add one day job…
In this economy, a lot of people find it really crazy when you tell them you’re a professional artist. Really, what this meant for me was, I’m not unemployed because it’s been a really long time and that’s very depressing. I’m a self employed artist. I make stuff, i show stuff, every so often, i sell that stuff. I have integrity and creativity and i LOVE making art… but if given a chance I’d give up this life people think they’re dreaming about to work a regular job.
The facts of living as a “full time artist” are rarely as glamourous as most people would want to believe. I haven’t had a regular paycheck in 2 years, though I still manage to make stuff (this is due to a combination of generousity on the behalf of my family members and things I collected while I was still in school)… but yes, I lived with family members, including having to move back in with my parents for more than the last year. I rarely had the money to buy supplies, having to beg or borrow or use other things. This increased my ingenuity, but also limited my choices. While I totally advocate setting up boundries to increase creativity and give you direction– it’s hard to paint if you feel very inspired to paint but cannot afford any, ehem, paint.
So the point of all this is, I suppose, to defend my desire to sell out. Ha ha. I don’t actually think I’m selling out by getting a job. Actually quite the opposite. I think had I stayed the course as an independent artist and designer I think I would have sold out just so I could make some more money. I think I’ll be able to maintain my independence and artistic integrity when I don’t have to support myself on them and worry about everyone loving it and wanting to buy it…
Yeah, the real point. I finally got a day job. Someday maybe I’ll be ready to quit it. For now, I’m so thankful that I’m going to have a real, dependable job. A week ago I was offered a full time office job. I will be working, FULL TIME, and getting benefits and everything. This is the most grown up job i’ve ever had. AMAZING.
What I realized upon examining my impending schedule is, I’m going to have to be persistent about making art or it’s never going to happen. Time management is going to become very important when working 40 hours a week and commuting 10 hours (again, a week). fully half my day will be devoted to the job. Wow, how do people do that? And then there will be all the normal stuff like cooking for myself, doing my laundry, tidying up after myself, showering… fun exciting things like that. I also know myself and my tendencies, I am going to have to manage my tendency to sleep all day. I will not get as much done and I will not make as much art unless I do something that is quite counter intuitive to most artists, or at least it is whilst one is in Art School. Instead of staying up all night, my plan is to train my body to get up early again. If I get up at 7am at the latest every day, I will be able to get some things done, devote some time every week to making or organizing or preparing for the day. But it will also mean requiring myself to be in bed by 11pm every night.
The time management issue is also a huge reason I want to move. Moving farther South will cut a THIRD off my current commute time. wow.
Okay, too much minutea for the blog.
So many new things to think about, getting a new place, furnishing, renewing my credit… i feel like a grown up! OKay I know that at 30 most of my contemporaries would be going, wait why don’t you feel like one already? Call me a late bloomer. But This is exciting to me. So remind me of this when, in about six months I’m decrying having a regular job and selling fourty hours (really fifty) a week to someone in exchange for the ability to be capable to pay rent and buy stuff.
No whinning. It’s not a new years resolution, it’s an ALL year resolution. No whining!
next post, i promise to talk less about minutia and more about my plans for art! I have some great ideas…
