An interesting question came up in a discussion with friends this afternoon.* The point of origin of our conversation was whether as children we had had particular ambitions about what we would do when we grew up. From that emerged the problem of whether to have ambition is, or is not, a good thing. We never got far with that, but it did set me thinking for the rest of the afternoon.
As regular readers of this blog will known, I only came into art on a full-time basis after having made a career as an academic, from which I took early retirement about twenty years ago, in order to pursue my interests in art on a full-time basis. I was wondering today, however, what might have been the course of events had I elected to follow that childhood ambition much earlier. I decided that, in fact, I have not made a bad choice. Now I am free from all kinds of constraints, financial and otherwise, to engage with art without distraction. When I reflect on the careers of other people I have known, however, it has often been the case that the pursuit of their own artistic creativity has not been free from problems, and the pressures of other priorities.
A very large proportion of people who want to be artists end up as teachers of art. (One of my brothers was a case in point.) In this situation it turns out typically that the pressures of teaching push to the margins the personal creative activity of the people concerned. Then there are other careers tangential to art into which they find themselves diverted, such as commercial artists, designers of one kind or another, and employees in that enormously diverse field known as the “creative industries”. The point about all of these activities is that the focus of one’s attention is dictated by the employer, and what the employer wants and needs might well be rather routine. The brother I mentioned above, for example, spent several years as a technical illustrator drawing engine parts for Rolls Royce maintenance manuals. They were beautiful and technically impressive drawings, but required little by way of personal creativity.
Another group of people of my acquaintance who are endeavouring to support them selves as artists have tried running art galleries. They do get the opportunity to guarantee the display of their own work, of course, but running a gallery is actually a very demanding job, and often they find that their own creative work gets pushed down the scale of priorities by the demands of the wider commercial project. It is very common for artists to have other jobs. I have known a waitresses, an employee in a laundrette, a scaffolder and a clergyman, all of whom would also consider themselves to be artists.
Not to be neglected, of course, is that large cohort of artists whose main economic support is their spouse. This group is not by any means exclusively female. I can think of quite a few artists of my acquaintance who are in this group.
Finally, there are people like me …. who have retired from an earlier career. In fact, when I think about it, we are frequently the people whose situation is the most favourable, from the point of view of their freedom to develop their own creative work. Perhaps there is quite a bit to be said for not pursuing too single-mindedly one’s ambition to be a “professional artist”.
*Following the “rule of six”, all wearing masks and socially distant, in case you’re asking.