Are we having fun yet?
A few days ago, a friend of mine half-jokingly told me that I was spoiled. He had asked me if the three jobs I had worked on that day were fun, and my reply was that I worked well and efficiently with a craftsman-like approach, but that no, I could not call the process fun. He then asked what would be fun for me in my art, and I replied that it is the state I get to when I am working on more spontaneous and fluid art. In other words, art that is not illustration since the latter involves many boundaries inherent to pleasing one's client.
That's when he called me spoiled and told me that any time I'm doing art of any kind I should thank my lucky stars, and said "you should try working in a factory sometime." I had to admit that he had a point. I well recall the times when I wished I could be doing art, any type of illustration art, as my full time profession, as I stood in a newstand in New York City waiting to sell the next pack of cigarettes on a cold day.
For many years once I became a full-time artist, I did, in fact, take on any and all jobs with a grateful mindset that I was making money drawing. I still do this. And, any time I make my living through my art talent, I am having fun. But, there are degrees of fun, different levels to the type of art I do.
Right now, the job I am working on is an architectural rendering of a house not yet build. I am working off a blueprint. Thhis job requires precison, accuracy, a sensitivity to color that will make the house look welcoming, btt no imaginative or whimsical touches on my part. In fact, those touches would not be welcome or appropriate to this type of job. But, I'd love to hae Groucho Marx poking his head out of one window, and a portly sax player blowing leaves of the nearby trees with the force of the notes coming out of the bell of his horn. I can't do that? Oh, what a disapointment. Well, technically speaking, I can do that, but not expect to receive payment if I do.
So, yes, I am pleased to be doing this work, and no, it is not nearly in the same "fun league" as a picture where I create the rules, the world of no perspective and faces emerging out of inanimate objects, or even abstract art that is created spontaneoulsy. When I'm creating that work, I'm nearly unconscious in another zone altogether - that is, until I start to think, "now how is this art going to earn me any money?". The fun quotient slips considerably at that point unless I remind myself than nearly all my original art eventual finds a buyer.
My father used to say, "Why do you think they call it work?" when I said I wanted to work at a job where I could have fun. A fun-loving guy he was not, and I've spent a few years un-doing the lessons I learned early on. I define fun as "reaching one's truest, happiest self, the joyous kid who laughs in delight at discovery".
Have a fun day.
That's when he called me spoiled and told me that any time I'm doing art of any kind I should thank my lucky stars, and said "you should try working in a factory sometime." I had to admit that he had a point. I well recall the times when I wished I could be doing art, any type of illustration art, as my full time profession, as I stood in a newstand in New York City waiting to sell the next pack of cigarettes on a cold day.
For many years once I became a full-time artist, I did, in fact, take on any and all jobs with a grateful mindset that I was making money drawing. I still do this. And, any time I make my living through my art talent, I am having fun. But, there are degrees of fun, different levels to the type of art I do.
Right now, the job I am working on is an architectural rendering of a house not yet build. I am working off a blueprint. Thhis job requires precison, accuracy, a sensitivity to color that will make the house look welcoming, btt no imaginative or whimsical touches on my part. In fact, those touches would not be welcome or appropriate to this type of job. But, I'd love to hae Groucho Marx poking his head out of one window, and a portly sax player blowing leaves of the nearby trees with the force of the notes coming out of the bell of his horn. I can't do that? Oh, what a disapointment. Well, technically speaking, I can do that, but not expect to receive payment if I do.
So, yes, I am pleased to be doing this work, and no, it is not nearly in the same "fun league" as a picture where I create the rules, the world of no perspective and faces emerging out of inanimate objects, or even abstract art that is created spontaneoulsy. When I'm creating that work, I'm nearly unconscious in another zone altogether - that is, until I start to think, "now how is this art going to earn me any money?". The fun quotient slips considerably at that point unless I remind myself than nearly all my original art eventual finds a buyer.
My father used to say, "Why do you think they call it work?" when I said I wanted to work at a job where I could have fun. A fun-loving guy he was not, and I've spent a few years un-doing the lessons I learned early on. I define fun as "reaching one's truest, happiest self, the joyous kid who laughs in delight at discovery".
Have a fun day.
posted by Rich Sigberman at
7:43 AM
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