I Wasn't Kidding
I am SO THRILLED about all the requests pouring in for The Artist In the Office. Now I know why Oprah gives things away--it feels AWESOME! There are still some left, so request away! Be sure to include your mailing address!
One of the things that has helped me immensely in coming into an office job is making my work life a series art projects. I will admit that this is a delicate balance. I do make sure to get my work done (it's part of the agreement I made when I came here), and as long as I take care of that, I allow small doses of creativity through my day. The key is SMALL. Don't do it so much that it becomes an issue, but do it enough that you feel the presence. The result is that I am happier to come to work, and I don't feel I am dividing my real life from my job life. Plus, once I started looking, there was SO MUCH MATERIAL!
I can be a technophobe, and was very reluctant to get a digital camera, but I can't believe how much it has created in my life. The beauty of its instant gratification, plus deletion capabilities, has led to me taking it almost everywhere I go. I do believe in (and ENCOURAGE) taking it to work and using it as a medium for creation. There are SO MANY things you can do that aren't disruptive or take much time. Even if it's a self-portrait every day at 9:33 am for a week--at the end of the week you have a series.
The above pictures are a series I want to do for the next year. I was so inspired by my photo series with Jose, I DIDN'T WANT TO STOP THERE. So I started to ask other co-workers, "Would you mind posing for a picture with a sign that says 'Hi my name is _______'?" After I read about the photographer Bill Waldman this week (at 52 Projects), who wants to do a portrait a day for the next year, I thought, I want to do the HI, MY NAME IS series with EVERYONE I KNOW. How cool would that be? It connects me with the world I live in, and it engages me artistically. All from a lunchtime lark I did with a co-worker!
So much of job life is like going to sleep--we lose days to activities that don't have much meaning to us. Suddenly 8 hours or 5 days or whatever time is gone and you can't account for it--and as a society we ACCEPT this. Don't ACCEPT this! I wasn't kidding! Take your artist to work! You will be a HAPPIER employee!
Labels: art at work, Artist In the Office, projects
posted by Summer Pierre at
10:22 AM
3 Comments:
Idea for all you artists out there: Sculptures made of binder clips; paperhole punchers; staple removers; those little plastic doohickeys that you stick in the top of hanging file folders; the little tabs on which you have to tortuously type or print out titles and then stick into the little plastic doohickeys...; label sheets; etc. // One problem with the "day job" and being a freelance social scientist is that some research projects require showing up at schools or businesses to conduct interviews or etc. during business hours, so you're really better off learning to slog it out in some kind of "evening" day job, e.g. waiting tables in the evenings or some such, so that you have daytimes free. Another problem is that it is generally much easier to obtain a grant if one is affiliated with an official institution. -- I wonder if there are any free or inexpensive Artist Way groups I could sign up for. I'm kinda broke...
HI, I second the opinion that taking your digital camera with you at all times is very encouraging of the artistic, creative urges hidden in some of us. I take mine everywhere I go, because I never what opportunity I miss forever if I leave it at home. I take photos of everything, and the best part is, that if they dont turn out the way I envisioned them to be, I can simply delete them.
My husband thinks I am crazy for doing this but after 16 years with me he is used to it and just goes with it.
I love your idea of the photo a day of your friends, I am going to have to do something like that. I have been taking pictures of my food for a while now. hmmm....
Seriously, you are awesome, and this is exactly the kind of inspiration & motivational speech I need right now. Rock on, Summer. Or, um, art on, I guess would make more sense...
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