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

Brooke Johnson

Ever since I was a kid I have loved being in front of the camera, posing and creating art through photos has always been an interest of mine. I grew up being a cheerleader and never really thought much about getting into modeling. It had briefly crossed my mind at times when my mom would tell me stories about her days of being in pageants, but I never acted on it until around April of 2021, which was just last year. Read more>>

Angelo

The first time i knew i wanted i to pursue a creative path was when I saw my brother on tv!, he was a background character for “the walking dead” and a few more movies & shows. He would always tell me that I had the looks and talent to pursue that path, I didn’t believe him at first until he actually landed me a little spot on the show “bmf” when I stepped on that set for the first time it felt natural like a 2nd home to me, Read more>>

Shamar Houston

I was in high school rehearsing for our chorus show. I was on stage and the lights hit me and It was like a magical moment in a movie. It was like it was just me and the stage and it was that moment I knew I would turn into someone really special and do big things. Read more>>

Molly Jean

I did not realize my artistic potential until I was around 19. Up until that point, I had channeled all my creative skills into makeup artistry. I discovered drag in high school, and was preforming around town by the time i graduated. At that same time, I was interning at the Denver Zoo, one of the youngest intern hires to date. I was 5 years into volunteer programs, and getting firsthand experience for my perceived future as an animal behaviorist. Read more>>

Tiffany Marsh

I’ve been singing since I could talk so music has always been a passion of mine. From a child where I sung in the church choirs to becoming of age and singing at private events, being a soloist was never unfamiliar territory for me. I love to sing!! But… I didn’t pursue it. I was however, afforded the opportunity to be invited to sing at a few events in Berlin, Germany back in Nov 2018. This experience totally blew my mind because here I am a foreigner singing about love in a club who’s name I could barely pronounce. Read more>>

Jen Sterling

Like many artists, I have been creative since I was a kid. However, I had never considered that it could be my career path. My father was a college professor and I was always encouraged to emphasize my academic studies. I applied myself to AP courses in school eschewing the art classes because they didn’t seem “serious” enough. Read more>>

Maya Corona

I have always been creative since I was little. I remember saving money to buy new colour pencils or crafts by selling candy at school or family dinners with my allowance. I would buy the sweets, sell them for double the price, and get more money to buy my favourite colour pencils. Read more>>

Elliot Bless

Growing up I would watch my dad design posters, draw portraits and illustrate caricatures, and at the time I didn’t realize it but I was absorbing an appreciation for not just the art and the output, but also the process. I can’t pinpoint an exact age when I knew I wanted to pursue a professional artistic path – I was just always interested in making things and sharing them with the people around me, and as I developed my crafts and my style I knew it was something I would share in a professional capacity forever. Read more>>

Alissa Clark

I have always been a penny pincher and someone who viewed projects as something I could do myself rather than pay someone else to do it! When my husband and I first got married, we were on such a tight budget so I decorated our entire home from the thrift store! I upcycled and DIY’d my way through each room of our home! Read more>>

Jeremy Gregory

This journey started when I was 5 years old. As a little boy, I grew up in a musical family and would always run around the house singing every chance I got; until one day my grandmother hear me singing to the top of my lungs and rushed into the room and said ” Boy if you don’t turn that radio down “, I responded “Granny that isn’t a radio, that was me singing.” Read more>>

Brenna Lee Olsen

I have been a corporate apparel designer for about 15 years. Having a career that marries my love of creativity is such a blessing; however, I got to a point that I wondered what something I created on my own would look like. Through a process of experimentation, visiting galleries and researching other fine art I created my own signature style and figured out the feelings that I want to evoke with my art. Read more>>

Cecile Robinson

To be honest, I knew that I wanted to pursue a artistic path professionally when I was a little girl. I knew that I would be famous or a star one day because I’ve always dreamed of being on television. I used to watch America’s next top model when I was growing up, and I always aspire to be similar to those individuals. I knew that I had what it took to be a star because I knew I had the eight factor when I was growing up. Read more>>

Jennifer Moudy

I believe I’ve always known, that it was in my bones when I was born, that I would always have an outlet for my creativity. My first camera was one that used 126 film and flash cubes and I was toting that around as a preteen. Then I enrolled in a black and white photography class in high school and revisited it again at the local community college. I loved how you could freeze a moment in time, how a photo could capture the human experience, the beauty of nature, and create a deeper connection with the world around you. Read more>>

KUAN HSUAN LU

I love drawing since I was a child. From that time, I have been drawing non-stop until now. My scores in other subjects were low. Only art subject got high scores. When I was in Taiwan, I liked to incorporate illustrations into my graphic design. Also with my friend’s encouragement, I started to sell my paintings. When I made the first money with my painting, I was so happy and I realized that I wanted to take this career path. Read more>>

Onor Alofoje

Many years ago when I just turned 10. I wrote a song for my grandma’s 70th birthday and performed it . I got a lot of gifts afterwards and people encouraged me to grow my talent. Read more>>

David Tubbs

The first time I knew I wanted to pursue my creative/ artistic path professionally when I was working for FEDEX GROUND I had like ten more stops all of that came to a STOP. I had pick up a little box as I was picking up the box I had a sharp pain in my shoulder it stopped me I had to at least wait like 2 hours to get back to work. As I was sitting down trying to get myself together I told God this is it I’m going to focus on acting noting else. Read more>>

Corey Lewis

I’ve always loved music and I actually started off dancing first when I was maybe 7 years old. I have two older brothers that been doing music, singing, writing and producing beats. My whole family loves music, from my mom dancing, my aunt singing and both of my brothers doing everything literally, I felt like it was a matter of time until I started. I started Watching michael jackson, usher, omarion, and of course chris brown. I started imitating them so much that when I started taking dancing serious I would combine their moves with my style of dance, everything started taking off for me in the dance world. Read more>>

Brianna LaShae

The first time I knew I wanted to pursue a creative path professionally is when I was a child and was always asked what I wanted to be when I grew up. I would always tell everyone a professional dancer. I never really had dreams of having a regular job like a doctor or lawyer. I was a very quiet child because I grew up as an only child so dance was always something that allowed me to express myself through my movements. Read more>>

Annie Schutz

It was very, very random. I was always really creative, was always involved in music and theatre, thought I wanted to be a performer all my life. But when I got into college and started trying new things, I ended up taking a media production class and my love for photography and film took off from there. My whole vision shifted, and set off on an entirely new career path, I haven’t taken my foot off the gas panel since then. Read more>>

Carlos Rascón García Aka (carlosnewmusic/DJ Ras/Zarp DJ)

It all started one day when I was looking for radio stations and I came across MaximaFM which it was the most important electronic music radio station in Spain at that time about 2010-2011 now called 40Dance, from that moment I fell in love with electronic music. I was going through a bad moment in my life and it was the music that I heard that took me out of my depression so I tried to help more people with that music, I wanted to share it and make it reach more ears. Read more>>

Lina Liu

The first time I knew was most likely 2 years ago. My full time profession as a psychologist can be very overwhelming and emotionally draining. I started to clay craft my own character designs 5 years ago as an outlet for me to reduce my stress and I have always enjoyed crafting. I opened an etsy shop 5 years ago just as a hobby to share my clay character designs. Read more>>

Kit Porter

I knew I wanted to be an artist as a child. It was always my biggest, wildest dream. Once I graduated from school with my fine arts degree, I truly did not know if there would ever be a possibility of being an artist professionally. I kept that dream in my pocket as I pursued a career in various sectors of the art world. I had the opportunity to direct a contemporary art gallery for several years and during this time I worked closely with artists who were so dedicated to their practice, and I was deeply inspired by them. Read more>>

Mami Bands

Before becoming a Musical Artist I started out as a Hairstylist. I’d been doing hair since I was 12 years old and since then knew I didn’t want to work for anyone else and had developed an entrepreneurial mindset early on. I’ve always been into the creative aspect of life , loving to draw, paint, color, whatever and hair was definitely a way to showcase my creative talents and just being able to do and create different things with my hands. Read more>>

Patrick Kikut

1987 was my artistic birth year. I had always been interested in drawing and painting but in 1987 was when I made the pledge. I was enrolled at CU Boulder and taking painting courses. I spent most of my time in the painting studio working on assignments and side paintings. At night I would dream that I was painting. Read more>>

Erin Guerreso

As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to draw on paper, walls, tables, and people’s skin. I remember being given a temporary tattoo kit when I was a child in the 90’s, full of sparkly gel pens meant for skin and tribal butterfly stencils. I remember giving out these “tattoos” to my neighborhood friends at the playground. The first time I said “I’m going to be an artist,” I was probably five years old. Read more>>

Thaddeus Erdahl

I don’t think I can narrow it down to just one moment in life that solidified my ambitions to be an artist and creative person. Throughout my life, the idea of pursuing a career as an artist has ebbed and flowed as I have grown and matured. But a significant event in1985, when I was 8 years old, probably set things into motion. Read more>>

Jazz What

During my whole life, I have desired to do arts. Even though that because of religion I didn’t have much support from my parents, I always tried to practice them. Acting, dancing, painting have been some of them and as a teacher they were very helpful for me. Now, thanks to my fiancee Betty What, I have pushed myself to do drag and to put all of my creativity in all of this persona. We tried our make up a year ago and was a failure. Then, after Betty told me to stop talking and start practicing, I started watching tutorials and gave life to Jazz What during Betty’s Birthday. Read more>>

Big Speaker

I was a child maybe 11 12 and I always loved music so I started tryna rap and be like my big cousin Robbo who started showing me the ropes at a young age his self but threw time I stuck with it maybe 17 18 I started practicing more tryna get it right but it wasn’t untill I was about 23 that I acutely said u kno wat this is my life it’s all or nothing and music just means so much to me and my life so that’s about it Read more>>

Tessa LeBaron

From a young age I always loved drawing. I was very shy and quiet, and I felt like I could use art as my voice. When I started realizing that I wanted to pursue art as a career, I was a teenager.. I remember taking “career class” in high school and the assignment was planning for the future and picking a career. I literally wrote down “artist” as my career and my teacher told me, “You can’t be an artist! pick something realistic..” Read more>>

Austin Bishop

My first paid show was at the only bar in Livingston, AL where I was going to college at The University of West Alabama. A lot of the students at UWA found out I was playing at the Brass Monkey Saloon, and I guess wanted to see if I was actually going to do it. I ended up playing 5 hours instead of the 4 that was originally scheduled and the place was elbow to elbow. A lot of my teammates were there, but also people I had never seen before. Read more>>

Elaine Vargas

Since I was younger I had creative outlets I would use to escape my reality. I was an anxious kid so my creativity allowed me to create a safe haven for myself. Whether it be a book I escaped into, a drawing I brought to life or anything I created with my hands, I always found a way out. Fast forwarding to now, after I graduated college I was completely burnt out and didn’t feel like I wanted to pursue anything I had studied any further. Read more>>