I have been avoiding this topic avidly since I started writing on this blog, reason being, I don’t really like to think about becoming a “Full-Time Artist” or what that entails.
Before I start, I must first clarify that it is one thing to want to be a full-time creative person, it is another to be a full-time ARTIST. A full-time artist spends their entire life only making “art” that will get them in galleries, sell for thousands of dollars, and be “important” in the art scene. For me, there are a few issues with this idea. It is not that I would not like to make art all the time (though since I have been out of school I have made less, but have been more concise and happy with what I have made), but I feel as though life always informs art. I like to hear artist’s talk and hear about there day job as something completely different than art. I feel as though a lot of times when people are not full-time artists and then move into that realm, the quality of the work drops dramatically.

Let me give one easy example. I personally think that Stephen Shore’s American Surfaces is his best work. Not because it is the most thoughtful, or the most beautiful or well made. But it was and is the most poignant (for me) and pivotal work of his career because of its dedication and love to the project. He was not yet famous in the art world you can feel the amount of work and commitment he had to it the entire time. There is love in that project that the looker can feel, where it is not in any of his other work (for me).

This is one instance where I think the photographer pre-”artist” is much more interesting than after. Even when I saw Mr. Shore speak at BU a few years ago he went from being extremely exciting to listen to, to becoming bland and talking about large format cameras. The rest of the work just seems like, well, work. There are exceptions to this all the time, but I think that becoming a full-time artist sometimes disconnects one with their work because work is art all the time. There needs to be time to grow, other things need to inform you, and it is entirely unrealistic to think that becoming big enough to just live off art is crazy. I still hear people saying that they want to become an artist and I am worried for them post-graduating. It is okay to be an artist but I think one should do other things.
I think this post is really about wanting to be able to just give all my pictures away and for everyone else to follow suit. This should really be a few different posts so I will probably be writing more on this later.