Setting Goals, Investing, and Prosperity; Otherwise Known as Totally New Concepts in my Career as an Artist

On Friday night I started taking a class at the School of Visual Arts entitled, "So, you Want to Be an Artist." The description began saying, "Designed for people who are sitting at their desks and wondering if giving into their dreams of being an artist can become a reality..." So aptly did this describe my every day existence, I looked around to see if there were any cameras. I almost expected to turn back to the screen, only to see the words THIS MEANS YOU, glaring back at me.

I signed up because I am at a new phase in my life. I'm in the "I want something different than I've been able to provide myself, but am finally able to admit that I don't know jack about how to get it" phase. This class seemed like a good start. One of the first things we talked about was a strange little thing called GOALS. You mean people who have careers SET GOALS? I was totally ROCKED. I couldn't BELIEVE IT. This very small (and obvious) direction shifted something in me. Of course, I've read about goals in the Artist Way and done lots of creative recovery, but I never had a real human being sit down with me and ask: What do you want in the next 3 months? How often are you going to work to get it? Have you thought about making a commitment to your art FIRST? That means making arrangements with your full-time job to go down to 4 days a week or coming in an hour later every day?

Part of the homework was a chapter from Caroll Michels' How To Survive and Prosper as an Artist. While Michels is mainly talking about fine art, I found her ideas to be REVOLUTIONARY and true to anyone who wants to make a living at art in any medium. She complained how no one is supported, either by training or by society to go into the field of art as a viable employment option. Michels argues that in fine art and design programs in colleges and universities there should be a mandatory career and busines section to help them thrive after graduation. We, as a society, take for granted that artists are expected to have a job and do their art. No wonder we're all so frustrated!

It made me think about the ideas that I was raised with--both by my artist and non-artist parental units, and the messages I got about "real work" vs. doing art. It also made me realize how I have been so invested in this idea of purely magical circumstances that creates a successful career as an artist. It made me mine my history as a player in a thriving music scene. I literally looked down on people who seemed driven (a.k.a. goal oriented), because that made them look "calculated." I preferred the idea of being at the whim of my muse, which would eventually bring me fame & glory. I never planned or thought I could build something real and furtive. It served me and I got to a certain level, but I got in my own way. Such lack of belief in building a foundation for myself and asking, clearly, "What do I want?" gave me a wonderful role that I hadn't realized I am STILL playing: the victim. Oh, woe is me, I bombed out, and everyone else is soaring in their careers, while I am totally freaked out, etc. This isn't to say that I haven't had plenty to grieve in the loss of what I started there. Also, I can't say that everyone I know who is doing REALLY WELL, set clear goals and it worked for them, but I can say for me that this simple idea of planning, and INVESTING in what I actually want has given me more hope than I have had in YEARS. I'm not just talking about being an illustrator (which I am actively working on)--I'm talking about that old sweetheart of mine, doing music. What if I approached it from a place of not "I bombed out, and now what?" but from a place of, "I want to do this and this and this?"

There's only one life, people. I want to set some goals and DO SOME STUFF. I don't have it all figured out yet, but I'm all jumpy and excited. Good thing I have a show tomorrow. CBGBs Gallery HERE I COME.