The Temporary Home for Wayward Artists

Jessica Johnson needs a day job.

(Full disclosure: she is also currently bunking on a futon in my guest bedroom.)

Last Wednesday, Jessica hopped on an airplane and flew from her home in Boston to Portland, OR in the hope of striking out on her own in Stumptown. She's a beatiful young woman with a sparkling personality and a degree in Illustration from MassArt. Though her performing artist experience is limited, to the best of my knowledge, to a truly terrifying string of karaoke appearances, she is a talented artist nonetheless. She loves children's books and hopes to someday make a living illustrating them. Until that time, however, it will likely be a less-than-dreamy day job that pays for her charcoal pencils and Count Chocula.

As I gaze at Jessica across the breakfast table, I wonder what makes her employment dillema different from mine, she a fine artist and me a performer. She and I have found ourselves in similar job situations for years; we've worked together in retail and our acute, uniquely-un-qualified struggles to get work in frustrating times of unemployment have been parallel tales of "I-can-do-amazing-things-but-can't-earn-more-than-ten-dollars-an-hour". Jessica is highly skilled and very accomplished. She's honed her craft for, literally, decades. Her art is delightful, marketable and pleasing. And, like most performing artists, she has struggled like hell to find a flexible, well-paying job that allowed her to practice her art and, in her case, graduate from an esteemed college with an arts degree. "I don't even know what I want to do now," says Jessica. "I'm just sick of retail."

So, what do we think? Are painters in the same boat as performers? Does someone whose passion is drawing share the day job frustrations of a drummer? You tell me.

Comments

[Dancetastic]

Wow... awesome illustrations! With talent like that, I wouldn't want to be a shop girl either. I'm sure there's room for her in a gallery--or at least her work!

[Spatula]

A resounding YES! How far can you get doing anything seriously on only a few hours a week? Art needs time.

In fact, I'm a visual artist and I want to start a feature on my blog called Weekend Score - a report on how far assorted artists with a day job got in any given weekend. Like start of weekend/end of weekend pictures of work in progress, etc. Will post stuff - email me at anna dot madar at gmail dot com to make a submission.