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

Tiffany Johnson

I feel like for me there was never a specific moment where I knew I wanted to pursue music, it was just always something I did. Growing up my dad was in a band so from a young age I was introduced to music and performing. As a little kid I loved to sing and make up little songs, but it wasn’t until I was about 8 years old when I actually learned how to write songs. Even to this day I write music just to process my own feelings and to tell stories. I am obsessed with taking a moment in life, or a feeling and being able to put that into words and into music. It’s just the most magical thing. Read more>>

Gayle Price

I have been singing, essentially, all of my life. Growing up with a mother who had her own hit record in 1955, there was so much music already in my blood. I enjoy singing because its a deep expression into words, notes and melodies. It tells a story and I love how it leaves a lasting impression, just makes me feel good. Read more>>

GlenAndrea Brown

I’ve always known that I had an artistic personality, growing up I always loved to be cast in school and church plays as the lead, I loved public speaking but most importantly, I loved making people feel happy and inspired to be their best selves. I remember auditioning for the Barbizon School of Modeling and Acting and was blown away by the opportunities given to me just by being myself and from there, I never looked back. Read more>>

Markida Scotland

It took me a long while to realize that I should have started pursuing a creative/artistic path even though everything was pointing in that direction. When I was a child, about like 8 or so, my grandmother had several of those old film cameras. You know the ones–from Kodak. I would run everyone down and take photos of everything. We spent a lot of time visiting the photo studio–one hour photo–to get those photos developed. I think a good chunk of my childhood photos were photos I took. Which, also meant I was often not in them. That hasn’t change. I’m not a big fan of having my own photos taken. Read more>>

Anthony Fyrefli” Gasaway

There comes a point in every creative’s lives where we hit an impasse between sacrificing our time, energy, focus and freedom to work a day job, and wanting that same level of aforementioned factors to dedicate to our passions. We are often taught in public schools to have “dreams”, and look at our careers and such in a way of saying “it would be nice to work in this field,” but to accept that we have to get a “real” job, denoting that the only ways we can support ourselves are through preestablished fields of industry and work. Read more>>

Alize’ Evans

Since the beginning of junior high school, I have been musically inclined. I used to only make music for fun and expression, as time evolved I didn’t realize that I could be so much more and even make a living out of something I love doing. I remember a new upcoming female artist that spoke about the music business and how there’s a business to everything and to be successful in music, you would have to be successful in the business. Read more>>

Moski Shai’keem

I always knew I would wind up having a creative path and career either in or around the entertainment and education field ever since I was a kid. I was the kid that utilized my library card every chance I could get to checkout both books and films, I was the kid at blockbuster every Saturday when they were still a national chainstore across the states, and I was the kid that was always in academic programs and different summer programs and community events growing up. Read more>>

Khushboo Nayak

Hello everyone, thank you, Canvas Rebel, for giving me this opportunity to speak about my creative career and passion and share my story with you all. An inquisitive mind and a keen eye for details are what define me as an artist. Ever since I started appreciating colors, I have been passionate about drawing and painting. Read more>>

Curbside Pickup

My name is Keon and I”m one half of the Curbside Pickup Duo, along with my brother Nate. I have always wanted to be in entertainment since I was in elementary school. I really didn’t have a direction on what part of the entertainment field I wanted to pursue, but I knew thats what I wanted. In my late twenties into my thirties I acted in several stage plays written and Directed by me. Read more>>

MK Zulu

Looking back on my life, I’ve always been an artist, even when I did not know it. Music was always a consistent factor in my life, from singing in the church choir to rapping at the lunch table and joining the school band. However, it wasn’t until I heard 50 Cent’s “Get Rich or Die Trying” that I absolutely knew I wanted to be an artist. I started only wanting to be a rapper but eventually recognized my passion for playing the trumpet and singing. Read more>>

Amber Perkins

The first time I knew I wanted to be a creator was when I saw and heard Missy Elliot. I was around 9 years old, It was the Supa Dupa Fly album. I saw this lady on tv that looked just like me! A chubby, brown skin girl that wore baggy clothes and makeup. When i saw her dancing, singing and creating a new wave for my culture I knew that’s what I wanted to do. Read more>>

Darrell Kemp

I knew I wanted to be in the entertainment business when I was 12 years old. I would constantly watch every Disney & Nickelodeon show there was. The way those shows would bring family and friends together was pure magic. It would feel as entertainment like that could take anyone from any situation there was into this place where everyone wouldn’t have to stress on where the next meal would come from or when the next bill would be paid. Read more>>

Olivia Castriota

My entire life all I’ve wanted to do was make music. I grew up singing and trying to emulate my favorite vocalists; Christina Aguilera, Etta James, Alanis Morissette and Jessie J. I still have my lyric binder in my childhood bedroom, which contains about 200 sheets of computer paper with printed out lyrics on them. I loved learning songs and I would be in my bedroom singing for hours at a time learning new music. Read more>>

Bryce Moon

Starting in high school, I knew a corporate career wasn’t for me. As I started exploring college majors, I settled on technical theater with an emphasis on set design. As I went through college, I loved my theater classes and project that made it to the stage. I also started to realize how much building creatively made me feel happy and gave me a sense of purpose and a drive beyond just living each day. Read more>>

Kennis Baptiste

Looking back at my childhood, I’ve always been creative. Always excelling in my art classes. As a teen I applied and got excepted to a few of the top art High Schools in NYC. I ended up attending the High School of Art & Design for one year but decided to transfer to my local high school because of the long commute. My local high school was a five-minute walk compared to a 1-1/2-hour commute by bus and train from Brooklyn to Manhattan. Read more>>

Zaakirah Muhammad

A camera saved my life at the age of six months. A rare childhood eye cancer called retinoblastoma, was detected by a photograph my mother captured of me. At nine months old, I had surgery to have my right eye removed. I’m a cancer survivor in remission with monocular vision, also known as having the Photographer’s Eye (seeing only in my left eye). Read more>>

Ruby Rockette

I first knew I wanted to pursue an artistic path professionally in college. I wanted to want to be happy in the corporate work space but I hated it. I found myself rushing to complete my “boring work” and I’d slide on my headphones and start listening to beats or writing lyrics to instrumentals. I’d get in trouble for seeming like I wasn’t “all there” or invested at my job! Read more>>

DeMille Hunt

For me, it all started when I first saw the Pixar movie “Cars”. This movie really peaked my curiosity for wanting to learn 3D art because I was so impressed with the style and the soul of the movie. It really, REALLY got me wanting to experiment with 3D software which at the time I knew absolutely nothing about. So, someone told me about this free software called “Blender”, and I started playing around with it, getting comfortable with the interface and just having fun with it. Read more>>

Devonte Cozart

I’ve always been passionate about fashion. In high school is when I felt the desire to pursue my clothing line. The adrenaline of getting ready for school consist of finding the perfect outfit to leave the house. On this day I’n particular, it was picture day forour yearbook. To be honest, my mindset was fixated. All I cared about was getting the right picture and being labeled best dressed. From middle to high school, I was best dressed. Read more>>

John Beijer

When i was younger i had no idea what i wanted to do, in high school when you can choose your own direction i chose Media just to not have to do a lot of “regular studies” as math and such. So i learned some design and got relly into photography, but also picked up interest for doing graffiti and that did not really help me school wise haha. Read more>>

Steve Frontroth

As an avid MMA fan and former amateur fighter myself, I am constantly watch fights whether it be UFC, Bellator or any organization that has televised fights and even going out to local promotions to watch them live in person. As a spectator, I was always giving a little bit of my own commentary to the room as they didn’t know fights as well as I do. Most everything I would say, the broadcast team on the TV would echo exactly what I had just said or something to the effect of what I said. Read more>>

Elizabeth Harris

From childhood I have always had a passion for art. Having the ability to be creative, while expressing myself without words. is truly something I find comfort in. Art class was always one of the classes I looked forward to. Whether it was painting an amateur self portrait or simply coloring in a coloring book— I enjoyed working with my hands. Read more>>

Reggie Singleton

It was in my 3rd year of college. I was flunking out of the classes related to my chosen major (Electrical Engineering), and reached a point where I wanted to study something I actually loved. I always did Art when I was younger, but never thought it was serious enough to be pursued as a career path. At this stage in my life, I wanted to be happy, as well as get passing grades. Read more>>

Jaren Teague

There was a point about 3 years ago when I began making changes in my life that would, in hopes, eventually lead to a better overall self worth and a more fruitful lifestyle. I was unable to continue attempting to achieve someone else’s goals and aspirations so, I convinced myself that there was much more to life and that I have much more to offer than just a kind voice behind a phone from 9AM-5PM. Read more>>

Joe Cantwell

When i first got my foot in the door with the community i knew nothing, not much about cars nor photography. For the first few months i didn’t know automotive photography was a thing so i just paid attention to the cool cars at meets and shows. I started noticing more cameras at meets taking pics of all the sweet builds. The one year i got gifted a camera for christmas, and after tinkering with it i started snapping pics of cars, i wasn’t good by any means, but i fell in love with the craft following that gift. Read more>>

Christine Mari

Art has been a constant in my life ever since I was a child. I started out drawing stick-figure family portraits, and then as a teenager moved into the questionable realm of fan art, and later in college, I started drawing comics. That said, I never considered pursuing art professionally until after graduating college. There was a period of time when I was convinced that art should remain a hobby, and nothing more. Read more>>

IAM Shanny

When I first began singing I was around age 8. I remember feeling as if nothing in the world could compare to what I felt each time I had the honor to hold the mic, to sing, to write a song, or to perform. As the years passed, I joined my step uncle’s church choir and started performing in talent shows at age 11. As I got older, my aunt still would not allow me to pursue my artistry on a professional level. Read more>>

SelfMadeZiair

I was always around music at a young age, in my family music is a need anywhere, we always be lit and vibe out. But i was always listening or dancing to Michael jackson, he was and still is a big inspiration for me in this music stuff. Read more>>

Christy Driscoll

I went to Simmons College in Boston for a finance/economics degree and when I graduated I fell into that field. After sometime and after my children, Bobby and Brooke, were in high school I decided to dabble in some jewelry classes. I have always looked at a bag, or some cool sandals, or someone’s belt and wanted to re-purpose it or re-design it. Read more>>

Mee Jey

It took me a while to decide I wanted to be a professional artist. It never occurred to me despite having a strong hobby of painting and drawing, and in fact not even after my first solo exhibition of large scale drawings. I made a gradual transition from a hard core research to the profession of a visual artist over 4 years. I had a rupture in my academic pursuit in 2010. Read more>>

Bing Fu

Acting came late to me in life, and it happened rather inadvertently. I had always been relatively artistic – I could draw and play music and dabbled in those early on in life but acting was something I had never explored until I was already in my 40’s. It just so happened that a change in my life gave me some unexpected freedom and I was able to answer a casting call with a local agency who proceeded to sign me on the spot. From there I was able to land work fairly quickly and from that point on I knew that this was something that I wanted to continue to pursue. Read more>>

Abby Cuevas

The 1st time I realized I wanted to pursue a creative path was when my husband took me to Chicago for my birthday weekend. He took me to a spray paint and sip class. As soon as I realized what we were going to be doing I was so excited. I felt very much in my own element. I felt I was able to release my own artistic ability and it didn’t matter what it looked like. It was still a piece of art. As soon as we left this art studio, I told myself ” I could totally do this back home”. Read more>>

Pyro Da Arsonist

Around 12 or 13 years old I started writing in a journal as a way to cope with being bullied and it eventually turned into poetry. One day I was hanging out with cousin and heard hip hop for the first time and I realized that is like poetry but on a beat so that’s when I decided to start writing my poetry on a beat and before I knew it I was writing full songs. In 2010 is when a friend of mine heard on of my songs and told me to come to his in house studio to record it and that’s when I caught the bug. The rest as they say is history. Read more>>

Lynn Campbell

I loved to express myself creatively from as far back as I can remember. Dancing, acting, writing, learning new instruments, and drawing have all been woven into the fabric of my history. Although I dreamt of earning a living as an artist, I had many careers along the way that were less creative in nature. In my mid 40s, I spent a month in meditative silence with monks in India. It was there that I was filled with a passion to paint, although I had never picked up a paint brush in my life. Read more>>

Julian Edwards

Growing up I was raised in an extremely creative environment. Being the youngest of seven siblings (all artists) made it a natural instinct to be creatively in tune. My three brothers are all musicians together and my sisters sing, paint and are artistically wired to the core. I never fully clicked with some of these avenues, but when it came to fashion there was a clairvoyance. Read more>>

Caprice Clarke

I knew from a very early age that I wanted to be a radio personality. I have always loved music and as a child I was obsessed with the voices coming from the radio. I remember as a child I would call up to the radio station just so I could talk to the dj. Their voices were so animated and I used to do my best impression of them around the house. Growing up, I would always get in trouble for talking so much in class(lol). My mom would tell me that I needed to find a job where I talked for a living, and that is where the spark to become an on-air personality came from. Read more>>

Sarah J

I grew up doing musical theatre and singing classical music. I began voice lessons at 7 and stayed with the same instructor until I moved here to Nashville. My household has always been very musical and I always felt that I had music in me. I started playing guitar at 10 and piano at 12, so I always knew that music was something that gave me comfort and made me feel purposeful. I started playing contemporary music professionally at 17 and everything took off from there. Read more>>

Yesenia Chayote

I have been pursuing art most of my life, genuinely. Growing up in poverty and in environents where being creative was necessary as a means of surviving has influenced my personal creativity the most. My artistic abilites first came about in small ways – it would be a fun modification to a shirt here, painting on the side of a wall there, and eventually I was finding every way I could to encorperate my artistic abilities into most of my projects. Read more>>

christian Colón

I started drawing at a very young age. My love for art transferred from paper to walls. Growing up in Brooklyn New York in the 80s, I did a lot of graffiti also. I started tattooing at about 15 years old with a homemade machine one of my uncles built me a messed up a lot of friends early on in my years. I was in the Air Force from 1999 till the end of 2005. I tattooed while I was in service. It was probably while I was in the Air Force that I realized I could make living off if tattooing professionally. So I pursued an apprenticeship in 2007 in Clarksville Tennessee. I have been a licensed artist since then. Read more>>

Plane Mane

Probably the first time I watched a music video on BET or MTV. I was stuck lol ..music had always played an important part of my life. I never knew what I really wanted to do career wise besides basketball, but music always followed me. I was big on being fly and those music videos gave me a visual behind the music and they were always fly and I knew I was fly so that aligned with me perfectly. Read more>>

Hannah Wingfield

When I was in grade school I had always gravitated towards the arts. Painting, singing, theater, film, had always intrigued me, and I became involved in all the programs in school to be a part of that. While the preforming arts were really fun, the area where I excelled was in studio art. Graduating high school I decided I wanted to be a professional artist but had no idea how to make that happen. Then, after an associate’s degree for college, and internship at Walt Disney World, and some time to explore my artistic skills, I fell in love with illustration. Read more>>

KBR

I have been a creative my entire life. From a very young age, I had a huge passion for singing and also had other hobbies such as making videos with my siblings, writing songs, and photography. Throughout my teens I really began to embrace my love for art in my hobbies but it wasn’t until about 17/18 that I decided to pursue art & media professinally. Read more>>

Terrance Pope

I first knew I wanted to pursue a artistic path professionally around 2017 .I been doing music since around 2000 and I was dealing with a lot of people that wasn’t taking it seriously,so I kept going and recording without anybody.After I seen I didn’t have much help I decided to do it on my own around 2017. Read more>>

Matthew Runaway

This one is funny for a country singer, but this is how it all started. I actually started music pretty late in life. In Grade 11, my mother had a friend bail on a Def Lepard show and so naturally, she had an extra ticket. She asked if I wanted to go and I remember saying “No, it’s all good.” The date got closer and she convinced me to go because otherwise, the ticket would go to waste. So I decided…why not. I wasn’t expecting much from that night, so this particular moment still stands out clear as day. Read more>>

Klassic KoKo

The first time I knew I wanted to become a entrepreneur & artist was in when I attended college at Winston-Salem State University. I was involved in podcasting & also on the executive team for a modeling squad. I was able to unleash my talents through podcasting by expressing myself & who I am, & being in the model mode I was I was able to hustle & work effortlessly for events, being comfortable in front of people, etc. College was really the stamp to my creativity. Read more>>

Christian Valverde

The first time I knew I wanted to pursue a creative career was in 2012-2013. At the time, I was 23 years old and had a couple dozen exhibitions and solos under my belt in the Kansas City, Missouri area. I had much creative success early, but I was at a professional and personal crossroads. I was stuck between pursuing my art full-time and earning a better living. My problem was, “How can I develop a career that complements my love for art?” I wanted to seek out opportunities that utilized and complimented my natural strengths. Read more>>

Jamiel Burkhart

When I was around 7 or 8, I started taking piano lessons and ballet classes. and I loved every moment of it. My experiences in those environments at a young age helped me find my love and passion for performing and creating honest art from the heart. I remember getting to dance freely and really explore what I could do, as much as it was probably more just me running around like a little rascal, haha. Read more>>

Kody Reeder

I was pretty young at the time. I remember listening to an album (Transatlanticism by Death Cab for Cutie) for the first time start to finish. As I was in my room, listening to this borrowed CD that I had stuck into an outdated boom box. After the final song played, I said to myself “I think I want to learn how to play guitar”. Shortly after that I learned how to play a few instruments including guitar, bass and piano. Read more>>

Kumi Hirose

When I was in my fourth year at university, I drew more pictures than other students. Upon graduation, I received two honorss: the valedictorian and the university purchase awards. It was my first time to receive an award, but I remember being very excited to get recognition. Therefore, I decided to become a painter. Read more>>

Brandi Miller

Ever since I was a kid, I’ve had some entrepreneurial tendencies. A lot of kids set up a lemonade stand or something similar. What I did was set up an “art stand” on my grandparents’ front lawn and tried to sell my drawings. I ended up making a single sale, but at the time I didn’t feel like it counted because it was to my grandmother. Read more>>

Enrica Enrica’s Creative Designs

I don’t know if there is an exact moment of when I knew I wanted to pursue a creative path; it was more just a feeling that I fell into. As a child, I always enjoyed drawing and colouring and making crafts in general. It just made me happy. As an adult, I used my creativeness to help me get through the darker days, and it soothed me. I would get lost in a project and spend hours, tweaking and perfecting it until I was happy with the result. This then evolved into creating cards and special keepsakes for family and friends. I did this for a number of years, on and off. Read more>>