I don't remember the exact year, but seriously (as in with the intent of making it some kind of job) I started sometime around the late 2000s. 2007 or so.

No art classes, no. I had some art-related schooling, but that was more a catch-all "design" sort of thing that you have to get through so that you can apply to design-related higher education.
So it wasn't really art related, but just covered a bit of everything since the people in those classes would go into clothing design, graphic design, architectural design and so on.

Got through that one and then never was accepted at any of the art schools.