The Artist in the Office

This week is in danger of sucking me dry. In an attempt to keep my soul in tact, I started to make lists yesterday at lunch time of ideas, guerilla projects, things to MAKE MY MARK in New York. lately, I am fascinated by this idea of looking at work culture head on. I want to make a 'zine called "The Artist in the Office." You know who you are and you've been living it for years. You're the writer, who has sustained a dream life of characters, observations, and notes, sneaking in the occasional chapter, while you work on reports; You're the painter or illustrator who doodles constantly on stickies, and imagines your own work being duplicated as you make thousands of copies at the copying machine; you're the musician who hoofs your gigs to your co-workers, sneaks e-mailings to your mailing list, and makes fliers when the boss ain't looking.

I wonder just how many of us are out there. Seriously. Who out there is an artist in their daily life, living a double life, working essentially two jobs? I wonder at the daily frustration we all try to ward off. I wonder at how we try to creep in our REAL lives, into our days spent doing what we think we MUST do. I think we do it passive aggressively, by sneaking in computer time, copier time, office supply time. Do you ever consider consciously all the time and supplies you DO use toward your artful life, during your day job? How do you TRULY spend your days?

There are reasons we are here in the office. Maybe we can't imagine another way. Maybe it is only temporary. Maybe it's just a means to an end. What is it that you REALLY DO?

The office is the American symbol for JOB. There are people who work in an office, who love their jobs. There are people in an office who don't think about it much. There are people, who are raging in their seats everyday because they want another way, but don't know how.

I have felt an urge lately to put up fliers or chalk messages on the sidewalk, in midtown New York, that say things like, "Call in Sick" or "You don't have to go" or "This moment is more important than you think" or "Go towards the kindness." I dream of having a life that is spent doing what I want to do 100% of the time--none of it would be spent in an office. Yet, this is where I am. I have to begin HERE, if I am to begin anything.

Recently I met a writer who just published a book on creativity. I asked him if he was able to write full-time and he sort of sagged in posture, and said wearily, "Oh, no. Not yet anyway." And we both acknowledge wary smiles. Later, I couldn't get his response out of my mind--or my response to him. I feel there is this duality we live as artists with day jobs. We don't want our day jobs, but I do believe there is something in us that just LAYS OUR LIVES DOWN, that just says, "OH, WELL." I don't want to say OH WELL anymore. It made me think of him in his cubicle, and me at my desk, and the countless others out there who feel tired, who feel like they coast through that part of their lives in order to get to the "real" parts.

Having a day job doesn't make any of us less of an artist than anyone who is doing it full-time. Making art, makes us artists. What can you do consciously TODAY, where you sit, staring at this screen, that says THIS IS TRULY ME? Wake UP and begin where you are.