something I enjoyed doing on the side. But Dreamcon changed everything. Being surrounded by other content creators, especially in panels where they shared their journeys, was an eye-opener. I saw firsthand the passion and hard work they poured into their craft, and it made me realize that this could be more than just a pastime for me. It wasn’t just about playing games or posting beauty content—it was about building something meaningful, something that could inspire others. Read more>>
Cassandra Freitas
I can’t honestly remember a time I didn’t want to pursue a creative path. My first dream- I wanted to be a frontman like Josie in Josie in the Pussycats. Then in highschool, I found solace on the stage and have been chasing that ever since. I knew inside of me that I was going to have to fight for this dream if I wanted it to happen. I went to college and graduated top of my class with a BFA in Acting. Then continued my education five years ago when I made my way out to Austin to continue my artistic journey at an acting conservatory here. Read more>>
Salvador Pineda
Freshman year of high school! I was already drumming at that point, but the day I finally got my own drum set and started a band with my neighborhood friends I was hooked. playing in out parents’ garage making our own songs inspired by everything we were listening to at] the time. Lots of punk rock I was listening to everything Travis Barker was playing, as well as other fusion drummers that my high school drum instructor got me hip to, Dennis Chambers, Dave Weckl, steve smith, and list goes on. Seeing all of those players is when I said to myself this is what I want to do. Read more>>
Krutika Pillay
Bharatanatyam is an Indian classical dance that is very intricate and requires years of rigorous training and discipline to master. As a child, when my mom was busy, my aunt would watch me and sometimes take me along to her dance lessons. I was just three years old when I first accompanied my aunt to her dance lessons. I would love being there and would imitate every step they practiced in my own way. Dancing came naturally to me, and I found joy in every movement I was there, dancing. Read more>>
Elena Koliusheva
I have been doing handicrafts since childhood, I read a lot learn new things, I have a lot of creative ideas and I wanted to share my creations with other people Read more>>
Kamia Mccoy
The first time I knew I wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally was at the age of 6. I started off playing the keyboard, cutting up my clothes for cool fashion and I danced ballet and hiphop. I have always loved all 3, fashion, music and dance. At the age of 10 I wanted to be a dance choreographer. I would make up dances with my friends, siblings and cousins at school and at family gatherings. When I turned 16 I started to write my own music, but I would always keep it to myself. It was very personal for me and I was too shy to share with others. I was truly a very artistic kid growing up. I would always go back and forth on being a dancer, music artist and fashion designer. Now that I am older I can incorporate all of them together. I make my own beats for my music and write my songs, I may not design clothing but I love to put different pieces together to come up with an outfit and I can choreograph my own dances when I do performances. Read more>>
Xavier Dalencour
In the beginning, I resisted the idea of becoming an artist. Though I always drew, painted, and wrote poetry, I didn’t want to be labeled as an artist at the time. My plan was to pursue a career in the corporate world. The first time I knew I wanted to pursue an artistic path professionally wasn’t the result of a sudden realization, but rather the culmination of years of subtle immersion in art and creative expression. I was born into a family of teachers and intellectuals in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and grew up surrounded by music and painting. My father, an amateur painter, taught me the basics of painting, and my aunt, a concert pianist, instilled in me a deep appreciation for classical music. Drawing filled my schoolbooks, but it never occurred to me at the time that art could become a vocation. Read more>>
Gatekeeper
I had to have been 4 or alittle younger. I was old enough to pay attention to the TV and pro wrestling really caught my attention at a young age. There was “Hitman” Bret Hart and Stone Cold Steve Austin and I was immediately sucked into the television. It was always a dream of mine to become a professional wrestler, though I got started later in life but I believe it was all in good timing. Here we are. It’s incredible. Read more>>
Vorpae
I first knew that I’d want to pursue illustration as career when I was thirteen years of age. The first career I wanted and still wish deep inside I had the mental to do was marine biologist, however. Around eight years old, I had to move far away from home to a new country (Italy) and it was quite overwhelming. Strangers all over and I couldn’t understand a single word. Since everyone that surrounded me was either young (my age) or that of my parents’ ( and I was more in a small town side of a place) English wasn’t something everyone knew or had to. Neither did I- to be fair, but I adapted and learned quick. Read more>>
Traci Fleeman
Creativity and Artistry have always been in my blood. I come from a family artists and entrepreneurs. I am a writer at heart. I love the power of words. Words can build worlds. Words can induce the full spectrum of emotions and feelings. I started a blog called The Fleeing Mommy, I shared stories about my life. Stories ranged from my past, to hilarious adventures with my littles. With life going at 1oo mph with my little family, I had to take a pause with that. I’m hoping to one day revisit my writing. While that still brings me joy, my heart is really with cooking. I can still remember the day when I first fell in love with cooking. I was over at my boyfriends house one evening, thinking we were going out for dinner, when he presented me with a cookbook. I have to admit, I was less than thrilled. He then proposed that we pick out a recipe to try and the rest, well the rest is a Food Network docuseries waiting to happen. Read more>>
Chennie Tsai
The first time I knew I wanted to pursue a creative path professionally was when I was 18. Growing up with parents who were designers, I never faced the usual skepticism about making a living as an artist—the classic “artists can’t make money” notion often voiced by Asian parents. Instead, I had their quiet support, which made me feel lucky. But my real inspiration struck during an exhibition at my landscape architecture program. A senior who had graduated before me returned to our school to host an exhibition and give a talk. After graduation, she had become a flight attendant, but what truly fascinated me was how she began sketching her way around the world, documenting every place she visited in her sketchbooks. Read more>>
Zechariah King
The first time I knew I wanted to pursue music professionally was in 6th grade. There was a talent show they were throwing and I had always messed around with rapping as a child so I figured why not. I got on stage, started rapping and it took someone in the crowd to yell out that the mic wasn’t on. Funny as it was the show continued, I finished my song and the ROAR they let out while the beat was still going really woke up something in young me. Getting off the stage to a bunch of people screaming and scrambling for your attention, trying to give you a high five, it was just a beautiful moment and I want to recreate that moment as many times as I can. Read more>>
Rachel Michelman
The course of my life changed in 5th grade. Prior to that, I thought I wanted to be a veterinarian, but that quickly changed one weekday morning in the spring of 2012. My school had the tradition of showing the 4th and 5th graders the middle school’s plays and musicals, and that one morning I was filed into our cafeteria to watch “Roald Dahl’s Willy Wonka.” I was just happy not being in the classroom at the time, but when the lights dimmed and I first heard “Pure Imagination” sung, I was hooked. Granted, the production was very much of middle school quality—our stage was indeed in the cafeteria—but it captivated me, especially given the fact that both Willy Wonka and Charlie were genderbent in the production. It made me feel so empowered to see that I too, as a woman, could play traditionally male roles in theatre. From that moment onward, I knew I wanted to be an actor. Read more>>
Amelia Oke
Stemming from my adolescence and learning as I’ve grown, one thing has always stayed constant for me. That one thing has always been music. I discovered my love for music and talent for singing at a very young age. I soon came to realize that not everyone is born with the talent of being able to sing; everyone is gifted with different talents. In my latest interview from ‘Voyage Michigan’ magazine I touched on the topic of singing since I was a child and knowing from a young age that I wanted to pursue music in some way. Now, at the age of 26, I’ve done a lot more growing and learning since childhood. During high school years is when figuring out a future career was really grilled into us; finding a college to apply to and all that jazz. Read more>>
Michael Cieslak
I’ve always been interested in writing. In fact, my mother still has some particularly embarrassing examples of my earlier work which she is holding on to in case I ever hit it big. My first foray into publishing happened while I was between regular jobs and doing gig work from home. I had submitted to numerous anthologies and wondered what it would be like to put together one of my own. I started researching just how one might go about doing such a thing, talking to a number of editors I have the pleasure of knowing. I found out how to get the word out about the upcoming book (placing announcements on the websites I visited when I was looking to submit my own work). I learned how to properly format an anthology, including a crash course in InDesign. I taught myself the ins and outs of Amazon’s publishing system, how to use Ingram to get books into bookstores and libraries, how to register for ISBNs…there was a lot of leaning involved. Read more>>
Branislava Dragovic
My Creative Awakening I still remember the day my father took me to the theater for the first time. The classic Brothers Grimm story, “Rumpelstiltskin”, was playing at the Belgrade Children’s Theatre. I was just three years old, but the magic of that performance has stayed with me forever. My father, an engineer with a passion for theatre, had collaborated with the theater on various projects. After the shows, he would often take me backstage to meet the actors, explore the costumes, and witness the behind-the-scenes magic. I was fascinated by this new reality and I felt an inexplicable connection to all of those unusual-looking people and their vibrant, bold and slightly scary personalities. Their creativity, passion and imagination sparked something within me. Read more>>
Karen Velasquez
I have always liked creating things with my hands from a very young age. Sketching and painting has always been a creative outlet for me and I have always implemented it into the other parts of my life. In school, from elementary to college, I would always doodle on my notes. I have always been a pretty anxious child, and I would feel immediate peace once I immersed myself in art. Every summer vacation I would do like 10 different art projects. Youtube DIY tutorials were my best friend. I remember the first time I painted on a shirt – when the first Despicable Me movie was released. I painted a minion face on a blank white tee. I would always take afternoon walks with my mom and our neighbors asked me where I had bought my minion shirt. Once I told them I painted it, they asked me if I could paint shirts for their kids. The first time I started doing commissioned pieces it fulfilled me so much because I was able to share my love for minions with others and seeing my art come to life and be worn in the real world. Read more>>
Eric Schaeffer
There isn’t an exact moment in my life that I knew I’d be doing photography for a living. By the time I was 12 years old I was filming skateboarding and taking photographs of my friends every day. I took photography in high school, and thats when my interest in photography and cameras became more of an passion. For the first time I was learning something in school that made me excited to go to class, learn, and even pursue on my own time. To this day I still research new equipment, observe photography techniques, research renounced photographers, and shoot photographs daily to constantly keep improving. There wasn’t any other career path I wanted to follow Read more>>
Kingston
The main thing that stood out to me was how it made me feel. When I was 3 I was at church and some kids were singing Christmas songs, one being jingle bells so I got up and walked to the stage they gave me a mic and I started singing. I realized the arts, singing, dancing, acting, and just anything else I felt was intriguing became a world I wanted to live in. Read more>>