I was away on holidays in the Canary Islands last week. Being Irish, my friends and I decided to drop in to the local Irish bar called The Claddagh and outstay out welcome. We met a musician called Simon who asked us what we did. Instead listing out our current crappy jobs we told him we were artists. No, Fine Artists more specifically.
My class and I graduated in 2006 with a BA in Fine Art Painting and since then, very few of us have gone down the route of establishing ourselves as practicing artist. Most of us started off in entry level jobs in the service industry or admin and can't seem to find a way out.
How long can you call yourself an artist for when you haven’t really produced work of any significance since graduation? What's the minimum quota? Do you have to sell the work too? Surely a person practicing art who doesn't sell a thing has an expensive hobby rather than a vocation in art. I have sold one piece of work in my entire 'career' as an artist, but produced a number of pieces as gifts for my family and friends. The only time I paint is when someone asks me to.
My sister requested that I paint her a landscape as a gift for her 40th birthday (in January). I drew the outline in February and the painting sits, half finished, in my mother's utility room in my family home. I don't like painting landscapes - my ideal style of painting is expressive and colourful works based on thumbnails of a still life or photograph. I have avoided completing this painting like the plague. Every time I go downstairs, this half finished painting taunts me. An array of excuses line up to be validated:
The dried out palette will take ages to clean. I need new paint brushes. There is a collection of dirty laundry in the way. The light is crap. I can sing along with my music because I’ll be heard by the tenants in the basement flat. There are too many spiders down there. The washing machine disrupts the creative process.. I’m too tired to walk down the steps to the garden. The cat’s in there (my studio is also the cat’s bedroom) and he’s going to expect me to feed him. That really funny episode of Friends is on E4 again.
Simon, the musician sings at the Irish bar every night. Whenever he saw us he would call out, 'oh look, here come the fine artists again. Ba ha ha ha ha.'
Simon, you mock my pain.
My class and I graduated in 2006 with a BA in Fine Art Painting and since then, very few of us have gone down the route of establishing ourselves as practicing artist. Most of us started off in entry level jobs in the service industry or admin and can't seem to find a way out.
How long can you call yourself an artist for when you haven’t really produced work of any significance since graduation? What's the minimum quota? Do you have to sell the work too? Surely a person practicing art who doesn't sell a thing has an expensive hobby rather than a vocation in art. I have sold one piece of work in my entire 'career' as an artist, but produced a number of pieces as gifts for my family and friends. The only time I paint is when someone asks me to.
My sister requested that I paint her a landscape as a gift for her 40th birthday (in January). I drew the outline in February and the painting sits, half finished, in my mother's utility room in my family home. I don't like painting landscapes - my ideal style of painting is expressive and colourful works based on thumbnails of a still life or photograph. I have avoided completing this painting like the plague. Every time I go downstairs, this half finished painting taunts me. An array of excuses line up to be validated:
The dried out palette will take ages to clean. I need new paint brushes. There is a collection of dirty laundry in the way. The light is crap. I can sing along with my music because I’ll be heard by the tenants in the basement flat. There are too many spiders down there. The washing machine disrupts the creative process.. I’m too tired to walk down the steps to the garden. The cat’s in there (my studio is also the cat’s bedroom) and he’s going to expect me to feed him. That really funny episode of Friends is on E4 again.
Simon, the musician sings at the Irish bar every night. Whenever he saw us he would call out, 'oh look, here come the fine artists again. Ba ha ha ha ha.'
Simon, you mock my pain.
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