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. 

Kathryn D’Costa

Pursuing music is something I’ve always known I wanted to pursue deep down. It was actually a matter of believing in myself and knowing I was capable of it that was the challenge. Read More>>

Jack Graves III

I began drawing as most children do early on. I simply never stopped this expressive activity. While I attended boarding school, The Blue Ridge School, I made a point of consistently working on drawings during study hall. I was also afforded the opportunity to attend painting classes all four years under the tutelage of my teacher, and professional artist, Rick Cocke. Read More>>

Chris Acton

This is such an interesting question because I didn’t grow up thinking I would be an artist. I grew up imagining I would get a job that paid the bills and maybe do a creative something on the side. So here’s how that change occurred. Read More>>

Mossiah Jones

I grew up in the church there I discovered my love for music. I knew early on that I wanted to pursue a career in the music industry. Read More>>

Mya Fisher

My entire life, I have worked towards my goal of one day becoming a plastic surgeon. I always did well in school, taking the most advanced classes and making sure my resume showed I was a well-rounded student athlete. However, I always had a passion for art, especially since I attended an art school and majored in visual arts from 7-12th grade. Read More>>

Anthonysha Warfield

The first time I knew I wanted to pursue art professionally, I’d have to say it was around high school. But I have to give you a little backstory first because it won’t make sense without it. It all started with Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory Junior. And I need you to understand, I wanted to be Veruca Salt. Badly. Read More>>

Ariana Edwards

I think I first knew I wanted to pursue a creative path when I realized how much I loved expression and storytelling. I’ve always been drawn to modeling and acting because they allow you to step into different worlds, emotions, and perspectives. Over time, it stopped feeling like just an interest and started feeling like something I could genuinely see myself building a career in. Read More>>

Jalen Christopher

When I was in college, I had already changed my major twice. I started in engineering, then switched to psychology, and eventually landed in graphic design. At the time, graphic design was the first thing that made me feel connected to creativity professionally. Read More>>

Olivia Jones

The first time I realized I wanted to pursue acting professionally was when I was very young. Growing up, music and film became more than just entertainment for me — they became a safe place for me. Read More>>

Shweta Vasudeva

I don’t think there was just one defining moment when I realized I wanted to pursue a creative path professionally, it was a feeling that had been a part of me since childhood. Ever since I was four years old, the stage felt like home. I started performing dance at a very young age, completely self-motivated and naturally drawn toward performing and expressing myself. Read More>>

Vinnie Langdon III

Around the age of thirteen, all my friends were playing sports or focused on getting a summer job. For me, I was wondering what my “thing” was going to be. I joined the local TV station in my hometown (Vacaville, California.) I began volunteering as a production assistant. Read More>>

Maryam Gomizi

Maryam Gomizi, professionally known as Mary G, was drawn to art and painting from early childhood. However, in the society where she grew up, art was not considered a realistic path for a young girl, but rather a distant and often impractical dream. She spent twelve years in an educational system that did not offer even a single hour of formal art education. Read More>>

Jason Barletta

I honestly feel like I’ve always been an artist in some form. Drawing and creating were just things I naturally gravitated toward growing up. But the moment I realized I wanted to pursue art professionally came later, when I met my friend and mentor Paolino, who introduced me to tattooing. Around that same time, I was also painting constantly and sharing my work online. Read More>>

Yuding Shi

I first realized I wanted to pursue a career in the arts during my time in college. When I entered Lu Xun Academy of Fine Arts, I was immediately drawn to the school’s strong and open artistic atmosphere. There were opportunities to explore a wide range of mediums and crafts, from illustration and design to wood carving, printmaking, and screen printing. Read More>>

Judi Light

Life of course had many ups and downs and my art was always pushed to the back burner, always just dabbled with but never pursued. When I was 50 something changed. I got the cosmic tap on the shoulder to go pick up my pens and draw. I also had a pan of watercolor paints I’d never used. Never had the interest really. Read More>>

Vincent Massi

The first time I knew for sure that this was the path I wanted to take was actually one year after doing my first commercial. I had landed that commercial role completely by accident when I was in high school after befriending someone on the media team. Read More>>

Mikael Levy

When I saw Mick Jagger at 8 years old in Zurich, Switzerland. I believe this was my first concert ever, up to that point I had grown up with the stones and I just remember feeling that energy, that glow he had on stage and thinking to myself: ‘this is it, this is what I wanna do for the rest of my life’ Read More>>

G. Brian Benson

Right after I left my family business which I had been running for 11 years and “accidentally” wrote my first book while working on myself. I found myself out of balance and unhappy while in the process of leaving and I wrote down a handful of things that I felt could help keep me in life-balance during this period and they really helped. Read More>>

Derek Jameson

Being a bullied teen, you seek an outlet for expression. It was my way of moving energy. If I couldn’t talk about it, I could surely write about it. Music was born from being an outcast… and thank God for all of it. Read More>>

Squal Scollard

It didn’t happen all at once. It felt like it was something I kept seeing in my head before it even showed up in my life. About two years ago, I got into the law of attraction and The Master Key System, and that was definitely a turning point in my life. I learned that my goals aren’t a matter of “if”, just “when”. Read More>>

Preeti Singh

An Accidental Artist — that’s what I call myself. Why? Let me take you back a little. I was born and raised in India and spent several years working in the corporate world as a software engineer. Over the last decade, life took me on an incredible places across continents before I finally settled in the USA. Read More>>

Ebony Jean

Discovering my passion for a creative/artistic path professionally came in 2017 while I worked in beauty retail sales. After graduating from high school in 2008, I started watching popular YouTube influencers specializing in beauty content and explored makeup artistry and wig styling. Dedicating spare time to learning from other content creators helped me perfect my craft. Read More>>

jeanne jaffe

I was born in Butler, Pennsylvania, a small steel mill town, where I spent much of my childhood exploring the woods and shores of a nearby lake. Although I did not pursue art as a formal discipline until my twenties, these formative years instilled a sensitivity to the tactile and imaginal life that would later shape my practice. My educational and personal journey was unconventional. Read More>>

Bill Littlefield, Eric Koone, Brendan Lombard, Eric Berinskey, Justin Sphinx N/A

Bill Littlefield: 1976 when I first heard KISS – specifically, Strutter, Deuce, and Black Diamond. I was 6 years old and I started imitating Ace Frehley using a tennis racket. I finally got an electric guitar (from Sears) in 1979 for my 9th birthday and that was that … nearly 47 years later I’m still playing. Read More>>

Christina Fuentes

I remember doing a scripted skit with a small group of girls that we filmed in high school, I believe for social studies class. We did a comedic style news report of some historical event. The video was in a sense, a hit, in that it was shown in several classrooms, other than our class. Read More>>