My American Art History class has finally reached the point in the course where we learn about Post-modernism and how new doesn’t always mean better and with all of the technology that we’ve been given, maybe we need to re-learn how to communicate and relate to one another. Many times we spend hours in front of the tv, computer or game console isolating ourselves and we wonder why we have anxiety being around other people and the thought of moving out of our parent’s house is debilitating. The youth of middle-class America haven’t been given the tools needed to become independent because our parents want to give us everything they never had growing up, but it’s a disservice. And if we want to find the career path that is going to make us happy, which may be a postmodern concept because we can’t all be American Idols, doctors and Basketball stars, after all, we have to learn how to work and be, not just independent, but self-sufficient.
I say all of this because it took me a long time to figure out that I could learn to work hard. I worked on my undergraduate studies thinking I could become a doctor so that I could do good in the world, help people, but more importantly support myself and my future family. It didn’t work out that way, because I wasn’t able to keep up with the studies for the pre-med program and I ended up taking philosophy and art courses instead. It took me four long years to reconcile the issue of being an artist and trying to become financially successful in a way that I know is very Americanized and the idea that success instantaneous and does not come from financial independence. It comes from giving every task everything that you have: your full attention and your best work, whether it is waiting tables or putting a brush to the canvas. Right now I’m sitting in the living room trying to get through a mountain of work: school work, GRE prep, marketing clients, Docent training manuals, the list goes on and on, while my husband is walking around the house with his guitar in hand working on the next “big hit.”
These Animals is working on their first full-length album and working with Directions International for their webisode feature on the DI internet tv channel that is in production as we speak. I never would have thought that we would be living outside of New York City and working on making it all happen.
At the end of the month I will be taking the GRE test to apply for grad school for Fall 2012 to work on a master’s degree in Art History. I’m incredibly nervous and I keep reminding myself that even if the master’s degree doesn’t lead me to a job in Marketing, Development and Curating in a museum or gallery (my career of choice) I know that it will give me the education I need to become more appreciative of art and perhaps lead me to teach, paint or even write, or maybe all of the above.
A lot of us have goals about what we want to be when we grow up, where we see ourselves in five or ten years and what we think it might look like when we finally move into the career path of our choosing. It means a lot of hard work and sleepless nights. But if you have a willing heart and set aside the self-doubt, simply doing the work necessary to get to the place that you dream about can be satisfying if you are patient.
