day job
It’s taken me years to not only accept, but to also make peace with having a day job. It’s a shit sandwich to which I've acquired a taste for. In fact, some days I think I've started to enjoy it.
I may not be in love with what I do there, but I like the rhythm. I like the schedule. I like the structure. It aligns with my need for routine and ritual. It helps me design my days, and order my creative energy. It helps me stay organized and focused. It helps me use my time efficiently and productively.
What I like most about my day job is that it provides me with a Logistical-Fuck-Management-System. It allows me to effectively distribute and allocate the limited supply of fucks I have to give.
I don't have to give a fuck about whether my work is good or on brand, or marketable. I don't have to give a fuck about briefs or deliverables. I don't have to give a fuck about the demands of clients or galleries. I don't have to give a fuck about anybody's opinion. Perhaps, it's crass or short-sighted of me but, if I'm honest, I'm just not that interested in those things. I only rally give a fuck about making things, and if my work is 'good' it's only because it was made from the 'fuck-you' position. And, that’s the position my day job affords me with.
I'm committed to a disciplined, daily practice. I experiment, explore, and I dabble in differing media. I chase my curiosity. I do it freely. Without worry or concern. Without reservation or anxiety. I show up to my workbench every morning and I make what I want, the way I want to. I have a small corner of the cosmos that I control. Where I have no one to answer to, and I wouldn't change that or give that up for anything.
I'm not a maker because I get paid for it. I'm a maker because it's what I do. I make things.
"Being an artist [a maker] isn’t about how you make your money",
P.S. ICAD - Day 51-53 - per usual most of teh collages featured throughout the newsletter are available for purchase here, should you so choose.
Exactly. Artists of every kind have always had day jobs, I don't where this move to 'being a professional' being the mark of value and commitment came from, with all the other artists supposedly 'hobbyists'. 'Practising artist' is the one that makes sense to me. And if you have a day job you can actually make the work you want to make, instead of having to use your art to pretzel yourself so that you can eat...
Yes! That's the ticket! I've had many day jobs too and that's never slowed me down from accepting the "professional artist" label - I work with commercial art galleries and bookstores, I've sold art to the general public, I have a business license from the state I live in and I'm officially endorsed by the city I live in ... all of that falls under the "professional" category. But none of that professional activity has been enough to pay all of my bills all of the time. Hence day jobs.
But as I look around I see public school teachers (and others) who are also needing to work a 2nd job in order to pay their bills too. So why should I expect to be any different? There's something wrong with the US economy that allows big corporations to pay so little and offer no benefits (no healthcare, no sick leave, no overtime pay etc) which causes so many people need 2nd and 3rd jobs to cover basics like housing and healthcare.
Here in the US I've even known small business owners (thriving businesses with multiple employees) to take 2nd jobs to make sure they can cover all of their bills!
When I look at other countries who are democracies with a strong safety nets (i.e. univeral healthcare, universal basic incomes, paid parental leave, childcare, paid time off work etc) I see fewer people having or needing 2nd jobs. Plus many of those countries that are social democracies offer artists stipends to do their work *not* the cutthroat granting system we have in the US.
An economy doesn’t have to be an experience of enshittification ... but here in the US ... well... 🤦♀️
As the saying goes "Healthcare, the number one driver of bankruptcy in the US, is so complicated that only 32 of 33 countries have been able to make healthcare universal and have no bankruptcies due to healthcare costs."