Home at Work & Working at Home

The other day, in a staff meeting (yes EVERYBODY has them these days), someone who shall not be named suggested that I write a post about what it’s like to be a working artist and an artist who also goes to work. If I kept this post short I would say “Stressful, fun and time consuming!”

But who likes short posts?

I suppose to fully explain being a working artist who also works maybe I should tell you what I do. I drive up to Chicago about once a week or so to help plan the 2009 Southern Graphics Conference http://www.colum.edu/SpecialEvents/Southern_Graphics_Council/index.php hosted by Anchor Graphics at Columbia College. www.colum.edu/anchorgraphics I am the Events Coordinator and no, even I don’t know fully what duties that title covers. Although I suspect that when things inevitably go wrong it will be my fault.

I also work here at the Swope Art Museum as the Collections Manager. www.swope.org I do know what that job entails and I believe it is mostly PAPERWORK! Well it feels exclusively like paperwork, but I did get to hang an Andy Warhol www.warhol.org screen print today, so I suppose I can’t complain.

Third job? Working Artist, this is actually my no.1 priority but don’t tell any of my bosses. I keep a studio at home and print & paint there. I show pretty regularly for someone just out of school, but I feel like I should be doing more. I am most excited about a couple of upcoming exhibitions, two here in Indiana http://artathalcyon.com/index.html and one out in Long Island. http://www.nassaulibrary.org/freeport Two of those three are in library galleries, but exhibitions are exhibitions. You’ll find no complaining here.

I always feel like I should be doing more, but maybe that is why I am multi-employed. I don’t think I would ever cut it as a home-maker (kudos mom!), the boredom sets in too quickly and the house would end up sanitarily clean. As it stands, I like my jobs, they keep me busy, meeting people and kind of force me to enjoy my life. But they are stressful and time consuming!