My Life in Art

This past week, over the July 4th holiday, I’ve been thinking a lot about my life. I think it’s good sometimes to take stock of where you’ve been, where you are, and where you might be going.

I came to the conclusion that instead of thinking about myself in terms of labeling, like “I’m a writer” or “I’m an actor”, I’m just going to think of myself as an artist, or a creative entity. I find that very freeing. It frees me up to be very creative every day, in a variety of ways. It frees me to seek other sources of creative fulfillment and not to feel guilty if I don't spend all my time on acting/writing.

When I was very young, I wanted to write. I wanted to be a “writer.” Then I got on stage, and the acting bug bit. I dropped writing, and wanted to be an “actor.” During those times, I was always very creative in lots of other ways, too. I painted, sketched, did crafts and embroidery, and a bit of sewing. But I tended to discount those pursuits in my hunt to “be somebody”, as either an actor or a writer.

Now I see that all that creative activity was the stuff of life, and very important to my artist self. I’ve recently had some urges to go back to painting, drawing and crafting, so I think I’m going to pursue it.

And not feel guilty or torn, because it is time taken away from my writing and acting goals.

In fact, I think I’m going to study graphic and web design at a small local college in the valley.

Until now, I’ve lived my life doing day jobs that did not at all reflect my artistic interests and abilities. I’d try to do my acting and writing on the side, using the nonartistic jobs to support myself. Recently, I had an important realization. It occurred to me that it could take years? for my writing, to pay enough to support me. Meanwhile, I’m doing work as a “day job” that is not satisfying or meaningful to me.

I really put off going back to school for a more interesting career, because I thought it would take time away from my acting/writing goals. But now I see the light, so to speak. It would be worth it to develop an artistic career, that could run as a sort of “parallel career” that supports my writing and acting.

For me, that is graphic/web design. What other “parallel careers” might be good for freelance writers? Teaching, for one: school teacher, teacher aide/assistant or college professor, mainly because of summers off to travel and write, and school vacations. Salaries for teacher assistants are very low in upstate NY, so I chose not to pursue that path. I’ve always wanted to work for a non-profit, in fundraising and development. Writing skills are very important in the non-profit world.

I feel that graphic and web design is a great fit for me, with my writing. I’ve seen ads for "writers wanted" that ask for graphic design skills. Designing websites and writing the content for them would be a very creative day job.

I haven’t done any drawing in a long time! So this summer I’m looking into some art classes.

The Arts Center of the Greater Hudson Valley has a variety of painting and drawing classes, and Betsy Jacaruso Studio (located in the Chocolate Factory in Red Hook ) offers watercolor and drawing classes.