There are many more careers in art than that of the stereotypical “starving artist”.
As a kid, I loved to draw. I’d sit at my desk with my Crayola Caddy and dream up things to bring to life on paper. So why, when it was time to go to college, did I never consider art as a career path?
Well, for one, the only picture of an “artist” I had in my mind was that of a starving one, competing with other artists for a museum to feature her paintings and decked out in a paint-splattered shirt and a beret. It didn’t seem to be a viable lifestyle.
These days, I’m a graphic designer and the owner of my own branding firm. I finally came back to art after a college education in Psychology and post-graduate work in Neuroscience (of all things)!
As art educators, I feel that part of our responsibility in teaching our Art in the Classroom lessons is to help children envision life as an artist, so when the time comes to make a choice about their post-secondary education, they’ll make informed decisions. One way is to look at the career path of actual artists.
For example, when researching Alexander Calder for our mobile project, I discovered that he had originally been pulled toward engineering, foreshadowing his later mechanically-based works. He had also worked as an illustrator, and later as a performer of intricate circus-themed puppet shows that he created. He worked as a set constructor and painter, too. It wasn’t until much later in his life that he became the sort of “gallery artist” that made him famous. He’d made a life in several roles, in other words. And few of them involved a paint-spattered shirt and a beret. Or starving, for that matter.
Or consider famed author and illustrator, Eric Carle, of The Very Hungry Caterpillar. He began his professional career designing advertisements for the New York Times. It wasn’t until a client asked him to illustrate an ad that he discovered his now-famous technique of tissue paper art, which later lead him to fame. (We base our “Tissue Paper Fish” lesson on his artistic style.)
In interviewing artists for our Minnesota theme projects, I discovered that many worked full-time jobs in other fields before semi-retiring and pursuing painting as a profession.
And in today’s paper, I learned that the city of Saint Paul has an artist-in-residence that serves to “advise city planners on how to integrate art into public works projects while artists are commissioned to ‘shape the form and experience of parks and open spaces, from the overall landscape to important structures, sculptures and amenities.'”
Finally, in my previous career as a museum exhibit developer, I worked with artists who built interactive exhibits, designed large-scale, 3-dimensional signs, created graphics for video games and websites, took photographs, and created lively sketches to help us envision how exhibits would look. None of them wore French caps.
Not only are there all kinds of careers out there for young artists, but there opportunities for different kinds of artists—ones that are mechanically inclined, technical, digital, classical, administrative and more. Let’s do our best to help kids see these qualities in themselves through the stories we tell of both the art and artists we teach.
Author Katrina Hase owns St. Paul-based Mix Creative, and is a former Art in the Classroom educator and coordinator.