Some of the most celebrated artists in history began their artistic journeys at a very young age. In this article, we speak with five artists who share their personal stories of how they first developed their love for art.

We asked 5 artists when they first created Art and here is what they have to say:

1. Susie McColgan

Susie’s specialty and expertise is the Art of Healing, by implementing the scientific and emotional healing principles, her paintings create a healing energy through strategic color and lighting relationships and design, bringing feelings of comfort, warmth, hope, and peaceful harmony.

Susie on when she first started creating Art –

I first started creating art when I was in kindergarten, I remember how much I loved drawing these running horses on my abstract tissue collage artwork. I was always drawing at recess, I loved drawing something and could take it home with me (!) like the trees in the playground. I did get in trouble in middle school when I sold my Betty & Veronica cartoons to the other kids for a quarter. My mom was not too happy when they called her in, however, she must have been proud of my early business sense back then! I began creating more seriously in middle school, taking summer classes at the local college, selling my art at art fairs, and drawing people’s portraits sitting live for me. In high school, I took art class twice a day sacrificing a typing class (that is why I am still a terrible typist lol). But I benefitted so much from learning twice as much. After graduating high school and University of Michigan Art School (BFA) I continued to create, do commissions, and work full-time for agencies in Michigan for about 10 years…until the call to paint full-time ached so bad in my heart that I decided to take a leap of faith and make painting and portrait work my career. And then the REAL challenges began! And the fun!

2. Lauren Naomi

Lauren Naomi has grown around the floral craft in some way or the other and now is carrying forward this family tradition of working with flowers. A fourth-generation floral crafter, Lauren has a unique style of making flowers with her hands using Japanese clay and turning them into a beautiful bed of roses or a warm tree with branches of blossoming flowers from a tree.

We asked Lauren how early she delved into this craft:

My focus on the beauty of flowers came early, with the appreciation of my mother’s perennial gardens as soon as I could walk. I have a journal from when I was eight years old featuring drawings, measurements, and written descriptions of each type of flower in her garden. I drew and sculpted flowers from an early age too and found a clay tile from when I was twelve years old that was an autobiographical tile from my art class in school. Mine was of a three-dimensional rose. Making paper and wire floral sculptures with my Sicilian grandmother began in my very early years as well.

3. Alicia Wilkinson

Alicia creates paintings with thick texture, fiber, and other mediums while exploring beauty, texture, color, and things she is processing internally. Alicia’s inspiration comes from her Creator as she processes the pain and joy in her life alongside the desire to bring transformation into other people’s lives. Her heart to end injustices drives her to create work that has the hope to bring restoration and renewal to the earth.

Alicia on remembering when she first created Art:

I created a little bit of art during my high school years. When I attended Iowa State University to pursue my Bachelor of Fine Arts in Interior Design degree, I continued to explore visual art through a variety of classes. The point at which I truly dove into creating artwork as a holistic part of my life was around 2007 during a major turning point in my life.

4. Christina Elderkin

Christina Elderkin creates analog, hand-cut, collage pieces. Always a process, she dissects ideas surrounding the environment and society, space, and imagination. There is social and universal relevance in her work, especially in conversation with our shared skin, and our world. She is interested in this awareness of belonging to a human community bound together by a shared past and a future to be constructed in common. She examines our shared human skin and experience: social and environmental pressures that we all encounter in our modern world.

Christina on remembering when and how she created her first collage:

I started in 2017 with a box cutter, national geographic, and a lot of failure and persistence.

5. Kathryn Knudsen

Kathryn Knudsen transforms scraps into vibrant and therapeutic artworks. Kathryn enjoys exploring and experimenting with all sorts of materials and is especially interested in the use of art to examine and bring notice to human’s impact on the environment. Kathryn’s work utilizes a variety of traditional media, abstract forms, and found objects to produce an artistic vision with the intent to heal, refashion, and beautify. The result–is an unpredictable labyrinth of old recycled clothing, unwanted paintings, neglected thread, discarded paper, necklace beads, and other recycled materials.

Kathryn shares how early she delved into Art:

My mother is an artist so I grew up surrounded by art and art making. When I was young she was constantly saving little bits of paper or packaging and asking “What could we make out of this?”. I look back now and realize that sort of upbringing shaped the core of my art practice. She also always encouraged me to take classes and pursue any interests I had.

So this was a trip down memory lane, with a lot of nostalgia and happy feelings of how far the Artists have reached. Each shared their moments and how it helped them to grow as an Artist. You can read their full articles here. If you want to share your early moments or reflect on when you first created Art, comment below and we would be happy to read your journey.