Are artists born or made? To help answer this question, we asked some of the most artistic folks we know to tell us about how they knew they were going to pursue an artistic or creative path. We’ve shared highlights below.

Nicolás Casado

Somehow, I always knew. Never considered anything else. I was acting for theatre before getting serious with music. Since I was a kid, I had a fixation with phrases, quotes, dialogues. I used to watch movies, absorb the character’s delivery of a line and perform it the most accurate way I could. Always observing the detail and memorizing ridiculous amount of words. Same thing applied to songs, obviously. Singing has always being present. Whether I’m doing it casually while I walk down the street or performing for an audience. What I really wanted to do was act for movies, but there were no good opportunities in my city, not for film anyways. Read more>>

Isiah Adamson

My journey toward pursuing my passion began during the summers when the street around the corner hosted block parties. I eagerly signed up to perform, which ignited my love for the stage. Additionally, watching dance movies and television shows inspired me deeply, and I often envisioned myself in those roles. I dedicated countless hours to rehearsing my moves in my room, regardless of the time, because I truly fell in love with my craft.” Read more>>

Alexandra Langley

I’ve always been drawn to the arts for as long as I have been alive. I knew I wanted to do something creative with my life. Before I went into music, I was into drawing. However, I fell in love with the flute the moment I first played it at 10 years old. From then on, I put the pencil and sketchpad down and picked up the flute and lots of music permanently. After I reached high and achieved high, I knew this was what I wanted to do with my life. I got into my dream school for my undergraduate work, which I graduated in May 2020 (at the beginning of the pandemic). Unfortunately, I was drowning in heavy mental health issues and burnout by the end of my undergrad that I decided to take a gap year away from music. Read more>>

Ivana Bukovac

The first time I knew I wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally was when I was a child, under the guidance of my maternal grandmother. She introduced me to the world of art, teaching me how to communicate through the language of colors and shapes. It was through her that I first recognized the beauty and power of artistic expression, and it became clear to me that art was not just a hobby, but a profound way of understanding and conveying the complexity of the world. Read more>>

Dev Marvelous

As a child, I loved MGM musicals and old Hollywood movies, so that made me interested in acting, scoring, and filmmaking. I love CDs, DVDs, vinyl art, liner notes, and booklets, so that made me interested in art direction and graphic design. My love of jazz and old school music from the 1950s to 1990s made me want to be a musician in the first place. Being exposed to Electronic dance music and artists like Thievery Corporation, Daft Punk, and Mark de Clive-Lowe gave me the inspiration I needed to be a music producer. Read more>>

Qingyi Li

My journey into design has always been driven by storytelling and a deep interest in human experience. I began with illustration, gradually expanding into digital design, UX, and interaction design—where I blend storytelling with functionality to create intuitive and meaningful experiences. Read more>>

Juan Yari

The first time I knew I wanted to follow a creative path, great question! Ever since I was a kid, I’ve always been drawn to art, especially painting. But it was around the age of 12 or 13 when I discovered Daft Punk’s music, and that’s when a whole new world opened up for me—music. I remember becoming curious about how songs were made, how music was mixed, and I started experimenting with mixing music at that age. I knew it was something special. Read more>>

Will Brown

Art has always been a focal point of my life. I have vivid memories of spending countless hours lying on the floor drawing and coloring, with 90’s baseball on the tv, my brother playing a Gameboy next to me, my Mom preparing food in the kitchen, and my Dad in the backyard barbecuing. When I was 5 my family enrolled me in afterschool art classes where I practiced drawing from references with step-by-step instructions from a teacher. Art stayed in focus throughout my schooling and brought me to the University of California, Berkeley for college. Read more>>

Breon Laníer

When I think about the first time I knew, I go back to my childhood—raised in the soulful Pentecostal Apostolic church, where my mother was a choir director and minister of music. I watched her pour into her craft and ultimately witnessed her gift move the service every Sunday. This, coupled with being surrounded by other family members who were musicians and constantly listening to artists like B. Slade, Kim Burrell, and Brandy, helped embed this dream in me. Read more>>

Maggie Yee

I was 7 or 8 years old when I saw some drawings. I took one class at the Honolulu Museum of Art and was hooked. I was self-taught, and when I started to attend community college, everything I had taught myself fell into place, and I learned quickly. I tried every medium the college offered and settled on painting. Later assemblage intrigued me, so now I do both. I didn’t make a living on fine art, so I went into graphic design and theatrical scenic painting and continued with fine art in my free time. Art has always been my interest in life. I’ve had to persevere through personal challenges to keep that path open. Read more>>

Lindsey Williams

this is such a great question, honestly, I have known that I wanted to be a creative and someone who’s in the spotlight since I was a kid, I remember spending so much time in my childhood, probably starting around nine or 10 years old. I would go into my room and use my iPod touch that I was so obsessed with, And search for acting schools, modeling schools, dance schools, I remember being so in love the Disney Channel show shake it up at the time, I would search for Disney Channel auditions, nickelodeon auditions, and casting calls in my area- and I was so young that I absolutely didn’t realize that most of them were scams, and that my mom definitely was not going to take me to any of these auditions or calls, but I have always known that I wanted to be and was meant to be in the spotlight since a very young age. Read more>>

Leyi (Sandy) Chen

I’ve known I wanted to be a designer since childhood. My grandmother had a burgundy red velvet cloth that covered her mahjong table, and I was obsessed with it. I loved the softness, the deep color, and the way it draped. I would pull it off the table, wrapping it around myself as a gown, a superhero cape, or a royal robe, completely mesmerized by how it moved. Read more>>

ALL$TAR KA$H

From as early as I can remember, I love music. I’d sing or making little rhyming jingles to myself and I found that I could enjoy myself in the midst of music. I used to sing at school in devotion and sing in the church chior, however I disregarded my passion for music for a few years, trying to learn other professions. I wanted to be a teacher for the longest time, and a book I was reading about teachers said, if lecturing isn’t the passion you have,find your passion and use it in the classroom. That shook my whole perspective. Read more>>

Marcia Hodges

From the moment I could hold a pencil, I was drawing. As a child, my world was filled with colors, shapes, and endless possibilities. I sketched on every scrap of paper I could find, painted with whatever materials were available, and lost myself in the joy of creation. My high school art teacher recognized my passion and talent, encouraging me to pursue a future in the arts. I took her words to heart and entered college as an art major, eager to immerse myself in a world where creativity reigned supreme. Read more>>

Rob DeSantis

Probably in the 8th grade. That’s when I really became interested in learning to play music. I wanted to be like the bands I was being introduced to via peers, MTV, and my big sister. I also grew up on my parents records, very early on i was into the Beatles and rock and roll. Also have to credit shell gas for putting out a tape series called “cruising to the oldies”. Read more>>

Mariona Mora

I was a very creative child. I spent hours writing stories, reimagining their endings, and coming up with new characters just for the fun of it. I loved imagining, creating, and surprising my family. Years later, in university, I took a graphic design class and was fascinated by how a single brief could lead to so many diverse and unique visual interpretations. That made me realize that I could do it too — that I could explore and develop my own style and artistic sensibility. Read more>>

Timothy J. Cox

I knew I wanted to make acting my life when I was in high school where I did a lot of plays and musicals, but I would say that in those early days, I was more of a mimic than an actor. I borrowed, quite liberally, from TV and movies. I did a lot of impressions and I seemed to be interested more in getting laughs, in being a ham, which I was pretty good at, than being a serious actor. All of that changed when I saw Jack Lemmon in ”Days of Wine and Roses”. The moment that I saw that performance, I was hooked. I saw what he did and was blown away at how he could inspire, enlighten and illuminate, as well as entertain with that performance. Read more>>

Charles Burt

I grew up with the soul of an Artist. It’s something I always knew I wanted to do, but thought being creative and successful was something you were born with. I was good, but not good enough to theow away my future for it. Growing up in a broken home I went into the Army, and after Desert Storm I hit my three years and got out, but didn’t know it at the time that I was suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. I found myself without a job and a place to live. Then one day something in me snapped. I took the things the Army taught me about professionalism and being a good leader and applied them to my life. Read more>>

Larissa Schmock

It was a culmination of small events that led me to the idea of pursuing art professionally, however, there was a catalyst in 2024 that I will discuss later. The possibility that I could even pursue a career in painting crept into my consciousness in fragments. The idea began to unearth itself the day that I had a little “art show” at the office with my coworkers. It was late fall/early winter of 2023. I had just completed a 46″x 46″ painting of Lake Superior as a gift for my parents and I wanted to show it off to my coworkers. Someone brought in coffee and we made it a whole event. Everyone’s responses to the painting were overwhelmingly positive and a few commented that if I made prints, they’d buy them. The comment took me by surprise. I let that thought settle with me and it rattled around my brain for a few months afterwards. Read more>>

Kerkula Blama

It all started in 2016 when I moved to Monrovia to further my education after graduating from High School. In Monrovia, I was introduced to a music studio by a friend who was into music. There, I began to have the interest in music and started paying frequent visits at the studio to learn how to create beats and produce a song. Read more>>

Christopher Jessup

I’ve always known that I wanted to pursue an artistic path. As a child, I listened to a lot of Jazz music, and I would copy what I heard by ear on the piano and improvise. Later on, I learned how to notate my improvisations and turn them into full compositions. Music is and always has been in my blood! Read more>>