Very interesting read! Always interesting to read about the leap others have made.
I'll share something personal, because it will happen to many as we age and times change....
There are those, such as myself...that make that leap, make a go for any number of years...and after about a dozen years or so, then find due to perhaps a spouse getting an illness (my wife has fibromyalgia and restless leg syndrome), that the expense of medical bills, further treatments, etc., can force the artist back into another profession.
In my case, I taught art in the public schools, then quit to paint professionally for about 12 years...and now find myself back in the public schools as an art teacher. (I'd like to point out though, hee hee heeeee...that it takes nearly the same courage or insanity to jump into teaching art as doing art full time...as it is as fickle and quick to get budget cut. I'm on my 4th year back in the classroom...and as yet still hesitate to buy a house! Ya just never know....!).
What is important from my perspective is, after living as a professional artist for 12 years prior to having to go back into another profession, you can really go thru mind games...even depression. You can second guess your talents, beat yourself up in retrospect about what you could have done different, and so on.
When you are forced to go back into a career aside from fulltime art making, you can even become a workaholic and paint more than when you were doing painting fulltime....just to prove to yourself and everybody else that you REALLY ARE an artist! I've done perhaps about 300 paintings over the past 3 years.
Relax. Find balance. Work to keep from driving your loved ones nuts and away!
The main thing is...keep making art, keep plugging away. I might be teaching art, K-12...but I paint prolifically, maintain gallery contacts and seek out new galleries; celebrate sales; live life!
I had several job interviews when I sent my teaching applications out, and I chose a smaller school. The first couple years were hectic getting my curriculum down...but now I have more and more time to paint. In fact, being an artist in the Midwest to begin with was difficult...(marketing work in a predominantly football/beer culture...hahahah), so in some respects life has become easier.
One can find a lot of pressure at the easel. If YOU know you are an artist, don't let the dictates of others beat you down. Some define "pro" by hours spent per week, or not having other jobs on the side, or another main job. Heck...I've won major national/regional painter's awards over the years and I'll be darned if I'm going to take away my status of knowing who and what I am just because life throws things at me out of my control.
One thing that helped me was viewing about 30 video tapes I purchased to build up my art history video library at the school. Many fine painters in history had to take on assignments and jobs they did not like, or experienced tragedy that brought on the onslaught of self-doubting...other career choices, etc;
I think of the depression Jackson Pollack went thru after his work lost relevancy and popularity. Tragic.
Good stuff though Gradiva! If I were starting out today all over, your information would be very helpful! Amazing too what you can do with your computer and a nearby Kinko's, isn't it??? hahahaa...
peace,
Larry
It helps me "budget" and organise my inventory to have the deadlines too, even if I don't get in.
Linear Mode
