Holding the Dream Up of Being an Artist While ..

Holding the dream of being an artist while holding on to reality 

 

Creative people are passionate about drawing, painting, creating, and writing but this has to be balanced with the reality of paying rent, medical bills, and providing food for yourself and your family. Creative people can become so caught up in their dream that the practical business of keeping up with the rent goes by unnoticed. Ideally, an artist or writer would make enough money to pay the bills and keep financial above water but this often does not happen. Some how a creative person must learn to hold the dream while holding the reality of every day life.   

If you place your palms up and hold the creative dream in one hand and the reality of rent in the other hand, then slowly bring both hands together, this should create a visual image of the balance you need to create in your life. It is important that you learn to hold two opposites in your life and balance them.   

Recently, I had the opportunity to rent some art studio or gallery space in a mansion where 22 other artists will be creating. It is tempting but again I must hold reality in one hand and can I really afford to travel 1.5 hours to a studio to create art? The rent is cheap enough at $100 for now until the building is completed but then the rent goes up. I am planning to move closer to the area but I would still be an hour away.  Hmm… Maybe I should just visit the place occasionally. What do you think and what would you do?

Artist Day Jobs

Making a living as an artist is not easy and many artists maintain a Day Job to be financially secure. The important aspect to keep in mind is how much energy your day job will contribute to your creative life or take away from it. Some day jobs can increase our creativity by providing us with ideas to express while others become emotionally and physically draining. Day jobs can drain us of the energy we need to create ideas, painting, or sketches. 

Day jobs are often an evil necessity, which we use to help pay the bills, provide us with medical insurance, and savings. Day jobs can provide us with positive experiences including contacts, which may lead to other contacts, art shows, or a chance to teach a class on the weekends. Artist can use them as a branch in their networking system.  

If you are a salesperson, waiter, server, or a house painter, find out what your customers their profession is, and what their creative needs are, and what they participate in during their spare time. Perhaps, in a causal conversation while building a relationship with your customer you will find a hidden lead to a new gallery, a new job, or an art show. Building a relationship is like putting money in the bank, the more you build, the more you can count on or withdraw from when you need to market and sell your work. Carefully listening to the people around you will help you build positive relationships and build contacts.  

If you work in a creative field during the day, your inner well can fill up with ideas for your own art while you are creating work for them. You may be able to receive discounts on art supplies, graphic art projects, brochures, business cards, or other printing needs.  

When you choose your day job take a piece of paper, divide it in half, and write the pluses on one side and the negatives on the other side. When the pluses out number the negatives then you may have found the right day job for you. I hope you can cut back on the hours you spend at your day job in a few years and invest more time in your creative life.

If you are looking for a Creativity Coach to help you brainstorm, increase your self-confidence to approach publishers or galleries then email me at terricreativity.com for a discount price during September 2008. Act now before it is too late for a discount.

Creative Job Hunting Tips

Creative Job Hunting Tips

 

Employers are now receiving hunders of job applications or resumes for each job they post on job bulletins or in the newspaper; therefore, each of us needs to be creative and stand out among the applications. The perspective applicant needs to market and sell their talents and abilities. I decided to engage in a marketing experiment because it is an employers market and I needed to find a unique way to grab an employer’s attention. I took my brief resume format and created a brochure with the information in it. I also discovered that in office supply stores you could find magnetic sheets to print a business card on. Most people will take the magnet and put it on their filing cabinet in their office. This gives the job hunter the advantage of being notice in the future even if they do not have the right job for you now. You can come up with a special slogan and use bright colors to make it stand out. The brochure and magnetic business card can be created using publisher or Microsoft word. I placed my brochure, magnetic business card, a regular business card, a cover letter, and a three page resume in an envelope. I also created a thank you card and then added Magic Cards. Magic Cards are a deck of trick playing cards. For my slogan, I wrote “Hire Terri and watch the magic begin.”  I then suggested they take a break from their stressful job and have some fun with their team using the Magic Cards.

  

Another creative job hunting technique, which is presently being used, is to create a web site about yourself, your talents or abilities, and add a video resume and a written resume. Some employers are looking for web sites for perspective talent employees. There are several free web sites and I have used freewebs.com, which does not cost anything and is easy to use if you follow their directions. All you need to do is create two to three pages about yourself and then you can up load your website free on to search engines by following the directions. If you are afraid of computers or creating web sites then ask your teenager to create it for you.

 

 

Remember that your job is to market yourself to prospective employers, that your first line of action is a cover letter highlighting what you can do for the employer, and then create a professional resume. Read the employer’s advertisement, underline their action words and keywords, and use as many action words and keywords as you can in your resume and cover letter. If you want to be creative, try a brochure, magnetic business cards, or even a web site. Think about how you can stand out from the crowd. If you have tried everything else and still do not find a job then try to increase your experience by volunteering a few hours a week, which will help you network with people and find a job. In addition, if you have a dream and want to fill it then try writing a grant and create the job you want. I wish you the best of luck trying to find your dream job. You can forward any questions or comments to terricreativity@yahoo.com. Terri is a private Life Coach and Creativity Coach.