Author: DougR
Date: 2006-11-17 15:45
I just want to thank everyone who contributed to this thread, because it's been fascinating, and prompted me to some reflection about my own situation.
I live in NYC, where legions of young aspirants in a host of disciplines (dance, fine arts, design, music, theatre) arrive every year, as I myself did some 40 years ago. True, the competition gets tougher every year, the jobs fewer, the odds steeper, and society increasingly less supportive of full-time careers in the arts. Sad, but true.
When I came here I knew I wanted either to act, or to be a studio musician, or (if the gods smiled) both. Instead I ended up in publishing (because a typewriter was much friendlier than a casting director). Fast forward 20 years--that career ended, but it left me with a modest IRA and the means to acquire a few superb instruments (and top-rank instruction). Older age demands excellent health care coverage, so I have a staff job doing graphics at an investment bank. It's a split schedule, so I can take SOME acting jobs SOMETIMES, and SOME music jobs SOMETIMES, but always at the periphery of both fields.
My graphics job pays modestly, and my peers are half my age: actors, singers, dancers, musicians, painters needing a flexible "survival" job. They are, in most cases, "going for it," and I feel nothing but admiration and hope for them. Me, I think my "going-for-it" days got lost back there somewhere during the publishing career.
So here's what I THINK I know now:
1) GO FOR IT. REALLY. Sure, it's scary. Sure, it's uncertain. But the universe always provides ways to mitigate all that, when you need it, IF you're open. One of the secrets of life is making the best of whatever situation you end up in (and guess what--it PROBABLY won't match your dream at all, simply because, I believe, we control our situations a lot less than we often expect we can).
2) Always have a Plan B. (Ideally a skill, be it programming, actuary, investment analyst, accountant, music or substitute teacher, IT, corporate trainer, registered nurse, etc., that can be done off-hours and/or flexibly.) When you get tired of the struggle (and in all likelihood you WILL), that Plan B will look mighty nice.
3) there's always a price to be paid for NOT going for it (the dread "woulda-coulda-shoulda") that is (from my perspective) more toxic than giving it your all, coming up short, and deciding to get off the horse when your wisdom tells you to.
4) We really need a more expansive definition of "arts professional" in America, because our society, as it is currently set up, only supports skills that create wealth--corporate, legal, etc. (unlike, say, Europe, where a host of social supports enable people to focus on their art without the gnawing fear of losing everything due to health crisis, e.g.). To me, GBK and Terry Stibal are exemplars of how to have a life in the arts in this country when that vaunted, precious, RARE staff job isn't available.
5) If our identity as "musician" takes precedence over things like family, love, friendship, and community, it's a poor substitute. As young struggling artists we also need to learn to nurture THOSE things, because they'll be there when the music career is gone, or subsumed by survival needs, or whatever.
Thanks everybody! Sorry if this post is ridiculously long!
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