How I Became an Artist

January 4, 2021

How does someone become an artist? Well, for me, it started before I could talk.⁣

I remember always having chalk or paint in my hands. By the time I was in first grade, I collected journals, and I made “books” by writing stories and drawing pictures for them.

By the time I was 10, if you asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I told you I wanted to be a magazine editor. Even at a young age, I knew I wanted to be at the top—crafting the vision and deciding what would be included and how the parts would fit together.⁣

Fast forward to my 20s when I actually became a magazine editor. I was at the top, crafting the vision, but it wasn’t MY vision.

(The whole experience reminded me of Kate Hudson’s character in How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. You know—you can write “whatever you want,” but not really, because it’s a magazine with its own voice and style.)

I was an editor, but I was curating the vision of someone else.⁣

Of course, anyone can make ART and also curate the vision of someone else (creating art simply to make money, or creating a specific kind of art that you think will sell, etc.).

But when I decided to become an artist, it was never about that for me. It was (and still is) about the vision.

MY vision.

Being an artist is about sharing a vision that is wholly and authentically me, and releasing artwork into the world that has a lasting impact on someone else.

(Even better when my artwork gets to live in someone else’s home—forever reminding them of that big, bold, beautiful vision.)⁣

So yeah, that’s why I’m an artist. Because I have a vision, and I feel compelled to share it with the world to make it better in my own way.