On Monday I attended my orientation for my graduate school. It was really exciting, because it feels like the beginning of a new chapter of my artistic career! I ventured around the city with my new roommate, completing such tasks as getting a student ID, obtaining a locker, and figuring out where all my classes are.

Orientation itself was quite exciting, hosted in San Francisco’s Masonic Auditorium. There were a few motivational speakers, one of them being Dr. Jamie Williams of the San Francisco 49′ers in days past, who has a doctorate in education and is now the head of the Athletic Department of my school! He had some entertaining stories to share about knowing thyself and understanding what it takes to make it in the industry.

The video that they showed at the beginning that highlighted students’ work from semesters past was absolutely inspiring and amazing. There were all manner of projects in there from animation to film to fine art. I was so impressed! I cannot wait to be that good. I literally sat there thinking, “This is it. This is how I’m going to finally get the career I want.”

The reception afterward was the highlight of the evening, however. Aside from the free food and wine, I got to meet the director of graduate studies of my department, Bill Maughan. He has been in the industry for years, and had great insights about the program and industry in general. I also became acquainted with a few of my other classmates, and look forward to networking and building friendships with them.

In all it was an exciting, inspirational, and eye-opening experience. The only thing more exciting than my semester starting is getting to have a geek-cation at Dragon*Con in Atlanta to mentally get ready!

Back at the beginning of October, I posted an article called Art: Not Just a Hobby, that spring-boarded me into a fact-finding mission. I wasn’t given all of the tools necessary to make my passion into a career—so I need to find them for myself. I thought perhaps other young, emerging artists such as myself may benefit from this journey, and so I wanted to share it.

My very first question was, “What are other artists and freelancers doing?” I needed to find some successful artists, see how they are doing business, and what they did to get there. I asked around, hit the library, and did some heavy web surfing to come up with some answers. I’ll share what I have thus far. (continue reading…)

Today we’ve got a fantastic article written by a guest poster, Kelly McKernan. She was originally featured on this site as an Artist Spotlight, and I’m glad to bring her back again, this time as the author of a great article geared to those artists still in school. It is a great follow up to the post I wrote last week. The original is reposted with permission:

“If you’re in art school, and you feel like you’re wasting your time, then leave. You don’t need it, but if you can benefit from it in some way, make it happen. Just don’t let those years feel like a waste…”

(continue reading…)

The realization that I had been treating art like a hobby instead of a career blindsided me early in the morning last Thursday. There I sat at my day job, wondering why all of my efforts to make art a full time venture just weren’t working. Wallowing in thoughts about if I was made of the right stuff to make this successful and what I was doing wrong, it hit me:

A career is the way you make your money, survive in the world, and create your livelihood. Ideally, it is supposed to be something that you truly love and cherish; something that makes you eager to get up in the morning to do.

A “hobby is an activity or interest pursued for pleasure or relaxation and not as a main occupation.” (1) (continue reading…)