We asked some insanely talented artists, creatives and makers to tell us about when they know they were going to pursue a creative career.

Gregory Coates

Gregory Coates Born 1961 Washington DC, attended the Corcoran School of art, droped out then moved to Dusseldorf Germany to study art , while there met up with Groupe 5, a art collective from Dusseldorf Germany,
My income was from making art, this was difficult and after severl years in Germany i needed more oppertunities, so we returned to the USA . The Lower East Side of NYC. and a 4 story cold water flat apartment in a heavy drug neighborhood. i didnt have any room so covered my bed, then i painted on the wall standing over my bed. Read more>>

Anja Meyer

The first time I became interested in an artistic pathway was as a teenager; however, I never thought to pursue it professionally at this time, as a stable financial career was the most important goal. My first acting experience was with the school theatre group, and we had various performances on stage from when I was 14 till 18 years old. Being a little shy, I enjoyed being on stage, expressing myself, and playing characters absolutely unimaginable in real life. The audience often complimented my performances and said they would never expect that of such a quiet person like me. For me, it was like transforming into somebody else, which was one of the most joyful experiences. Other than that, there weren’t a lot of acting opportunities in a small city while growing up. Read more>>

Maria Gropp

When I was a child, I’ve always known. When I was seven I won a coloring contest at my elementary school. When I was thirteen I drew a mountain lion after a cow on my fathers camper, but my father (after years of having it displayed) painted over it. I also painted a flock of geese on my bedroom wall. I won a coloring contest, but I had to be there to collect the price. Read more>>

Selena Valenti

As a child, my parents always made a point to visit the art galleries and art museums wherever we went. I remember walking in one gallery when I was in my early teens and being completely floored by the art I saw. I think I sat in a corner of the gallery for at least a couple hours digesting every book on Michael Parkes they had on the shelves. By the time I walked out, I had such a profound clarity that if he could make a living selling his art, then that was what I would do. A few years later on another visit to an art museum, I first witnessed the art of Salvador Dali. Read more>>

Kiki Buccini

I’ve always loved world-building—even as a child. I used to write stories about a group of girls with superhuman powers. I would doodle too, but I never felt fully satisfied with my illustrations. Everything changed when I got my first camera. I was hooked. I could finally capture images exactly as I saw them, dream up creative photoshoots (which my friends reluctantly agreed to), and later, document the adventures of my young adult life. Read more>>

Duniel Deya

The first time I knew I wanted to pursue my DJ career professionally was back when I was 11 years back in my country of Cuba. I used to organize house parties for friends and family and I would play music from cassettes and everyone always had a good time and occasionally requested me to go play at their parties. As I moved to the US I started doing bigger events and started learning all types of genres. At the age of 15 I already had professional DJ equipment and was working on private events. Read more>>

Anna Siqueiros

The first time I knew I wanted to pursue a creative path professionally was shaped by both my family’s legacy and my own lived experiences. Growing up, I was surrounded by the influence of my great-uncle, David Alfaro Siqueiros, whose art was never just about aesthetics but about provoking thought and sparking change. At the same time, my father’s direct involvement in the civil rights movement with Cesar Chavez showed me that voices—whether through words or images—could mobilize communities and inspire justice. From an early age, it was ingrained in me that art is a powerful tool to engage with the masses in a positive and productive way. Read more>>

Leona Koo

I’ve never known a life without the arts. I was raised in an incredibly creative and artistic household—my father is a web designer, and my mother was an editor for a world-renowned fashion magazine. From a very young age, they exposed me to a wide range of artistic experiences: theatre, music, opera, visual art exhibitions—you name it. My childhood was filled with color, sound, and story. Some of my earliest and most vivid memories come from sitting in darkened theaters, watching the stage come alive before my eyes. Looking back, those early years weren’t just filled with beautiful moments—they built the foundation for how I saw the world and how I imagined my future. Read more>>

Erin Morrison

When people ask how I got started in photography, I would say that it wasn’t a plan but a pivot. Actually, multiple pivots over the years.

In 2005, I was in graduate school for criminology in Illinois, and I was completely over it. I felt like my time at my undergrad university had run its course. Plus, I was absolutely freezing in the winter weather, and honestly thinking, “Is this really it?” So I did what any impulsive Type 3 would do: I applied to programs across the country and peaced out to Tennessee. Read more>>

Rodney Morrow

I first knew I wanted to do music professionally during the covid pandemic. My wife and 3 of our 4 kids moved to PA during this time and music and spirituality were the only things that kept me sane during that time. Music took me away mentally and helped me escape the day to day grind and isolation. Once I got good enough to make money doing it, I researched different ways to make a living from it. I’m not there yet, but so far it still is great side money and let’s me get that creativeness out. Read more>>

Marco Orozco

I’ve liked making art ever since I was a kid. My earliest works consist of Spider-Man drawings on Mother’s Day cards and little clay figurines of my favorite Pokémon. Even still, at this age, I was probably thinking about becoming a zookeeper. Read more>>

Mako San

The first time I knew I wanted to be involved in film was when I saw Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. I wanted to be a Jedi Knight. At the time, I was shy and had no understanding of the industry.
I’ve been studying martial arts since I was a child and competed heavily on the professional circuit. One day, at a tournament, renowned martial artist, actor, and fight choreographer Mike Chat had a film crew present. He told them to film me in action. I remember thinking, This is my moment. Nothing came of it, but the desire to pursue film never left me. Read more>>

Gayla Irwin

I’ve always loved art and dabbled in it here and there, but I didn’t begin pursuing it seriously until about six and a half years ago.

While traveling with my husband, I received a phone call from my doctor. She told me that my biopsy had come back positive for cancer. The news was completely unexpected and filled me with fear. Things moved quickly—surgery, a difficult and somewhat ambiguous diagnosis, a second opinion at Mayo Clinic, and then radiation. Read more>>

Lily Chrones

The first time I knew I wanted to pursue a creative path professionally was during my senior year at the Boston Conservatory, where I was studying contemporary theatre. For my senior capstone, I wrote, produced and performed a one-person show called Girly Girl — a queer coming-of-age story that takes audiences through the different faces of my adolescence in my search for authenticity during the Golden Era of YouTube. The show explores what happens when a child, heavily influenced by social media, puts their life online before even knowing who they truly are. Read more>>

K.Mel Beatz

It all started when I used to upload my instrumentals to YouTube just for fun. I didn’t think much of it at first — I was just creating and sharing what I loved. But then I started noticing something: rappers were leaving comments, writing full verses under the videos, and showing real interest in the beats. The feedback was consistently positive, and soon I started getting DMs on Instagram from artists asking if they could buy my beats. Read more>>

Luana

I know it sounds cliché, but I’ve always known I wanted a creative path. As a kid, I spent hours sketching outfits, convinced I’d become a fashion designer. In my teens, just as modern graphic design was taking off, I discovered it and was blown away. Finally, a way to study something that combined the two things I’ve always loved: computers and creativity! So I got my diploma, started as a junior designer for a teen magazine, and later became lead cover designer for one of Italy’s top manga and American comic publishers. Read more>>

Zeke Empaces

My earliest recollection was really in middle school. I had a really wonderful English Teacher who saw how engaged I was reading graphic novels and how I was really getting into the world of comics. I was told around that time how graphic novels or comics should’ve been something to grow out of at the time as it didn’t fit my age. The way I saw it, I felt the images were enhancing the words that were written out in the page and elevating the nuance in the stories that were being told. Read more>>

Na’ye Perez

Well my artistic journey truly began before Freshman year at the University of Toledo in Ohio. Prior to that I was applying for colleges and got accepted as an Engineering student. But before it came time to summer orientation, I requested a switch and signed up for Bachelor of Arts program. Something in my heart told me to follow my path, and make my own decision. I initiatially applied for college because being first generation college student, Caribbean (Cuban-Haitian) too it was expected to go to school and get a job like engineer, medical, lawyer something that was considered respectable. But that what people wanted for me and I wanted to know what I want. Read more>>

Georgia Brown

From a young age, I dreamed of being an entrepreneur — even imagining owning a candy store one day. But like many, I was taught that the true “American dream” was having the perfect 9-to-5 job. And for a while, I had that so-called perfect life: great salary, security, recognition. But behind it all, I was fighting — not only for my integrity and my character, but for what truly mattered. Read more>>

Amy Grant

Fortunately, I grew up in a household of creatives. My mother was an artist and had her three children creating art before we could talk. I opened an art gallery in 2015 after a 30-year career in science. I always knew I wanted to pursue a creative path professionally. Art in Bloom Gallery continues to thrive. Established in 2015, the gallery grew from 850 square feet in downtown Wilmington to our current space of 2700 square feet in Mayfaire Town Center in Wilmington near Wrightsville Beach. Read more>>

Kyla Phakhailathavong

Well, like most artists, I’ve been drawing since I was super little, but I never thought about being a professional artist till I was in High School. I originally thought about going into other creative fields like Graphic Design and Photography, but after long internal debates, I just knew I wanted to draw every day. Read more>>

Daryna Kulich

Ever since I was a little kid, I dreamed of being a performer. When I was about five or six years old, I’d put on music, slip into my prettiest dress, and imagine myself on stage under the lights. But my path didn’t start as an artist- it started as an athlete. Read more>>

Ruby Palmer

In my twenties, I moved from Wyoming to Brooklyn. I’d been raised on the East Coast, but had lived out west after college. This decision came out of missing a more informed art community and longing to see and talk about things that excited me-not just visual art, but also theatre, architecture, literature, all things creative. This was the first time I’d made a commitment to my art pursuits in a more serious way. I had to work full time at a variety of day jobs to support my studio work, but being in NYC was mostly fun and inspiring, and connections were made quite easily just by living there. Read more>>

Philissa Williams

I guess we would have to go back to when I was in Art School at the Corcoran School of Art in Washington,DC studying Graphic Design. I was running late for my Art History class and my best friend lent me her Bianchi road bike. So naturally, I felt a need to speed down the streets of DC, whizzing between cars and dodging people and probably running through a few traffic lights. I am a block and a half away from school and the light has just turned red and the pedestrians are starting to walk across the crosswalk. Read more>>

Carla Stallings Lippert

I am the second born of 4 girls. My parents noticed my older sister, 15 months my senior is highly intelligent and a voracious reader. She would sit quietly and read while I was out in the middle of the floor jumping, spinning and bouncing off the walls. So they signed me up for gymnastics which I loved. Then to help my gymnastics and to give me more experience of what is out there, they signed me up for ballet. I never looked back at gymnastics and turned my focus to ballet. I was very fortunate that there was an excellent teacher just a few miles from my childhood home. Read more>>

Kate Ruppert

I never started out wanting to be a creative–I only ever wanted to be a mom. I am a child of the 80’s and young girls weren’t by any means encouraged to pursue a career at all, let alone outside of a teacher or a nurse. My mom was stay-at-home until she became a teacher, all my friends moms were stay-at-home…it was the suburban South, women moved out of their parents’ house and into their husband’s house. I absolutely thought that would be me, I wasn’t truly exposed to anything otherwise. So I leaned in fiercely to wanting to be a wife and a mom. I am a middle child, only girl, natural caretaker…is there another path I could possible take with my life? No, never considered it. Read more>>

Ben Sheeley

I first took an interest in jazz when I was a kid and I heard the music from tv shows like Blues Clues and the Peanuts specials. My first piano teacher also noticed that I had a tendency to “jazz up” pieces she was having me work on and when I was 13, she recommended that I study with jazz pianist Tim Young. Read more>>

Christina Lee

Before I chose my life path as an artist, I worked as an assistant curator at a gallery in South Korea. My role was to discover emerging Korean craft artists, and since it was during a pandemic, to introduce and sell their work online. It was fascinating to witness the possibilities of young artists up close, and the position provided the security of a life and career. Read more>>

Avin Rezvani

I grew up in Iran, where women are forbidden to sing solo on stage. But music was always in my home. My father sang traditional Iranian songs, and I would copy him, long before I even knew the word “singing.”

When I was five, I joined a children’s choir (appreciate my parents for that) I loved singing with the group, but something inside me wanted more. I wanted to sing alone, to have a moment where my own voice could be heard clearly. One day, I gathered my courage and asked the choir conductor to listen to me perform a song by myself. I can still see the surprise in his face when I finished and hear the words that changed everything: “When did you learn to sing like this?” Read more>>

Dxngelo

Growing up, I was always drawn to music. If there was an instrument in my vicinity I couldn’t help but pick it up and start playing. I’m not sure what it was but I would subconsciously gravitate towards anything music related. When I was young, I would analyze songs that would play on the radio and try to figure out the melodies on the piano by ear. I think as a child I always knew I wanted to do something with music. I was physically and emotionally drawn to that stuff, almost like an addiction. As I got older, I started to really feel music for the first time. Read more>>

EMPRIS

I’ve always played music since I was young, but I never shared it with anyone other than my college days. In my adult years after graduating college, I would pick up my guitar here and there, but never really did anything with my music. I got married in October of 2020 to my partner of 4 years and in early fall of 2022, he packed up and left. A few weeks later he asked for a divorce. I was left to just myself after 6 years of partnership. Music was all I had. I picked up my guitar and started playing music again. Read more>>

Nicole Carmody

When I wanted to take my art career seriously, I realized I had to change the name of my Instagram/starting business name “Nicole Carmody Art & Design” to “Evil Eye Design Inc.” I felt the new title had a distinct bold characteristic.

It all started in 2018 when I decided to randomly make a instagram account for my artwork. Shortly and sure enough, RAW Artists contacted me to showcase my work with them at a nightclub in Hollywood – the AcademyLA. Over the years I have slowly learned what it’s like to start a business and I am still learning. Read more>>

Jessica Kiaunis

I’ve wanted to be a singer my entire life. I’ve been in love with singing and music since I was born truly. Growing up, I lived in poverty, going through food insecurity, homelessness, and financial struggle. I spent most of my early life knowing I needed to break the cycle of poverty that my family had fallen into. Because of this, I never thought music was an option for me to pursue as a career. I spent all of high school and many years of college studying political science, and working as hard as I could to secure a “successful” job, and stable life. Read more>>

Justin Solomon

The first time I knew I wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path in life was around 4th or 5th grade. I had already been somewhat teaching myself to draw, but it wasn’t in the traditional sense of learning basic shapes, forms, contrast and color, etc. I was teaching myself to draw by essentially copying things that I saw and or interested me. There were two things in particular at the time; the anime series Dragon Ball Z and Yu-Gi-Oh! I was obsessed with both and would run through packs of copying paper drawing the characters. Read more>>

Brianna Samuda-Walker

what I wanted to do in university. At first, dance was not my first choice, as I did not view it as a “traditional career path” I have been dancing since I was four years old, and it was really all I ever cared about or wanted to do. At the time, I woke up in the morning went to my dance high school program, then after school I would dance for about six to seven hours after school depending on the day. Personally, I never really felt particularly drawn to any academic subjects despite being told how strong my reading and writing skills were, and how I would excel in humanities. Read more>>

Alec Pezzano

Honestly, I feel like I’ve always known — like it’s just been in my bones. Ever since I was very young, I was that kid — the class artist, the one always sketching, writing, or messing around on some sort of musical instrument. Creative projects were what I gravitated toward naturally, and I loved getting lost in them. Read more>>

Aaron Lightbourn

I knew that music was all that I wanted to do with my life. Somewhere around middle school. My best friend and I would be up until 5 a.m. playing Call Of Duty and just talking about our dreams. Those dreams we talked about and manifested were all music. Being an artist, performing on tours, winning awards, making music for others as a producer. I could see it all. It led me to choosing to go to an arts high school knowing what I could gain and be the artist I am and always wanted to be. Read more>>

Ameer Williamson

In 2010, I entered an online contest thrown by Keepers of the Art and won an opportunity to open up for hip hop legends Rakim, Whodini and Slum Village at Lock 3 Amphitheatre downtown Akron, Ohio. I had to fight through multiple rounds of voting before being selected. This was the first time I had performed positive content and it was well received by the crowd to the point I signed autographs. A lady even told me we need more artist like you who are not afraid to go against the grain. Read more>>

Kathryn Stedham

This goes way back! As I mentioned, in the early part of my life, I was very inspired by my grandparents, especially my grandfather, TC Stedham. I followed him around, and he was my absolute favorite person on the planet. He was always like a tinkerer and an inspiring artist. He was very fascinated with paint and drawing, and he built furniture in addition to drawing and painting. He would introduce materials to me even before I was even able to handle the materials. He’d say, “This is the number two pencil and the number four pencil,” and make distinctions between them. Read more>>

Nala Washington

I grew up in a family of creatives; my grandmother a photographer, my grandfather a pianist, my father an artist, my younger sisters also indulge within the arts as well. It has been no secret that I have felt the most at home on stage. From trombone to dancing to singing, I loved being in the arts but none of them felt quite like the right fit. Not until I found my true passion, poetry and spoken word. My high school years started out rough due to my own distractions and I ended up transferring schools my sophomore year. Read more>>

Alex P

There was no big moment I can remember where it hit me like lightening that I wanted to be an artist, It was more that I loved creativity. I wanted to draw and paint but I also wanted to write and tell stories and joke and think of ways to make things happen that were unique, I wanted to do it all. As a kid playing restaurant I wanted the menu to be made of foods that could be made to look like other foods (that’s right I was an early adopter of the is it cake trend) and I wanted to design the menu and understand how the space would work. I wanted the entire process of whatever it was to come from earnest creativity. Read more>>

Deondra Newson

I remember scrolling on TikTok and coming across a woman going live and people were commenting to her, gifting her, tapping her screen. I remembered thinking “wow look at that support!”. It wasn’t about the gifts (money), it was about the way she had people supporting her and coming back everyday to see her. Complete STRANGERS! Then I remember seeing some big content creators telling upcoming creators some wrong information and that truly fueled me to start helping other content creators on TikTok and let them know the truth and ways they can make money instead of just giving their money away. Read more>>