Fear

[AndreiB]

I had an extended period of unemployment late last year. I had recently earnt up enough money from a terrible Kmart job to not have to worry about setting myself up in a new state and promptly quit. All I had was my comic. Every day I'd absent mindedly search online for jobs related to my degree, but for the most part I was at my desk, drawing for myself, alone. I’m lucky to be relatively young enough to not have a family or mortgage to support or anything like that.

It’s weird – I remember this period (last year!) as very productive and nostalgic. My girlfriend remembers the time as utterly unbearable. I was sore about not having a job and I was working to change that, but I relished the chance to just work on what *I* wanted to do. Often I was only grumpy about my situation when I was getting the inevitable ‘What do you do?’ question at social or family events.

I think societal pressure (or just plain having a partner) is what forces the ball and chain of employment more than anything intrinsic within ourselves. I don’t see anything wrong with working fulltime in my ‘money-making’ role at 60 just as long as I’ve kept on the saddle and have an extensive body of artistic work behind me.

I think this topic is an important reminder about why we shouldn’t devalue our art and writing to valueless commodities. When we say that it’s the act of creation is important, not any monetary value assigned to that artistic creation, that’s when we doom another artist to having a pointless 9-5 job fuelled by fear, rather than give them the freedom to embrace that yearning to stay home and draw.

[bluetoaster]

[AndreiB]

As Franz Ferdinand sing
'It's so much better on holiday,
So much better on holiday!
That's why we only work when -
- we need the money!'

Dodgy employers milking the creative arts job fields are rife in Australia. Just be glad you weren't one of the animators that got screwed over by that dude who caused the Ettamoogah Incident last year. I'm working for a larger group now and my work life balance has never been better. Working for a smaller business seems to be a good way to attract crappy conditions, from my experience.

This is a really interesting link to some research I saw the other day. It looks like the arts council is realising that the opportunity to be a 'full time artist' is as rare as hen's teeth in Australia.

Here's a quote:
'There is a high level of uncertainty associated with the work of artists. So most artists do a range of paid work in both arts and non arts related jobs in order to make a living. This research found that less than half of artists income comes from their creative work, with the rest earned through arts related or non arts work.'

[Frank Candiloro]

Personally, I fear that I'm not getting as much creative work done as I should, almost like time is running out, even though I'm 25, so I'm not exactly old or anything. I feel like 95% of my time is focused on my "art" and yet it never really feels enough, almost like there's some sort of innate urge within me to conquer the world and accept nothing else, if that makes any sense.

I guess I'm just impatient.

[bluetoaster]