The Practicality of Work VS. The Idealism of Youth=LEGO
I've been thinking alot about my career path lately. Mainly because it doesn't seem to be working out the way I want it to or have expected it to. I've spent a good portion of my life dreaming, planning, and working on trying to make a career for myself in the arts/ creative realm. And for all practicle purposes it just doesn't seem to be happening/paying fast enough. Alright I've been out of school for only six years now and I have yet to invest the amount of real time it takes for any real recognition and success to sprout from that said career path. But perhaps it's time I face reality. The reality of the need for growth into full independence and responsibility. The reality of being able to pay for my own bills and assuming fiscal responsibility for my less than spectacular credit history.
Alright I've worked on several projects to varying degrees of success and involvement but none really being completely satisfying or rewarding from a personal standpoint. And I think the work I've found most rewarding and satisfying is the personal work I've done painting/drawing/writing/cooking I've done for myself over the years. Having come to this realization perhaps it's time I sit down and think what aspects of past jobs/assignments did I find unsatisying, annoying, irritating. So let's see I hate taking direction from clients who are: Vague, cheap (aka not paying me adequately for the time, effort and energy I'm spending on their projects), have a very different idea (calculated / corporate/ marketing research driven) of what it takes for a project to succeed. Alright clients are entitled to a certain degree of control and suggestion (they are paying for my services after all) but at the same time there needs to be a middle ground where we need to meet. They need to trust my skill and judgment level to the point that drove them to initially hire/work with me in the first place other wise alot of time will be wasted in pointless back and forth over changes, inconsequential details, contracts and management/overseeing of the project.
So it looks like I'm not cut out for commercial creative work (aka design/illustration) just quite yet. Mainly because I don't know how to handle clients or how to meet their demands. That I am cut out and ready to handle my own path in painting in drawing but no one elses. But that kind of work won't pay the bills so to speak until I get into some galleries/shows and have an extensive network of collectors, buyers interested in my work. In the meantime I should retool my skill set in a more practicle direction to support my personal work. I've been thinking about getting into construction or culliary work recently just because there seems to be more of a necessity for it than say the design/illustration market that seems to be saturated right now. I also want something that will get me out of the house/studio/computer screen where i can use my mind and body. I can see that there will always be a demand for construction/ carpentry work seeing that there will always be a need for houses, sets, and building to be built. The same can be said for food to a certian extent unless we move into the far flung sci future where robots and micro-machines create food and homes for us out of surrounding molecules. And it seems that carpentry and cullinary work can be as fullfilling creatively and maybe even more so as I get to see the fruits of my labor take shape more immediately.
We'll see how it pans out...it is just an idea after all. I am going up to the Art Institute in Santa Monica tommorrow to interview and test out for a highly coveted spot as a model builder at Legoland in Ca. It sounds like it's the total polar opposite of what I just mentioned but perhaps in someways it's a merging of the two career paths. After all if I make it past the initial modeling test and urine based drug test and beat out all the other regional finalist in MAY (there's supposed to be a World Nintendo Championship/Wizard-esque Finale Competetion) I could just be working the dream job of many a youth...Alright so I'm almost 30...But FUCK IT I could be paid to play/work with LEGOS!!! Alright so it starts at a shitty $13-$15 but at least there are benefits... and room for growth (supposedly/hopefully into the R&D wing of the toy/block creating division) not to mention it's based in Carlsbad / San Diego (home to UCSD a notorious party school as well home to a large Republican constituency [wierd combo I know] ). Well at least they have a beautiful park and it's also near Mirimar, Top Gun Naval academy.
Alright I've worked on several projects to varying degrees of success and involvement but none really being completely satisfying or rewarding from a personal standpoint. And I think the work I've found most rewarding and satisfying is the personal work I've done painting/drawing/writing/cooking I've done for myself over the years. Having come to this realization perhaps it's time I sit down and think what aspects of past jobs/assignments did I find unsatisying, annoying, irritating. So let's see I hate taking direction from clients who are: Vague, cheap (aka not paying me adequately for the time, effort and energy I'm spending on their projects), have a very different idea (calculated / corporate/ marketing research driven) of what it takes for a project to succeed. Alright clients are entitled to a certain degree of control and suggestion (they are paying for my services after all) but at the same time there needs to be a middle ground where we need to meet. They need to trust my skill and judgment level to the point that drove them to initially hire/work with me in the first place other wise alot of time will be wasted in pointless back and forth over changes, inconsequential details, contracts and management/overseeing of the project.
So it looks like I'm not cut out for commercial creative work (aka design/illustration) just quite yet. Mainly because I don't know how to handle clients or how to meet their demands. That I am cut out and ready to handle my own path in painting in drawing but no one elses. But that kind of work won't pay the bills so to speak until I get into some galleries/shows and have an extensive network of collectors, buyers interested in my work. In the meantime I should retool my skill set in a more practicle direction to support my personal work. I've been thinking about getting into construction or culliary work recently just because there seems to be more of a necessity for it than say the design/illustration market that seems to be saturated right now. I also want something that will get me out of the house/studio/computer screen where i can use my mind and body. I can see that there will always be a demand for construction/ carpentry work seeing that there will always be a need for houses, sets, and building to be built. The same can be said for food to a certian extent unless we move into the far flung sci future where robots and micro-machines create food and homes for us out of surrounding molecules. And it seems that carpentry and cullinary work can be as fullfilling creatively and maybe even more so as I get to see the fruits of my labor take shape more immediately.
We'll see how it pans out...it is just an idea after all. I am going up to the Art Institute in Santa Monica tommorrow to interview and test out for a highly coveted spot as a model builder at Legoland in Ca. It sounds like it's the total polar opposite of what I just mentioned but perhaps in someways it's a merging of the two career paths. After all if I make it past the initial modeling test and urine based drug test and beat out all the other regional finalist in MAY (there's supposed to be a World Nintendo Championship/Wizard-esque Finale Competetion) I could just be working the dream job of many a youth...Alright so I'm almost 30...But FUCK IT I could be paid to play/work with LEGOS!!! Alright so it starts at a shitty $13-$15 but at least there are benefits... and room for growth (supposedly/hopefully into the R&D wing of the toy/block creating division) not to mention it's based in Carlsbad / San Diego (home to UCSD a notorious party school as well home to a large Republican constituency [wierd combo I know] ). Well at least they have a beautiful park and it's also near Mirimar, Top Gun Naval academy.