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.
Jae Cabrera
The first time I knew I wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path, was when I was 6 years old. My parents liked to play music in the house. Everything from The Beatles and Elvis, to Michael Jackson, The Commodores, Air Supply and more. I remember watching Motown 25 with my family and seeing Michael Jackson perform “Billie Jean” for the first time and then witnessing him doing the moonwalk for the first time. It was that moment, when I said, “I want to do that!” Read more>>
Mahmoud Shoolizadeh
I am one of eight children of an oil field worker in Iran. It was clear early in life that I wouldn’t follow my father’s path. So I became obsessed with American soap operas and movies, and dreamed of making movies of my own. Read more>>
Cameron Sykes
I believe the first time that I felt 100% sure was the first time I was hired to host a creative writing workshop for schoolkids. It was a public school in the Bronx and the kids seemed so enthusiastic about, not only hearing poetry, but exploring their own minds creatively. It was an amazing experience and it reminded me about how I was in the beginning, figuring myself out. I decided then that this was the path I wanted to take, to see where I’d end up at if I kept chasing similar experiences. Read more>>
Avery Reed
The bane of every creative’s existence: the dreaded desk job. I graduated college in New York City and started work as an Editorial Assistant at Penguin Young Readers. It seemed to be a dream job–working with authors and illustrators to create picture books; what could be better? Read more>>
Mecca Wy’Asia
The first time I knew I wanted to pursue music professionally was when I was 7 or 8 years old, going to the studio with my dad. Music has always been my dream job because I have a passion for it. Now as an adult, I try to take on every sensible opportunity to further myself of reaching my goal. Read more>>
Jennifer Sanders
The first time I felt the pull towards professional photography was during my time teaching Spanish at an elementary school. I found myself pursuing education about how to shoot well and how to edit proficiently. I had offered my skills as a fundraiser for the school and during that family session I realized, “I am totally limited by the camera in my hands! Read more>>
Saul White Jr
Well I had no choice, I was destined to play basketball. My father played basketball with former NBA player Doc Rivers at Proviso East and their rivals were St. Joseph’s and NBA Hall of Fame Isiah Thomas. Our family was all about basketball, so you can say I was born to play and love the game of basketball. As A kid I always had a basketball and you could always find me at the playground playing basketball with my friends or shooting around by myself. Read more>>
Jelly
As a toddler, despite being able to read, write and do maths early, my favourite thing was painting and drawing. I was fascinated by the pictures my mum drew and stuck to my wall so I could learn words. She was always very stylish, loved fashion and even made some of her clothes and together with my dad who was Trinidadian the house was always filled with music, colour and good food, all of which inspired me. Read more>>
Keyawna Harris
I started writing little songs in little homemade song books in 4th grade. Bouncing back and forth between PA, and TN because of joint custody and being the oldest of 7 siblings, 3 of whom are fighting brain cancer, and organ failure, I used to read and write and envision myself as a star who could take care of every burden my family felt, and heal everyone like me who felt lost and alone while the people you loved were dying right in front of them. When I was 13 I went to the Pierce the Veil concert. I was a super emo kid, and proudly still am. Read more>>
9ytTrain
The first time I knew, I wanted to purse music. Um I would say 2020 to be honest. I always wanted to get involved with music but to take it seriously and professionally it was 2020 during the pandemic. Back in 2018 a friend of mine (M3LO Fully Loaded) started his career and really pushed it and perfect his craft. He’s mainly the reason why i started. Read more>>
Annie Campbell
It was 2020 and it was the middle of the pandemic. I was in between jobs and had a new baby at home. It was then that I really started using art as an escape and to keep my mind busy. I’ve always been a creative person, drawing, painting and creating artwork for my kids rooms. I even worked in art galleries after I received my BFA from Lindenwood University. So this wasn’t a random hobby I stumbled upon. Read more>>
William Nesmith
I always had a passion for music. All of my best projects throughout school involved songwriting or other musical elements. I think I chose to study Marketing in undergrad and in the graduate level because it was the “safe choice”. I could earn a good living while still using my creativity with little to no risk. My grad school internship became a full time job, and I was happy, but it felt like something was missing. I found out about a songwriting circle an hour away from me that met twice a month. Read more>>
Syd Genco
I was a stage actor from the time I was 5 years old. I pursued acting my entire young and young adult life, from community theatre, to attending a performing arts high school, to majoring in Musical Theatre in college. Makeup was always a skill I was good at, and I often ended up helping my cast mates with their makeup for shows, but I never considered it a career option. I WAS GOING TO BE A STAR! Oh…oh, youth. Read more>>
Teresa Cook
To be honest, becoming a full time artist is always who and what I wanted to become. I also wanted to be my own boss, so to say. I started painting often when I was around 16. During high school, my art teacher, can’t think of her name right now, saw how great I was at creating and following the many techniques she gave us. I knew that art was what I wanted to do. Read more>>
Del Muzik
I Knew music was for me when I was able to create stories within my music. When my listeners could visualize and experience the feelings I had in my music and passion for the craft. Read more>>
Aisha Lee
As a child, I had always been the artist of the class. Every chance I got, I showed off my art skills by doing extra well on creative assignments. I knew I had a natural talent for art but I wasn’t aware of the idea of using creativity as a job until I watched the movie Selena at the age of 7. I remember being mesmerized by the scenes that showed her drawing clothes then turning them into fashion. Read more>>
Raff Alpha
Well since I was a kid I always knew I wanted to do something involved with the arts. As a child I use to draw anime characters and make my own comic books. I Actually would sell my drawings at school to the students. As I got a little older, my love for writing music and making beats grew. I fully invested myself on becoming a MC once I heard a song by Nas called “The World Is Yours”. I always tell people that, that was the day I fell in love with Hip Hop and became fully invested in the culture. Read more>>
Sofia Karam
The first time I knew I wanted to work in the entertainment world was about 6-7 years ago now. I had someone super close to me take me to a launch event in Miami. At that event, I had a Talent Agent come up to me and want to sign me. She thought that I would be successful in this industry, and as shy as I was at that time, I decided to go for it! I thought to myself, ok this is definitely something new but why not? I’ve always loved to model, take cute pics at home, but that’s it! I didn’t do anything more than that. Read more>>
Kyrstin Young
I have danced since the age of 2. I knew at the age of 7 after my first hip hop class that I wanted to pursue dance as an actual career. I remember watching music videos on 106&Park and being so intrigued with Ashley Everett, one of Beyonce’s dance captains, that one day my time would come to live in that same light. When I was little, I would have concerts in my room as if I was on stage in front of thousands of people. Read more>>
Molly Free
I was doing styling on the side when I first came to Nashville, just for fun and for a creative outlet from my work from home corporate job. I was thrown into a project last minute and the director asked me why I wasn’t doing this for a living, and I told him I’d honestly never thought about it. Read more>>
Reneé Royal
The very first time I thought I could pursue art professionally was in 2020 at age 29, even though I had been a creative person my whole life. I discovered my creative passion at a young age and the passion grew as I grew. I went on to receive my BFA from the University of Maine Presque Isle, but even then I still didn’t consider a professional creative path, I had the mindset that I would create art only as a hobby. Read more>>
Angela Dale
I’ve been a licensed cosmetologist for 16 years, and it had always been what I thought, was my passion! One thing about styling hair, especially black women… there is TONS of hairdryer time, and you better believe all thos breaks with idle hands led to me falling hard into my vices. When I say voices. At the time it was cigarettes. I took all the smoke breaks, even if I didn’t even really want it. It was purely out of boredom! Read more>>
Alethea Perez
I think probably the first time I had that realization was being a kid maybe 7 years old coloring at the coffee table watching tv I remember I was watching Disney with my mom or my dad and they used to do segments between cartoons I think or it was an actual show on the Imagineers or behind the scenes of Disney. Read more>>
Rico Blu
I realized I wanted to take the leap and push myself to be a great artist when I saw how reachable it was. Probably around when I was 19. Watching my peers do their thing and how much growth was coming from it inspired me to want to extend my narrative in all aspects, especially using my voice. I knew that if their music helped me get through certain times, I also could get through to someone who might’ve been in my same position. Read more>>
Tasha Hutchison
At 16yo, my mother would use creative writing as a means to redirect my drama queen antics. Whenever I became a drama queen, I would have to write a complete story. It had to have a beginning, middle, and end with a goal. It didn’t take long for me to fall in love with fiction writing. Read more>>
Simone Nicole
I cannot remember a time in my life when the arts were not something that I was passionate about. Some of my first memories were of me being put up on the kitchen counter in front of my entire family at a party to sing a gospel song that was way too mature for me at the age of 3. My father used to be a music producer, and I would sit in his lap all day while he worked. Read more>>
Julie Chapman
When I was in grade school – I wanted to be John James Audobon, experiencing and depicting our continent’s wildlife firsthand. But I’d only heard the “starving artist” meme, and since I like to eat, and I like science and math, I went to a good engineering school on scholarship. I then worked 18 years at Hewlett-Packard, and loved the fellowship of bright, driven technical types working towards a common purpose. Read more>>
SANOizm
As a young child I was always curious about drawing. By elementary school 3rd grade I had my first art teacher and also took young artist classes at Cleveland institute of Art. By 5th grade I started doing graffiti and becoming very competitive with my art… trying to draw better than the 8th graders! Thru out high school I kept nurturing the skills, and was developing underground notoriety in Cleveland’s graffiti scene. Read more>>
Molly Blaeser
I’ve always been writing, Well, scratch that: I’ve always been creating. When I was a child, I used to have very vivid dreams. After one particularly fascinating dream, I narrated it to my father the next day; he wrote it on sheets of paper for me, which I then illustrated. I read it to all the other children along our cul-de-sac and proclaimed I’d “written a book.” Read more>>
Caresha James
The first time I officially knew was honestly prior to the Pandemic leading into the Pandemic. During those times I was able to think about a lot, how a regular 9 to 5 dead end job could be taken away from you just like that and not guaranteed long-term. Being a creative the opportunity and money being made is limitless. Read more>>
Valencia Gamble
The first time I knew I wanted to pursue my acting career professionally was when I was in College. I had just transferred schools and decided to minor in Theater because I was already halfway through my Biology major. I remember, the classes that I took became an outlet and a big stress reliever. All I wanted to do was learn more about theater and how I could sharpen my skills. Read more>>
Lori Rayne
It took quite a while, compared to many other musicians, for me to realize I wanted to pursue a career in music. I’d gone the traditional route in life by going through college, earning a degree, the works. It wasn’t until after college that I realized I wanted to pursue music. In my genre of music, and honestly a lot of other genres, you don’t really hear many voices like mine. Read more>>