We all face the question. What do you do? People tend to define themselves by the job they do - yet for a lot of us the job is a source of revenue, not what we are. By the end of last year I was pretty much facing a crisis. Having gone through the redundancy/no redundancy fiasco in the summer, prepared myself for unemployment, getting back into the mindset of having a job, I left with an overall sense of dissatisfaction with life. I was also left feeling guilty because a lot of people face not having a job ever day - what right have I to complain. A lot of the things I foresaw at work came to pass which confirmed my decision to ask for redundancy was then right one. One incident in particular annoyed me and I decided the time was right to rebrand myself as an artist and designer.
An artist is what I am - whatever I do for money. It has taken a long time to get to this place - too long, but although I can't afford to give up the day job it has given me a sense of purpose and i feel I'm being true to myself. I'm under no illusions that I will be able to make a living as an artist - how many artists in any medium ever do, but I feel positive about myself and my purpose which is important. I have targets to aim for - my latest work is becoming a project and I intend to use the skills from my day job to present it as a project and eventually exhibit.
My message is that if you feel you are an artist, don't be afraid to tell people. There are a lot of artists on DA who have days jobs. Whether you like the day job or not, whether you expect to make a living from art or not, you are all artists and should be proud to be so. Art is taken for granted, but without it how boring the world would be, and who would remind the human race that it is not perfect but should embrace imperfection. The artists is there to see beauty where others fail so wear your art with pride.