I used to be an astronomer full time and made art (mostly textile crafts) on the side. Then I stayed home as a parent full-time and did art on the side and that worked well with one and less well with two kiddos. Now my youngest is in school and I have part-time hours for my creative practice and that is excellent, but not the same as full-time or total freedom to go to residencies or shows. I really appreciated Making Your Life as an Artist by Andrew Simonet and how he presents strategies for making it work. He also legitimizes not doing your creative work as a full-time job, which is consistent with the working artists I know who spend more than half their time on business and admin.
Thanks for sharing that resource! It sounds like you're finding ways to make it all work for you, which is so great.
Re full time creative work, I really get that -- I used to do (different) creative / passion work as my full-time job and that admin piece was definitely true for me, too! I think none of it is perfect & I don't have an idealized version of what full-time creative work means, but I am curious about how to find the right balance for me.
I am so brain dead but like who I work with and for. But I have no space at the end of the day in my brain for creative work or time/$$ to rly invest in it. I feel like everything I could say has already been done. It feels like pandering at this point.
I've been in that place of feeling like everything I could say has already been said and that's really hard! I just come back to that this is for me and I write because I need to / have to regardless. Sending you lots of care as you navigate being in that place of having no space/time/money for creative work at the end of the day and hoping things change how you want them to. Capitalism is hard!!!
I used to be an astronomer full time and made art (mostly textile crafts) on the side. Then I stayed home as a parent full-time and did art on the side and that worked well with one and less well with two kiddos. Now my youngest is in school and I have part-time hours for my creative practice and that is excellent, but not the same as full-time or total freedom to go to residencies or shows. I really appreciated Making Your Life as an Artist by Andrew Simonet and how he presents strategies for making it work. He also legitimizes not doing your creative work as a full-time job, which is consistent with the working artists I know who spend more than half their time on business and admin.
Thanks for sharing that resource! It sounds like you're finding ways to make it all work for you, which is so great.
Re full time creative work, I really get that -- I used to do (different) creative / passion work as my full-time job and that admin piece was definitely true for me, too! I think none of it is perfect & I don't have an idealized version of what full-time creative work means, but I am curious about how to find the right balance for me.
I am so brain dead but like who I work with and for. But I have no space at the end of the day in my brain for creative work or time/$$ to rly invest in it. I feel like everything I could say has already been done. It feels like pandering at this point.
I've been in that place of feeling like everything I could say has already been said and that's really hard! I just come back to that this is for me and I write because I need to / have to regardless. Sending you lots of care as you navigate being in that place of having no space/time/money for creative work at the end of the day and hoping things change how you want them to. Capitalism is hard!!!
Thank you 😊 back atcha I’m glad you’re writing! I am too a little bit