Take Your Artist to Work: Cindy Sherman

Even FAMOUS artists took their artist to work!

Photographer Cindy Sherman, known for her series Film Stills, where she took evocative photographs of herself cast in different "characters." She came into work one day as "The Secretary" when she worked as a (what else?) secretary at Artists Space in 1977.

KEEP THOSE COMMENTS COMING! I WILL BE DRAWING A NAME ON FRIDAY! ALSO, I LOVE KNOWING YOU EXIST!

The Artist in the Office Interview: Jeffrey Yamaguchi

>Jeffrey Yamaguchi is the author of 52 Projects and Working for the Man, and runs the 52projects.com website, all about projects and project-making. His day job: working in the online space at a book publisher.

What are some of the ways you have stayed motivated for your creative work while working a day job?

Earlier in my career, I would say that the sheer drear of my day job work is what motivated me to pursue my creative work on the side. Sometimes, of course, I would just be fully and completely down about the day job, and would get nothing done. But on my better days, I was really fired up to get to work on my side projects -- I knew I could find fulfillment there, so I carved out the time -- on the clock, even -- and focused on the creative work, and the more I did this, the better I felt overall -- yes, even doing the dreary day-job tasks.

When do you do your creative work? Do you have any rituals, schedules, etc.?

I used to be able to do an amazing amount of my creative work on the clock -- I was covertly a most efficient worker. I would hurry through my day job duties, and then use the time I had opened up for myself for my own creative projects. Now that I'm a bit further along in my career... as I, and I hate to say this, but as I get OLDER, it just doesn't work like that anymore. When I am at work, I have to be pretty focused on the day job tasks at hand. So one thing I like to do these days is stop off at a bar or a cafe right after work for a half-hour or an hour, and just get some writing done. I'm still sort of in work mode, and I haven't yet walked in the door at home and realized how tired I am, or how I have to get dinner going, things like that.

Are there things you did during your workday to stay inspired? Like you ever done your creative work at your day job—if so, how?

Honestly, the best thing I could do was my workday duties well, and fast, without wearing myself out too much. If I did the opposite of that, I would just get disgruntled and tired, and so I would get nothing done, not on the clock, and not off the clock either. It took me YEARS to figure that out. At one of my past jobs, I was literally The Disgruntled Guy. It was one of the most unproductive periods in my life. The really funny thing is I am still friends with a crew from that job, and when we are all out together, I always think, and sometimes say out loud, why do these people even like me -- I was such a horrible, miserable person to work with... a real forgiving bunch, that group.

Have you considered freelance? If not, why not? If you have, why aren’t you doing it full-time?

I have freelanced before. It didn't really work for me -- I spent too much time stressing about getting the next job, so even when I should have been just working on an assignment or enjoying some down time, that stress would gnaw at me. I never felt that freedom that many freelancers enjoy and embrace, not that they are completely free of stress, but they just manage it better. I was never really able to get to that point. And I also have to admit that I like going into the office -- talking with co-workers, working with people, working on that stable 9 to 6 or so schedule. When I was freelancing, there were days when I felt isolated, and it was harder to keep a normal schedule -- it seemed like I was working until all hours of the night... Again, I just didn't manage it well.

Why did you decide go into publishing?

I love words, and everything that you can do with them, how you can tell stories with them, and how you can share those stories. Format, medium, package -- this is all evolving, and yet some things will stay the same as they have always been. The "industry" may go through some tough times -- all industries do -- but words, they are just going to keep on flowing. Words are old, and new, constantly evolving and evoking and surprising in their limitless combinations. Words are forever, and they are ever-ascendant. Publishing to me is about words. It is a creative space that I really enjoy working in and feel inspired by.

Are there any issues that have come up with working in an industry related to your creative work? Can you talk about the positives and the negatives?

On the positive side, you really get to know the industry well, and that kind of knowledge can allow you to be smarter in your own personal dealings. The connections you make and the people you meet really allow you to form a powerful network. You have incredible access. On the negative side, sometimes you just know a little too much -- knowledge that might lead you to feel negatively about certain things. And of course having both your day job and your side project creative work in your head all the time can start to become a downer and weigh you down -- you can go through periods where you just want to think about something new, something different...

Any thoughts you would like to share to someone who is thinking that they should get a job related to their creative work? Any advice?

It took me a while to figure out what I wanted to do -- and even now, if you asked me, I can't just say, "I want to be a writer." What I do know is that my career and my side project work used to be traversing two very distant parallel lines... over time, those lines have started to angle in towards each other... I don't know if they will ever actually intersect, but I am always working to get them closer and closer. It takes a lot of time, and a lot of hard work, a lot of failures, a lot of mistakes, a lot of smack-downs, a lot of wrong turns... my advice is to constantly think about how both your efforts in your day job AND your side project work can help get those paths tracked closer and closer. As progress is made, you start to see how efforts on both fronts begin to help not just one or the other, but your overall goal of whatever it is your are truly, deep down trying to accomplish.

Okay, gang! I will be giving away Jeffrey's funny and true book about ON THE CLOCK living, Working For the Man on FRIDAY. All you gots to do is put a comment down below, and I will pick a random name and announce the winner!

Coming on Monday: The Artist In the Office Interviews

Hey friends, starting monday I will begin what I call The Artist In the Office Interview! This is where I interview other creative folks who have found their way in the work a day world, hopefully providing insights and ideas to all of you. One of the things I absolutely LOVED about sending out the zine was hearing from other artists in the office (or restaurant or school or home, etc.). This has happened once again with the book. It made me feel LESS ALONE and SO INSPIRED to hear about how other creative types were making it work. I hope these interviews will continue in that spirit for other folks.

These interviews won't happen EVERY Monday, but they will happen on mondays. They will also coincide with (drum roll please) a BLOG GIVE AWAY. All these creative types make stuff--some of them famous, some of them not, but all beautiful. I will open up the comments for people to leave their names for the exciting GIVE AWAY of books, totes, somethings that people make. Who doesn't like that?

Monday's interview: Jeffrey Yamaguchi, project maker, author, with a day job in publishing!

If you want to see one I did DONKEY'S YEARS AGO with the amazing and talented and on-the-job-writing author FELICIA SULLIVAN, go here.

Have a great weekend.

Oooh la la! The Storque!

Etsy's The Storque has not only an EXCERPT from The Artist in the Office, but instructions by me for a GENUINE craft you can make at work! Check it out!

Some Thinking on Positive Thinking

I recently read a lukewarm review of my book on a blog where the author said that basically it all summed up to positive thinking (which wasn't that original). I had some negative thinking about this review, but that's not what stuck with me and not what I want to talk about here. What stuck with me was throwing my philosophy into the category of positive thinking, when I actually have some ISSUES with that category.

One of the things I struggle with is a bad attitude. I am a GIANT complainer. I walk around feeling afraid and screwed often. At my best, I am inspired and filled with the wonder of life. At my worst I can be a petty, paranoid, and rigid. I've talked here before about some of my issues with creativity books, how I felt they did not address directly the miserable worker in me. Likewise in creativity's sister industry, inspiration, I often feel alienated by the relentless positivity: BE FEARLESS! BELIEVE IN YOURSELF! IT'S ALL GOOD! Well, what if you are STILL afraid? What if you just DON'T believe in yourself? What if you feel SCREWED? Then are all your desires unachievable? It took me awhile to realize that being fearless is not only unrealistic for me, but TOTALLY OVERRATED in getting to where you want to go. Ditto with belief in oneself. Also, I don't know anyone who experiences GOOD 24/7. For me, I came to realize that I don't even need to have RADICAL SELF ACCEPTANCE to move forward. What I needed was smaller than that. I needed to just think, SCREW IT.

For me, it may not be it's ALL good, but it may be more along the lines of SOMETHING is good and that is where the messages in my book lie. It was a HUGE shift in my brain to start thinking in smaller somethings than in all or nothings. Yes, this is a form of positive thought, but it's not just a coating of sugar and sunshine and puppies and flowers. It's an immediate way to narrow your focus to the real and touchable. When someone says to me YOU CAN DO ANYTHING, my brain is PARALYZED by the enormity. I want to ask, "Can you be more specific?" I think this is true for a lot of people. Negative thinking, as in "I can' do x" or "I can't have y" is actually a great way our brains narrow the world down for us into a focused context. Our brains can now chug along and act with specific set of rules and boundaries. The trick is to SHIFT those boundaries so they do include the options of x or y. Looking to what SPECIFICALLY works is a way to do that.

So I guess, yes, my book is filled with positive thinking, but I hope it goes beyond cheerleading. My hope is that it lets someone like me--cranky, disbelieving, and with an overwrought sense of helplessness--move the fence a little in their brain to see that (blade by single blade) the grass in their very own yard is green.

lazy ideology of carrots & sticks

I LOVE the ideas that are PROVEN in this talk about worker performance. It's something I TOTALLY believe in and wish more companies would embrace what places like Google already does: honoring the minds and energy of their workers.

I used to work at a place whose workforce had very low turn around because it honored their workers with education benefits, ample vacation & health benefits. It also provided breakfast, a snack, and a nap room. It was a good place to work. By the time I left things were already starting to change. A new president had moved in and he hired a corporate HR person, who has since systematically shaved away benefits, while culling employees, and doing what so many companies think is best: cut expenses and push the workforce. Dan Pink does an excellent job of showing how SCIENTIFIC studies have shown that this is an outdated and DUMB idea in building business. I can tell you, that the place that used to have a nap room and education benefits have employees dropping like flies or just HATING the experience of being there and hoping for a way out. When oh when are employers going to realize that they are only as good as their employees?

I can hear MANY angry retorts: it isn't your employer's job to make it okay for you to go to work, give it UP dreamer,etc. etc. My question: Why isn't it an employer's job to make sure their business is thriving and happy? And in other terms, why does the principal of working MISERABLY hard better than working HAPPILY hard? People who love where they work call in sick less frequently and are more productive. Why is it BETTER BUSINESS to have employees sneaking in hours of personal internet use and calling sick when they just don't want to go in order to stave off boredom, anger, and/or stress?

Note to the workforce: GET HAPPY.

Office Supply Art Inspiration

I am awaiting the arrival of a Brazilian TV crew (insert Bossa nova music here), but while I'm at it, I thought I'd post something I discovered, something dear to my heart: EPIC art using office supplies!

Ladies and gentleman, I give you Larissa Brown and her gift for using envelope ties:

I'll never look at inter-office mail envelopes the same again! She's kind of like if Andy Goldsworthy never went outside, and found his muse inside the tin office supply cabinet in the mailroom while he worked as an IT guy:


And who said the office couldn't be inspiring?

The Joke's On Me

So my first week back to work has kicked my ass, even with Gus sleeping nearly 7 hours two nights in a row. As an admin assistant I have long learned the art of multi-tasking and how it sometimes DOES NOT WORK. Multi-tasking with a baby is like multi tasking with, well, a baby. I get these BRIGHT IDEAS about getting things "done" and it's such a JOKE and who am I kidding anyway?

Here's one of those joke moments:

Last week I was scheduled to do several interviews, and I felt like such HOT STUFF. My book was coming out and wasn't I just the SHIZZLE and people wanted to ask me questions and here I am, *BACK TO IT* with a baby and everything--yeehaw! Only, through some error it was discovered at the last minute that I couldn't do ANY of the radio interviews on a cellphone. There was just one problem: I didn't have a landline. Who HAS a landline these days? I had to find a landline--and fast. On top of this, it meant that I would be packing up Gus at 8:00 in the morning and running to said landline, wherever the heck in New York City that would be, for my first 10 minute interview and then again at 5:00pm for another interview, because Graham was working and wasn't I just SCREWED?

Oh, you should have seen my face!

Thankfully a friend came to the rescue (THANK YOU, KIM!) and I was going to be able to do the interviews in relative peace. It was a little logistically stressful, but I could handle it. Then the night before the interviews I got a whopping THREE HOURS OF SLEEP. Gus had slept in some okay chunks, but I was so tired I developed a lovely case of insomnia. When Graham got up at 5:30 to go to work, I was exhausted and HORRIFIED. Now I had to get Gus and me out the door and into New York during rush hour, and do my first VERY IMPORTANT INTERVIEW on NO SLEEP! Yeah, that was sexy BIG TIME AUTHOR moment number one. Somehow I managed it, and Gus was great and Kim was great and I even got coffee and was able to come home with Gus earlier in the afternoon and take a short nap before going back to Kim's for interview #2.

I am quickly discovering first hand what someone once told me about being an artist and a mother: You can do it all, but you just can't do it all AT ONCE. I have a feeling I will be relearning this over and over and over again. Here I am, starting two new jobs: motherhood and authoress. Good lord, people am I blessed! I am also completely SLAMMED with so many apposing demands. I feel like I am baking a cake while learning the two step. Maybe just maybe I'll get that cake made, but not with out missing a beat or two.

Lani Puppetmaker asked me some questions and here are some of my answers. Thank you, Lani for the chance to talk talk talk about me me me.

Real Simple + AITO = BFF!

Look who's a FUN THING TO DO!

(No, not me, my BOOK, people! Get your mind out ouf the GUTTER.)

What's Your Day Job

I love this video of costumed people at the 2006 San Diego Comic Con talking about their day jobs. Somehow, I think this is a brightly colored version of ALL of us. If you had to wear a costume depicting who you REALLY were, what would it look like?

I did a podcast with Jamie Ridler Studios. In it you can hear me discuss day jobs, being uptight as an artist and many other creative things in all my giggly glory. I don't think I will listen to my own interviews anymore. The sound of my voice and all that it speaks makes me want to lock the doors, draw the curtains, and refuse of all knowledge that I exist: "Who her? Yeah, don't know who yer talking about." Jamie is a wonderful spirit though, and I THANK HER from the bottom of my self-conscious heart for including me in her wonderful site promoting the creative spirit.

AITO HITS IT!

Well, Tuesday was ROCKED by both The Artist in the Office hitting the Earth's orbit, but also marking my first FORAY out into the world without a baby either inside my body or attached to the outside. HOLYCRAP! I felt a bit like a house cat that suddenly had been let out the back door into the WILDS of the backyard.

I left Gus and Graham for the book smelling offices of Penguin so I could make the 10:00am phone interview with the Morning Show. Angela, my AWESOME publicist, let me use her office. She warned me ahead of time that she had my illustrations up on her wall, so that I could either consider it flattering or creepy, whichever I chose. When I saw that I was up there with Kurt Vonnegut I decided that this was not only flattering, but an indicator that I had indeed ARRIVED.

Then it was time to head on over to WNYC. I listen to WNYC every single day so to enter its gates was akin to getting the GOLDEN TICKET and entering the Willy Wonka Chocolate Factory. I got to sign in as a BIG TIME AUTHOR (BTA) and drop Brian Lehrer's name as if I was a mobster and he was a wad of bills.

It went great, by the way. Or at least I've been told that. I was too busy thinking I AM SITTING ACROSS FROM THE VOICE I LISTEN TO ALL THE TIME to know what I sounded like or what I was even saying. Some things you should know about Mr. Lehrer: he smiles at you the whole time in this kind way that makes you feel like "Hey, I'm okay!" The man can expand 20 minutes and cover not only the topic at hand and the phone calls that follow, but other random things like the history of my name and GUS' WILD ARRIVAL. Amazing!

I didn't have the guts to take a picture of BL, but I did get up the courage to take a picture of Matt, who hosted me and showed me where to go:

Every once in awhile I'll meet someone who is like a walking drawing of mine. Noria Jablonski was one. My own husband was another. Matt is yet one more. I embarrassed us both by asking if I could take this picture for the purpose of drawing him, which I still will do. I will embarrass him further by saying, doesn't he have the grooviest hair? Also, a total nice guy. Thanks, Matt!


Before I went home I stopped by the Union Square Barnes & Noble to see if the book really did exist and lo and behold:

Can you see it? Top shelf? YEEHAW! It exists! It really exists!

Then it was time to go home. A BIG thank you to the Morning Show and the folks at the Brian Lehrer show and all of you that listened. This cat had her day. It was awesome.

The Book You Most Want to Read

If only you'd remember before ever you sit down to write that you've been a reader long before you were ever a writer. You simply fix that fact in your mind, then sit very still and ask yourself, as a reader, what piece of writing in all the world Buddy Glass would most want to read if he had his heart's choice. The next step is terrible, but so simple I can hardly believe it as I write it. You just sit down shamelessly and write the thing yourself. I won't even underline that. It's too important to be underlined. Oh, dare to do it, Buddy! Trust your heart. You're a deserving craftsman. It would never betray you.

-JD Salinger

This is part of one of my favorite passages of all time. About 12 years ago I was having dinner with a writer and she pointed me to it and I was smitten. I wrote it down and posted it over almost every desk I had from Somerville, Massachusetts to Santa Cruz, California. It seemed like such a simple equation: write the book you most want to read. I kept searching for a way into that book, made stabs at it, mostly in fiction, but found it shockingly difficult. The problem was, I knew the book I want to WRITE, but I didn’t quite know the book I most wanted to READ or at least I couldn’t see the difference. Yet there is a BIG difference.

Longtime readers of this blog know I am (for lack of a better term) an INSPIRATION WHORE. My suspicion is so are many of you, so I count myself among good company. I think WE ALL have found The Artist Way, taken it Bird by Bird, written down the bones, lived juicy, and SPILLED OPEN. The one thing that always bugged me about these inspiration books is that they were all written by people who didn’t hold down “regular” jobs. SARK had 250 jobs, but had been living a very seemingly miraculous life off the grid since her mid twenties. Anne Lamott wrote books and occasionally taught, which seemed to me a job talking about writing, which sounded downright ORGASMIC to a talker like me. Julia Cameron also occasionally taught, while living in Taos and riding horses and renting an apartment in New York on Riverside Drive. The list goes on. None of them appeared like me, going to jobs they hated, stuffing down their artistic selves from 9-5 and living the rest of their lives in the cracks of time. My job felt like a burden to me, a badge of suffering, separating me from “real” artists like the ones I read and poured over and romanticized and secretly resented. Where is the REAL life in these books I wanted to know. Where was MY reality?

Summer Pierre, welcome to the book you most want to read.

Seymour Glass, quoted above, was right in a way. The idea is so terrifyingly simple, but to find that tree through the thick forest is the trick. I wanted to read a book about the specific reality of holding down a job and being an artist. I also wanted to read a book that would address the person like me who often could be described as a NEGATIVE NELLY. A person that walked around feeling eternally SCREWED. So this is where I began. I think it was SARK who said in one of her books that if someone asked you “how do you live your life?” how would you answer? This is one way I would answer it. There is not a single thing in this book I haven’t done or lived. It is my hope that those who find this book will see their own lives and reality mirrored back.

Dear book, welcome to the world. I am so glad I got to write you.

Mark Your Calendars!

So I've heard rumors that The Artist in the Office is already appearing in some stores--this is THRILLING. I've also heard rumblings from many of you that you are awaiting delivery of your pre-ordered copy from Amazon. Good lord, people--THANK YOU for pre-ordering! I cannot WAIT for you to get them on or after Tuesday.

Today marks the official GET BACK TO WORK day at the Pierre Parsons household, aka Camp Gus. Graham left this morning into the snowy streets to return to teaching and here I am assembling something for y'all. I've actually been doing some work here and there for AITO and the next book, but what's exciting TODAY is that the last two nights Gus has decided to REBEL from his previous program of three 3 hour chunks of sleep to waking up EVERY HOUR. Just in time, kid! I feel like I look like Christopher Llyod's Jim in the show Taxi: hair array, with BULGING EYES and slightly smudged clothing. It's my first day solo too, to which I say, welcome to the REST OF YOUR LIFE!

In any case, there is A LOT brewing in my work life in the next week. ARE YOU READY?

Monday, February 1, 8:50am-I will be interviewed on Good Morning Hudson Valley on WLNA, 1420 AM. You can listen here too.

Tuesday, February 2 - THE ARTIST IN THE OFFICE HITS BOOKSTORES! I am anticipating New York to receive it like the Macy's Thanksgiving parade! I'll be the speck WAVING at the masses underneath the Snoopy Balloon.

You can order/buy it at:
Amazon, Powells, Barnes & Noble or buy it/order it at your favorite indie bookstore. Here are some of mine:
St. Mark's Bookshop, Bookshop Santa Cruz, Capitola Book Cafe, Kepler's, Bear Pond Books

Tuesday, February 2 - more interviews!

8:00 am Mountain time - Radio Cafe on KSFR, Santa Fe, NM! Listen here or if around Santa Fe, New Mexico, tune into 101.1 FM!

1o:00am EST - interview on The Morning Show at WBFJ, Salem, NC! Listen here or if in the Winston-Salem area, tune into 103.5 FM!

*HUGE HONOR ALERT!*
11:20am EST - interview on WNYC's Brian Lehrer Show. Listen here or if in the New York area tune into 93.9. This interview is as big as it gets, folks. This is one of those fantasies I had when I imagined my book coming out--and here I am!

Friday, February 5
7:30am EST - interview on Mary in the Morning, on YOU-FM, Traverse City, MI! Listen here or if in the Traverse City, MI area tune into 106.7!

Won't you tune in and help me KICK OFF this exciting time? Also, if any of you spot copies of AITO out in the world--snap a picture and send it to me, will you? There is a part of me that just can't believe this book will be OUT IN THE REAL WORLD!

From the office,
Summer

Look What The Cat Dragged In

It came in the mail! The Artist In the Office! It's real! It's getting RAVE REVIEWS from my mother-in-law (pictured reading it above with Gus)! Only TWO MORE WEEKS until it hits bookstores! I cannot wait!

I did my first interview (details to come) last week. I always think before an interview happens, "Oh, I am SO SEXY. I am getting INTERVIEWED, tra la la la...!" Then I get interviewed and it's like I become a mute teenager that grunts and picks her pimples. We shall see what I ACTUALLY sound like when it gets released.

Also in the package of books, my sweet and awesome editors stuck this onesie in for Gus:




Awesome, right? I love it and it will DEFINITELY be going in the baby book when he outgrows it. No hand me down box for this item.

Oh my golly, YOU CAN PRE-ORDER THE ARTIST IN THE OFFICE!

I HAVE AN ISBN NUMBER, people! I AM IN THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS!!

GAH!

Evolution of a Book

First there was the idea: After a party where I met an author whose work I admired and who seemed to duck his head in the same way I did at the question, "So do you do that full-time?" No, he didn't. I did this sketch after I got home from work the next day with the idea that I could do a zine from it. Then I put it in a drawer for a year, but didn't forget it...

Second, the 'zine:
On a media fast I suddenly could see the zine clearly and I made it in 3 days. I knew I was on to something because it glowed on my desk at home and wouldn't let me sleep. Then I gave it away via the internet. Maybe you have a copy. Thank you for having a copy. That started the ball rolling and now, finally, my friends...

The BOOK:

It's COMING! February 2! And it wants to HELP!

Something to write in! Something to read! Something to give yourself when you need a leg up, a sense that you're not NUTS (you are not nuts). Yellow like a post-it, friendly like a co-worker who gets all your jokes. The book I worked on all this year, the dream I thought would never come. All in the color of HARD KNOCKS: black and blue, baby! Stay tuned and GET READY!

The Artist In the Office Interview: Felicia Sullivan

So many times we create a fantastical ideal around what it would be like to write a book--how you need SPACE and TIME and the PERFECT setting to write our great masterpieces. In fact, most writers, especially nowadays, create that space and time among the same everyday lives we ourselves lead: the busy, frantic, working kind. Felicia Sullivan has accomplished what so many of us dream of doing--she just published her first (of many to come) books. Her riveting and beautiful memoir The Sky Isn't Visible from Here, was released in February by Algonquin Books. I sat down with Felicia (in the e-mail sense) and asked her about the very REAL process of writing her book:

Can you tell our reading audience just what your life looked like when you began writing The Sky Isn’t Visible From Here? Were you working full-time and doing anything else in your life at the time?

For years I was an evangelist of the maxim: If there is a spare moment in the day, fill it with a project worth doing – a project that inspires, challenges and makes you feel that the world is a great place, worthy of your work. When I embarked on this journey four years ago–committing my memories, my painful childhood lived with my mother–I was the curator of a reading series, a publisher and editor of a literary journal, a writer of short stories, a project manager for a multi-media company, a baker of a mean blueberry crumble, and host to a succession of parties whose sole goal was to bring smart, creative women together.

Suffice it to say, I had a lot on my proverbial plate. I was stockpiling activities. I owned and updated multiple day planners. Making time in frenetic schedule for my most significant project yet was paramount, so I took a step back, examined my life and did some retooling.

How did you find time to write?

I was the queen of on-the-clock writing. I had it down to a science. Luckily I don’t mind waking at the crack of dawn and heading into the quiet office. The hum of the air conditioner, a hot cup of coffee and those few precious hours of solitude resembled something like church – I was able to write for two hours in unmitigated peace. On the weekends, I mapped out my projects for the week, kept a very detailed to-do list and tried to compartmentalize as many tasks as I could, and complete tasks in off-hours. In essence, don’t marry yourself to the 9-to-5 work schedule. Adjust, plan ahead, try to find the pockets of time that work best for you, and if you’re in a position – delegate.

Writing on the clock, how did you manage job work vs. creative work? Are there any pitfalls to writing while on the job? Any perks?

I’m not going to lie and say that working on the clock will work for everyone, but if you’re committed to your project and you’re able to effectively organize your day to allow for those precious moments of artistic creation – do it. If you took the same energy to lose those five pounds or forgo the pricey designer latte, then making time for your work is a cinch.

The workplace offers a slew of terrific office supplies including the crucial laser printer, and most importantly, it guarantees consistent income and health benefits. You can’t beat that with a bat!

Pitfalls – the nosy colleagues which can be struck down by closing your door or mouthing “I’m on an important call” (equip yourself with a headset and mime importance), the constant barrage of emails (realize that not everything demands your immediate attention) and the work!

At your reading in New York, you admitted, with your former boss in the audience, that you wrote a good deal of your book at work. What was his reaction?

He took it all in stride! But it was critical that I still excelled at work. That is the key – once your performance starts slipping, people start noticing the extracurricular projects and the reams of paper that mysteriously disappeared. Be smart. Do your job, do it well, but use the workplace to your advantage. While I was writing my memoir on the job, I received two promotions and many accolades from senior management.

I know you work in an office now. Sometimes the office life can be uninspiring. Are there things you have or do that make your office life more personally engaging or inspired or even comfortable?

I’ve banned fluorescent lights from my office in favor of mood-setting lamps. I collect odd stuffed animals. I play Radiohead. Naturally, the president of my company is my office neighbor and we routinely commend one another on our choice playlist.

The Sky Isn’t Visible From Here is a deeply personal work, that no doubt wasn’t an easy book to write—emotionally or artistically. Were there moments you just didn’t feel like working on this book and if so, what were some of the things that got you in the mode to be able to get it done?

Absolutely. However, I had to consistently think of the big picture: Why was I writing this book? What did I want to achieve? Why did I want people to read it? What would be the result of releasing my heart – a great piece of me into the world? Realizing that telling my story would give me a profound sense of closure by having a conversation with my mother, one I might never have, telling her about the woman I’ve become as the result of her parenting, and also letting people know that they are not alone. That it is not abnormal to have a painful relationship with a parent and then decide to make the difficult decision to let them go. That they can rise triumphant from their adversity (no matter how significant).

Once I repeated all of these mantras to myself could I keep going.

Before writing this book, did you have any ideas of what writing a book would be like, and if so, what were they? How have they changed since you have finished this book?

No, not really. I knew it would be hard work and it was. But perhaps I underestimated the degree of difficulty.

What advice would you give people who want to write a book, but are not sure where to begin?

Find your subject and bury your head in it. Don’t listen to the industry; don’t write what the world tells you to write. Write what you love and don’t compromise your integrity.

A note to the readers: I have an extra copy of Felicia's book and will give it away to a lucky person who comments here. Place your comments and I will pick a name on Friday.

NOTE: GIVE AWAY CLOSED!

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!

Living the Dream With a Day Job

The best thing I did while taking a break from reading was make a zine about something very close to my heart--being an artist with a day job. Almost a year ago, in a fit of frustration, I wrote a post about the very real (and often undiscussed) dynamic of being someone who is a creative (or an anything ELSE), but who continues to support themselves through a day job. I had wanted to do a zine about this, but of course, like so many things, I let the idea sit. It turns out, I think I needed another year to do "research" and to take note of a few things, because the night before my reading deprivation I suddenly couldn't sleep with the sudden rush of ideas about this little book. I saw exactly how to make it. So I did! In two days!

I consider this a little handbook to help us all feel a little bit better about the whole picture of our lives, not just the after five o'clock and on the weekends. Also, it's to acknowledge the time we spend MAKING IT WORK. The reality is, MOST of us have day jobs in addition to our "real work" or "real lives." Some people go to work and never think twice about it. Some people go to work at a place that they HATE, but can't think of anything different. I wanted to make something that honors the fact that most of us have two lives and that takes A LOT of energy. I also wanted to make something that could be an easy reminder that you are living your ONE life right now (not later)--why not enjoy it as much as you can--with a day job or not.

What you will find in here:

• Affirmation--with a swear word!
• Ways to bring your real self to work!
• Wise words from an unlikely source--my brother!
• Permission for time off!
• Resources!
• Ideas toward getting out of your job--or just changing your situation!
• A recipe!
• And so much more!
  

All illustrated and handwritten by me! I believe that this is something everyone should enjoy, so for a limited time I am giving them away FOR FREE. You want one? E-mail me your address at summer (at) summerpierre (dot) com. You gonna like it!

(UPDATE: The FREE part is EXPIRED, but you can PURCHASE the zine--here:)

(UPDATE: The Zine is no longer for sale--look for the book in February 2010!)