Balance
- At November 21, 2015
- By Amber
- In Studio Journal
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I was struggling to come up with my next blog post because I have hardly been in my studio for the last two months. We went away on vacation in September and when I got back I had received a job offer for temporary work. I said yes to the work and have been working pretty well full time for the last 6 weeks. Art has been on my mind, I read ‘The Gift’ by Lewis Hyde and Carl Jung’s ‘Man and His Symbols’ – I just haven’t been able to get much down on canvas.
I know I am not alone in my quest for balance between making art and having a paying job. Since moving to Canada in 2010 I have tried various set ups – seasonal work, temp jobs, random craigslist employment. None of these situations were ideal, usually because I let the paid work take over or they meant working weekends which meant no time with my family.
I was lucky enough to spend a year being supported by my husband which I have started to think of as the gap year I missed in my 20s. Whilst we can get by on his wage it made me feel uncomfortable not to be contributing to the household income. It didn’t seem fair to put all of the wage earning pressure on him. I weighed up my options. I considered if I could make a living just from selling my art – whilst I love the idea of that it just wasn’t realistic for me. I am just beginning and I really want to allow myself time to experiment and keep moving forward with the dreamscape ideas without worrying “will it sell?”. Lewis Hyde’s book ‘The Gift’ was particularly helpful in setting out reasons for separating your art making from market forces. I know that is a whole other debate.
In any event my full time work has come to an end and I have regular part time work now for 3 days per week at a job I enjoy, leaving the rest of my time for art and life. I am really happy with this arrangement – yes it will slow me down in the studio but I think it will be a good balance for me. Studio life can also be isolated, so being out in the world amongst people who don’t respond to every conversation with a meow might also not be a bad thing.
