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.

Fredo Castillo

I first knew I wanted to pursue an artistic path, professionally when I started to think about my life long-term. I was working for a fortune 500 company in a leadership position but I didn’t feel satisfied. I’ve always loved art as a child and dreamed of being an illustrator. So I asked my father what he would recommend as a career/business that I could pursue, he immediately said Photography. Read more>>

Waylon Hanel

I grew up hunting, fishing, trapping and bailing hay on our small hay farm listening to old school country music. My parents named me after Waylon Jennings because they loved his music. I’ve always loved music but really never thought I’d ever play or sing. When I was ten, I asked for a guitar. My parents refused to buy me one because they thought I’d break it. Five years later, they bought me my first guitar. My mom encouraged me to learn and sing the lyrics. I really didn’t have any interest in “singing” and brushed it off. Eventually, I realized I enjoyed singing more than I had expected. Read more>>

Devin Hernandez-Horne

When I was 18 staring at the future in front of me I could see so many different possibilities. I didn’t know what I wanted and ultimately went to community college to give myself time to just figure myself out. It worked in a dramatic way, I ended up having a very turbulent first semester. Read more>>

Ricky Terrell

The first time I knew I wanted to pursue a creative path professionally actually happened two times in my life. The first time was when I was a kid I knew in my heart that I wanted to be an artist. I drew pictures everyday, I drew on my schoolwork and my homework, I remember a time in second grade my teacher made me stop drawing on my spelling tests because I was doing it so much lol. Read more>>

Nicky Allado

I have been singing since childhood, influenced by my father’s drumming and my mother’s beautiful voice. I received your first singing lessons from your parents at the age of six, and with music from diverse backgrounds always playing in my home, I naturally gravitated towards exploring various musical genres. I pursued your passion for music further by attending The Colburn School, where I concentrated on Voice. Read more>>

Asya Olson

At first my photography was just a hobby. I enjoyed sharing my pictures with others and wanted them to be seen by as many people as possible. At that time I didn’t think of making a job out of it or even about spending too much time on my hobby. Read more>>

Bianca Zalez

As a kid growing up in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, my mom always had my sister and I at home so we can work on our reading and writing. Whenever we had a break, I looked forward to watching TV and listening to music. My sister and my brother seemed to know all of the good music that was out and I was especially moved by R&B, Hip Hop and pop music. I had so much fun dancing and singing in my room with my siblings and feeling the music. It didn’t really feel like I had to try. Read more>>

Amanda Sue Bourda.

I’ve always been a creative. Always been good with my hands and bringing ideas to life. I see the beauty in everything! I paint, I do decoupage, and an artist of many things! I love creating. I’ve always loved fashion and I knew I could do it, so about 10 yrs ago I bought my first sewing machine and just told myself to do it. Started with a simple BODYCON DRESS, and never looked back! I’m shooting for the stars! I am one of a kind so I make one of a kind garments! Custom, Couture and Avant-garde! I want to continue to see my garments on the red carpet, music videos, tv & magazines! Read more>>

Begonia López

Since I was a very young girl, music, reading, drawing and filling very thick coloring books was my favorite past time, The youngest of six siblings that were also into music also motivated me as well as my my parents that were music and art lovers, I’m very thankful that my father played jazz records for me while I was playing with my dolls, he wanted to share with me his love for Gene Krupa’s solos. Read more>>

Ri Marquis

I have been writing poetry since about the age of 13. I’m high school i had a few friends that were interested in pursuing music but at the time, I was dedicated to playing football. I would still freestyle with these friends at the lunch table or after school but only for fun. After graduating from the University of Maryland and my football career coming to and end, I needed to find a new passion. I was reintroduced to music but this time it was in an actual studio and i fell in love with the creative process. Since then I have joined a music group, made albums and singles and also started drawing some artwork for covers. Read more>>

Alonzo Duncan

So, back in 2010, my long-time childhood friend Amiir Hall introduced me to FL Studio music-creating software. We used to hang out in my garage daily as youngins just trying to figure out our way in the music industry. He rapped and I came from the background of church musicians, I loved playing drums as I used to for my church’s choir on Sunday mornings. Read more>>

Taylor James Monét

When I was a kid I wanted to be multiple things but one thing that was always consistent is that I wanted to do art in whatever capacity that may be. I was always drawing, always messing around with new materials and I was always curious. I remember people saying that I was a “little artist” or that “you should be an artist”. I didn’t know what an artist really was at the time, I just knew I always wanted to do what was doing forever. Read more>>

Phil Witte

When I was a child, maybe 8 or 9 years old, I began drawing single-panel gag cartoons. I don’t know why. Maybe I was intrigued by the cartoons in The New Yorker or more likely Mad magazine. After a year or so I had a little portfolio. Occasionally I’d show my parents or their friends. Oddly, I never shared them with my friends. Read more>>

Misha Myles

Music has been in my life, since I could walk. My late grandfather use to have a bar in the basement of my grandparents house where he would love playing the old classics like; The Temptations, Gladys Knight & the Pips and The Supremes. Also, church had a heavy influence in my music career. I used to sing lead on my church’s youth choir and was on my high school’s traveling choir called “Sounds Unlimited” at Western Senior High School. Read more>>

Jwalt

I started out as a poet. When I was in the second grade I performed at my elementary’s school Martin Luther Ling oratorical fest and that was my first introduction into the arts. from there I continued to do it every year for the rest of elementary school. middle school was when I saw the correlation between poetry and rap and is when In started getting into hip-hop. Read more>>

Miriam Gallardo

There was always a knowing that my life would be impacted in a major way by pursuing a creative and artistic life. Since I was a little girl, I was always dancing, singing, drawing, and creating. It always felt like home doing all those things. I grew up in a Puerto Rican and Dominican house hold, and that came with constantly being exposed to different latin music, dances, and food. Read more>>

Michelle Bingham

I knew at a very young age I was interested in pursuing something involving art. Coloring and drawing was an obsession for me as a kid and I was proud to earn “Artist of the Week” several times in Elementary School. Once in High School I tried out as many different mediums as possible to see which I would like best and even applied and was accepted into the AP Art program my senior year and chose to focus on paintings. Read more>>

Hammond’s Folly

I was always a creative. I started playing music at age 12, and soon after started writing some pretty not-great lyrics and poetry. After high school, I went to Baruch College, a small business school on 25th street in New York. I didn’t really know what I wanted to do, but I heard you could make a lot of money in investment banking, so I decided to pursue that. I networked and interviewed at a lot of the big banks in the city and, while I genuinely had an interest in economics and financial markets, I slowly learned I wouldn’t have been very good at the job. Read more>>

Nami Oshiro

Art wasn’t really in my big plans growing up. I’d always enjoyed it, but my real goal was to be a writer or an editor. However, due to a lot of undiagnosed depression and anxiety, I ended up bombing most of my high school classes. Except art. The only school that offered me a scholarship was an art school. So I was like, “Welp! Guess I’m doing art!” Read more>>

Michael Dorn

As an adult, my career path in the arts has been an oblique one, and it has had many vectors. I have worked in the fields of graphic arts, illustration, and landscape design, and scores of other non-art related jobs. Read more>>

Maria Di Fraia

My name is Mery, I’m 34 years old and I’m Italian [originally from Pozzuoli, a small town in Naples]! I have been married to one of my countrymen for 13 years and we have 2 children, the first of 12 years and the second of 10 years. I have always liked being in the kitchen and this passion for cakes was born several years ago when for the first time I saw the 3D Barbie cake on the web, there I felt something inside that I can’t explain, and on the same day I tried to make it for my princess [it was a normal day, Read more>>

Kenny Pahina

In the dawn of the 00’s, my heart would light up seeing videos of the pop icons like Michael Jackson; My dad had this 1991 cassette of Michael Jackson’s album “Dangerous” that I would listen to religiously with its sleek cuts of new jack swing pop tracks. At the time, the younger acts struck a chord with me. It was the spectacle of it all. I was witnessing a teen pop/r&b explosion of artists like N’Sync, Britney, Brandy, & B2K. They were taking over and I wanted to be just like them. Read more>>

Goldview

In 2015, members of our band felt very inspired by music. We attended concerts and other local shows that inspired us to play music. We wanted to make music, release music, and perform live. Our bassist Nathan attended a Taylor Swift concert. It was The 1989 World Tour. That tour inspired Nathan to start his music journey. Our vocalist Trevor has been singing since a very young age. Trevor has always been around music. Read more>>

Jazrome Coulter

When I was in 5th grade, I drew this picture of a lion on an open plain. My childhood was abusive and drawing was my outlet! In Oklahoma I won an award! If I remember correctly it was called the “Junior Artist Jim Thorpe award”. I was so excited!!! Right after that I quit drawing! I think god gave us gifts! It’s our job to define and grow these gifts! Read more>>

Zig Luve

Since I was a child, I knew that pursuing a creative path would be a major life goal of mine. My first distinct memory was listening to Usher’s ‘U Remind Me’ in first grade, and at that time my mother had just bought the Windows dial up computer for the house. I remember listening to the song over and over somewhere on the internet, and typing an entire cover to the song over the actual lyrics. I stayed up all night doing it and then took the song to school and handed out copies to all my friends. I think that was the first time I knew I wanted to be an artist. Read more>>

PRINCE GAUTIER MASKOTT

it comes from the education that my parents had given me, who kept telling me never to wait for things to happen, to always take things in hand to realize my dreams and that no one will do it for me, they taught me how to be a leader so having had this style of education from the age of 8 I already knew what I wanted either to succeed in sport because I was very talented in sport or music because I did both and today I am artist musician singer dancer and boss of my production label called MMP PRODUCTION label specializing in urban, afro-urban, African and Caribbean music Read more>>

Audri Lew

I would say roughly around the age 8 or 9 is when I discovered that I had a strong desire for music. Most of all my free time consisted of me performing in my bedroom to all the hottest songs that came on the radio. Whether it was dancing, writing, rapping, or singing; I couldn’t imagine my life without music. My music journal quickly became my favorite thing to do after school. I would record myself on cassette tapes and share them only with my sister and brother for fun. Read more>>

Ye Zhong

Since I was a little girl, I knew that a stable job was not for me. I couldn’t imagine living a life doing the same thing day after day. Although I wasn’t sure what exactly I wanted to be when I grew up, I already knew what I didn’t want to be. One day when I was 14, my English teacher decided to show us Pirates of the Caribbean to help us understand the text better. Read more>>

Ghosty

Growing up I knew I wanted to do something different than what my parents did or saw other adults do. I started playing music in the 1st grade. I asked my parents if I could join the girl scouts and they we’re like, nope but you can learn an instrument. So, that was the beginning of that. I never saw music as something I wanted to do full time. Read more>>

Josephine Cardin-Vargo

I don’t remember a time when I wasn’t pulled to be an artist. I was drawn to art and performing as soon as I could walk, and by the age of five, I decided I needed to tell the adults in my life how serious I was. With tiny ballet shoes and my little bun, I dragged my parents into my dance studio after class to have a “meeting” with my dance teacher. Read more>>

Sydney Stone

To be honest with you, I’ve kind of always known! Sure, there are other interests I have like music, biology, and literature, but no other career path has ever really stuck out to me. With that being said, my interest in working in the picture book/kidlit space is relatively new. I took on a challenge with a friend of mine to craft some self-published picture books and absolutely fell in love with the process. Read more>>

Pedro Kayat

I started my musical journey when I was a kid. My dad gave my mom an old piano as a gift and since then I started to learn cartoon theme songs, all by ear. Because of that, my grandpa, who played the flute realized that I had some potential, so he gave me my first keyboard and at 7 years old I had my first piano lesson. Two years later I got an electric guitar on Christmas and I fell in love with it. At that time, I realized that II wanted to do music for the rest of my life. Read more>>