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.

Maria Bakke

Art has always been a big part of my life! Through my childhood, I was always buried in a sketchbook every chance I could get. I always loved the idea of making art for a living, but I honestly didn’t think that was something I could even do. I figured I needed to choose something that would be more financially promising, even though it might not be my favorite thing to do. That all changed for me when, in my senior year of high school, a family friend asked me to illustrate a children’s book for her. That was my lightbulb moment, and I knew that was the road I needed to follow. Read more>>

Ashtraypunk Glocky Ortiz

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Tony S. Delacruz & Jaylen M. Ortiz. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Tony & Jaylen below. Jaylen: I’ve always loved the production part of music. Especially growing up in the later part of the 90’s and getting to hear the change in music entering the 2000’s. A lot of people would only typically care about the lyrics being told on these songs but I’ve always felt production was a whole different story in itself. Having the luxury of listening to a Neptunes production, Kanye West, Timbaland,Just Blaze etc. Really made listening to music even more enjoyable. And those are just some producers that help shift the culture and create some of our all time classics. Being able to create a beat that people would love is something I’ve always wanted to do. Read more>>

Matthew Canmarano

The first time I knew I wanted to pursue a creative path professionally I guess I was a kid I began with graffiti I love graffiti it was a nice outlet it was a nice way of being recognized and getting known on the streets. especially in the San Fernando Valley where I grew up. Graffiti was a huge thing in the San Fernando Valley in the late 80s in the 90s when I got involved with it it was something that was so beautiful you could barely understand it unless you were a part of it… writing our names across freeways and the walls of Los Angeles was a way to be remembered and known and for those of us who were a part of it we become part of a subculture in the LA urban community that brought different groups of people together to form little groups called cruz we made friendships and bonds that would last a lifetime and everybody tried to compete with each other to see who is better or who could get their name in a better position who could be seen more it was amazing a friendly competition so to speak. Read more>>

Keinley Lafleur

Me growing up in a Haitian household, wow also coming up in Miami culture yes surrounded by a diversity of music and art. So just from the jump, I’ve always been exposed to different types of art. For example, from middle school up until my 11th grade in high school, I was in magnet school for visual arts. Just buy me going to magnet school, I was exposed to kids from different parts of Miami, which got me into different taste of music. Also, I also remember just even as a younger age being at my cousins house , watching “the box” video music channel and being glued to different Artist like 2Pac, biggie, Nas and etc. Read more>>

Melissa Champion

I think I always wanted to do something creative, though I never could put a finger on what that was. My path has been split and winding into multiple directions, but always comes back to my creative base. I went to school as a business major, and switched to photography and graphic design within the first semester. I love the capacity for multiple answers and possibilities in the creative space. My mind has never really fit within the norm in terms of linear thinking, and I think I realized when I was 18 that I needed creativity to be a large part of my life. Read more>>

Anthony Lee

I’d say after hearing the soundtrack to the movie Maximum Overdrive. It’s a wild 80’s horror flick that was written and directed by Stephen King about a comet that passes over earth and makes trucks run by themselves and kill humans. It’s a crazy movie, but the entire soundtrack was nothing but AC/DC songs, so as soon I heard that, I knew I had to learn an instrument and be in a band when I got older. That was also one of the first movies that got me into horror as well, so two birds one stone type of situation. I guess I should thank Stephen King then? Haha Read more>>

Alec Thompson

When I was recovering from my rock bottom, learning to love myself and my musical passion again. I was alone in my room inside of my recovery/halfway house and was writing lyrics to what would become my song “Dead Broke & Dopesick”. Upon releasing that song, one of my best friends reached out to me saying he was about to end his life and had a gun to his head but saw that song come across his phone and decided to listen to it. He said hearing my story and overcoming my demons touched him to his core and ultimately told me I saved his life. After that, I knew if my music could impact people and even save lives then I have a responsibility and an obligation to give it all I got. Read more>>

Anissa Matlock

When I was very young, my parents brought home their first camcorder – it was the 90s, so you could plug it into the back of your TV and it would transmit whatever the camera was pointed at onto the TV with just a slight delay. When I figured out standing in front of the camera could put me on the TV I was hooked. I already loved performing for my family, from my babysitter’s cheer routines, to re-enactments of musical numbers from Barney, but I think the turning point from just “something entertaining” to “I want to do this for the rest of my life” was through watching films like Terminator 2, Aliens, and Starwars with my dad, as well as getting into more independent films like Super (James Gunn) in my young-adulthood. Getting to see just how grand the world-building aspects of Filmmaking could be, along with the depth of the impactful messages you could wrap into an entertaining narrative, was really igniting for me as a storyteller. Ultimately, that’s what I consider myself: a multi-faceted storyteller. Read more>>

Dj Kronicspin

When I was a little kid my mom would play techno music and house music and I would love it saying one day I wanna be like them Read more>>

Steven Felicetti

I would say I first knew I wanted to be an artist when I was about 4-5 years old. My Mom, my older brother and I would attend the Westerly RI Art Festival each year. It was really just another day at the park for us. However, on this day my Brother and myself could post a few of our “drawings” on a long wooden fence with all the other artists. One day while attending the event one of my drawings blew from the fence and ended up somehow in the hands of a lady who ran a small gallery where she displayed children’s art. Somehow she managed to track us down “probably because I was the only 5 year old artist displaying his work at the festival that year. ” She asked my Mom if she could purchase my artist rendition of “Mat Dillon from the popular TV series Gunsmoke” for what I think was something like $25. That was my first indication; as much as it could have been for a 4-5 year old; art was something that I was pretty good at and people would want. I have been creating art ever since. I always felt it was somewhere in the cards for me to do something productive with my artistic talent. But sometimes, life gives us obligations that need to be met before we can fully act on our dreams. Read more>>

Mariset Gonzalez

Since I was a little girl I always liked the art of makeup, my first experiences were doing makeup for family and friends, but at that time I didn’t see it as a career. Years went by, I studied and worked in things not related to the creative and artistic world, until 2020, when the pandemic started, I decided to start my Instagram page where I posted some makeup that I did, people liked it and I started to have followers. As a result of that, some companies contacted me to do collaborations doing product reviews and I did makeup work for some events, it was there that I realized that I could work in what I always liked. Read more>>

Yuuki Hashimori

The first time I knew I wanted to pursue a creative or artistic path professionally was when I decided to move to Germany to study abroad at the age of 11. The world-famous professor Zakhar Bron invited me to study with him in Germany. Even though it meant interrupting my elementary school program in Japan, that was the moment I decided to leave my “regular life” behind and dedicate myself to becoming a violinist and embarking on a musician’s life. I had always spent most of my time practicing the violin, and my life had always been intertwined with it even before that moment. However, it was at that point that I realized there was no turning back to my previous life. I had to continue moving forward on this musical path. Read more>>

Echo

I was always good at drawing as a child and when I fell in love with comic books as a teen while attending LaGuardia HS of the Performing Arts, I started leaning towards becoming a comic book illustrator or graphic designer. Once I discovered hip-hop and started bumping rap music 24-7 I began learning my favorite artists’ lyrics, and then started to write my own raps. Read more>>

Trisha Tamblyn

I’ve always loved the arts, and felt drawn to a life involving them in one way or another. Music had always been the closest to my heart, but it wasn’t until I was 16 that I finally saw my future. One of my high school friends was a die-hard Paramore fan, so naturally I got him tickets to see them for his birthday. I had listened to their stuff before and liked them, so I figured it would be a good time. Little did I know that everything would change for me at that show! Read more>>

Sara-lou Klein

I knew I wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally when I was in high school. I had a friend and fellow student who shared with me certain techniques, and she was incredibly supportive and gave me confidence. She encouraged me to apply for a Visual Arts Scholarship at a university to study art. I didn’t know that was a thing to be able to earn a degree in something I enjoyed doing (neither of my parents went to college/university, so I didn’t really know anything about college except for hearing about it from friends). Read more>>

Cen Si

As a kid, my parents would encourage me to find a hobby that “you love so much you could lose track of time when engaged in it.” They both had jobs that paid well, but they did not enjoy it very much. So they believed if I could find something that I loved and am passionate about, then chances are that I could probably feed myself in the future with it. Passion leads to consistency, which leads to high chances of being good at what you do. They told me that one small luxury of life they wanted for me is to be able to do the thing you love and make a living out of it. They wanted me to enjoy everyday and the present. Read more>>

Alyssa Raymond

My desire to pursue a professional career in art began in high school. I was given the opportunity to create an installation, which sparked a passion within me. The process of creating something unexpected and witnessing the reaction of others was incredibly satisfying. Looking back, I realize that my art teacher had recognized my need for more challenging assignments. While I enjoyed drawing and painting, I had yet to explore installation work. So, when she presented me with a blank wall and encouraged me to use my imagination, I was both intrigued and intimidated. Read more>>

Mikhail Lychkovskiy

This has not been something that life has been preparing for since childhood — I have never had a penchant for artistic activity. I thought logically, imagined myself doing intellectual work, as one of the millions of office employees. After graduating from the university with a diploma in economics and computer science, I got a job as an information technology analyst at a bank. It was logical. A system analyst is an intermediary between a business and a software developer. If there is no designer in the team, then it is the analyst who determines what the interface will look like, which fields and buttons the user will use, as well as the logic of their work. At some point, I started studying user interfaces in order to become a better analyst: I read books, took courses, and it seems to me that the first revolution in my mind took place. It turned out that the layout, color, and typography in the interface are not a whim of the designer, — it has a logical justification. Then I enrolled in the British Higher School of Art and Design (BHSAD). Read more>>

Chelsea Chong Kim

The first time I knew I wanted to pursue a creative path professionally, it felt like a lightning bolt—an unexpected yet electrifying moment that changed everything. I was standing in front of my classroom, surrounded by eager middle school faces, walking them through a math problem on the board. On the surface, it was just another lesson, but as I watched their expressions shift from confusion to clarity, I realized that this was more than numbers. It was storytelling. Every formula was a story, every problem a challenge, and every solution a triumph. Read more>>

Carlene Griffith

I believe that moment came at birth. Okay not really, but I did always know I loved performing and wanted to be an actress from a very early age. I could never see myself doing anything other than performing. I mean I tried, but that itch could never be squelched. I come from a very performance-oriented family. I have cherished memories of my great-grandmother Pearl Davis trying to teach me piano. My grandfather, Dean Davis, played the piano, wrote songs and danced. My grandmother, Jacquline Davis, was a concert violinist and my mother, Lynet Field, was a dancer, actress, singer, and director. She dragged me along with her rehearsals and concerts from the time I was little. And then encouraged me to take dance and music lessons, and to audition for shows as I got older. Everything I am, I owe to their influence in my life. Read more>>