A couple of months ago I was asked for advice on quitting a day job as a teacher to become a full-time potter. I've been screwing around with a response, trying to couch my answer in such a way that I don't squash anyone's dream, or offer stupid pat answers that you can get anywhere. In my draft queue, I have 3 posts al lined up and ready to publish that answer this question, and I can't quit put my finger on the button because I think all the posts basically soft-pedal the answer and make for a sucky read.
I can't base the answer on my own experience because I think my experience is not the norm, and there are a lot of reasons for that. For starters, I have never had a job that gave me health insurance, paid days off, a retirement plan, or hope for career advancement. For me to quit and pursue pottery was not a sacrifice of any kind of security.
Also, I am very talented at what I do. It was clear almost immediately when I started working with clay that I had a gift, and I advanced far more quickly than any of my classmates through the basics and up the learning curve. I had a job as an assistant within 18 months, because I was good enough to assist a professional potter that quickly. I have four close friends who make a living at pottery, so one may be fooled into thinking that anyone who is good at pottery can make a living at it. The thing is, these four friends are also supernaturally talented. Their work is copied and emulated by ceramic artists all over the country, if not the world. They are outliers. I am an outlier.
I also know a few people who make a living at pottery who are maybe not the most talented or have the most artistic vision, but they work harder than anyone else. They endlessly promote themselves through social media, maintain multiple websites for selling, are constantly researching to figure out what to make next, go to every show they can get into, take every opportunity to show their work whether it pays or not, are expert production potters, and are in their studios 50-60 hours a week.
And by the way, the people I know who are supernaturally talented work this hard too.
To start your own art-based business takes a certain type of person to succeed, and you need to have a hard and honest look at yourself to know if you are that person. For someone considering quitting a teaching job, you have to ask yourself, "Did I become a teacher to answer a calling to teach, or did I become a teacher because it's a safe gig with lots of time off?" It's one or the other. Teaching is challenging, and people only do it because they love it, or because the few known perks outweigh the difficulties. If you have a calling to teach, it would be a shame to quit, because you will likely never be as good or bring as much to the world as a potter that you will as a teacher. If you teach because it was a safe gig and you couldn't figure out what else to commit to, then I would say you are likely not going to enjoy the pressure, insecurity, uncertainty, lack of time off, and hard physical labor of a full-time pottery studio.
There are a lot of self-promoting people out there with a book or program to sell you who will tell you that the best thing you could ever do for yourself is quit that day job, follow your passion, and that anyone can do it. I will even admit to buying into this type of thinking in the past, and there may be some blog posts to prove it. But it's not true. Not everyone can do it, and it's not necessarily the best way to live either. I'm not even going to go into the pitfalls turning your passion into profit. I've written about that plenty of times before. But there is nothing wrong with being an artist, and having a day job. In fact, thinking you are not an artist because you have a day job is a cop-out and buying into someone else's definition of an artist. Maybe the culture says that you are not a real artist unless you are killing yourself pursuing it full-time, but the culture is full of shit and doesn't know what it's talking about when it comes to your life.
And I don't know what I'm talking about when it comes to your life either. So if you really want to become a full-time potter or artist of any kind, bank as much money as you can, make a plan, build up your resilience to failure, and fucking do it already.
I can't base the answer on my own experience because I think my experience is not the norm, and there are a lot of reasons for that. For starters, I have never had a job that gave me health insurance, paid days off, a retirement plan, or hope for career advancement. For me to quit and pursue pottery was not a sacrifice of any kind of security.
Also, I am very talented at what I do. It was clear almost immediately when I started working with clay that I had a gift, and I advanced far more quickly than any of my classmates through the basics and up the learning curve. I had a job as an assistant within 18 months, because I was good enough to assist a professional potter that quickly. I have four close friends who make a living at pottery, so one may be fooled into thinking that anyone who is good at pottery can make a living at it. The thing is, these four friends are also supernaturally talented. Their work is copied and emulated by ceramic artists all over the country, if not the world. They are outliers. I am an outlier.I also know a few people who make a living at pottery who are maybe not the most talented or have the most artistic vision, but they work harder than anyone else. They endlessly promote themselves through social media, maintain multiple websites for selling, are constantly researching to figure out what to make next, go to every show they can get into, take every opportunity to show their work whether it pays or not, are expert production potters, and are in their studios 50-60 hours a week.
And by the way, the people I know who are supernaturally talented work this hard too.
To start your own art-based business takes a certain type of person to succeed, and you need to have a hard and honest look at yourself to know if you are that person. For someone considering quitting a teaching job, you have to ask yourself, "Did I become a teacher to answer a calling to teach, or did I become a teacher because it's a safe gig with lots of time off?" It's one or the other. Teaching is challenging, and people only do it because they love it, or because the few known perks outweigh the difficulties. If you have a calling to teach, it would be a shame to quit, because you will likely never be as good or bring as much to the world as a potter that you will as a teacher. If you teach because it was a safe gig and you couldn't figure out what else to commit to, then I would say you are likely not going to enjoy the pressure, insecurity, uncertainty, lack of time off, and hard physical labor of a full-time pottery studio.There are a lot of self-promoting people out there with a book or program to sell you who will tell you that the best thing you could ever do for yourself is quit that day job, follow your passion, and that anyone can do it. I will even admit to buying into this type of thinking in the past, and there may be some blog posts to prove it. But it's not true. Not everyone can do it, and it's not necessarily the best way to live either. I'm not even going to go into the pitfalls turning your passion into profit. I've written about that plenty of times before. But there is nothing wrong with being an artist, and having a day job. In fact, thinking you are not an artist because you have a day job is a cop-out and buying into someone else's definition of an artist. Maybe the culture says that you are not a real artist unless you are killing yourself pursuing it full-time, but the culture is full of shit and doesn't know what it's talking about when it comes to your life.
And I don't know what I'm talking about when it comes to your life either. So if you really want to become a full-time potter or artist of any kind, bank as much money as you can, make a plan, build up your resilience to failure, and fucking do it already.
Perfect post on the subject! I have never had a real day job either so I didn't sacrifice job security for my art. But I have a super supportive husband and a passion for what I do. Sometimes it might be easier to have a "real" job, because the time and energy it takes to commit to being a full time artist is really not for everyone!!
ReplyDeleteYour post tells it like it is. I know many potters in my area who are full time, good & bad, but they do have the support of a spouse/partner that can support them when things get tight. I am a potter, I do not have my own studio, I work/teach out of a privately owned studio and I have a day job (2 in fact) in order to keep me fed, clothed and under a roof. Many of my students ask me if I would ever do this full time and give up my day job. My answer is absolutely not. I would have to win the lottery first. I know without a doubt that my passion would soon become drudgery and then I would hate it. The worry about money and selling would soon constipate any artistic flow. So ya, if you don't have any fears of not making the mortgage/rent payment, or if you will be eating mac and cheese instead of actual food for a while, I would say sure, why not, but I just can't do that.
ReplyDeleteTrying to be a full time potter, mother, wife, friend, house cleaner, grocery shopper, marketing manager, accountant, social media expert, shipping clerk, etc. broke my spirit and I haven't been in my studio in a year. Some days I dream of a job where I show up, do what is asked, hold out my hand and someone gives me a check and I go home. Pottery done well is not for the faint of heart. It took me ten years to figure that out.....
ReplyDeleteGreat post!
That's the dark side for sure Tracey! A job may free up that broken spirit a bit.
DeleteThank you! This post is so refreshing.
ReplyDeleteI am an artist but not a potter...I highly recommend this recent book of essays that came out:
ReplyDeletehttp://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/L/bo16814556.html
Most in there are not able to support themselves with their work alone, and every single person works very, very hard and are extremely good at managing their time (a common misconception about artists, I think)
Thank you for that link Sophie, that looks like an interesting read.
DeleteGreat post Whitney! I especially love how you wind it up with this sentiment:
ReplyDelete"But there is nothing wrong with being an artist, and having a day job. In fact, thinking you are not an artist because you have a day job is a cop-out and buying into someone else's definition of an artist. Maybe the culture says that you are not a real artist unless you are killing yourself pursuing it full-time, but the culture is full of shit and doesn't know what it's talking about when it comes to your life."
That's probably the only real advice we can give: Not to just take others' word for it but to figure out how to make it work on our own.
Are you familiar with the 'survivorship bias'? Basically what happens is that people look at successful thises or thats expecting to find out what they personally need to do. That's why so many advice books from successful entrepreneurs sell so well. The trouble is that what worked in their case may be irrelevant to your own situation. But even worse, looking only at success ignores what things are important to avoid, and avoiding some of these things may have been even more influential than what we actively did. But these things are hard to spot, even if we were interested in them. We look for the right recipe of things to do but neglect the lessons from the many folks who were not as fortunate, who came up against obstacles and were thwarted. And the crazy thing is that luck and accident of circumstance often plays a huge role. Hard to focus on those things too.....
In McRaney's words. "If you are thinking about opening a restaurant because there are so many successful restaurants in your hometown, you are ignoring the fact that only successful restaurants survive to become examples. Maybe on average 90 percent of restaurants in your city fail in the first year. You can’t see all those failures because when they fail they also disappear from view. As Nassim Taleb writes in his book The Black Swan, “The cemetery of failed restaurants is very silent.” Of course the few that don’t fail in that deadly of an environment are wildly successful because only the very best and the very lucky can survive. All you are left with are super successes, and looking at them day after day you might think it’s a great business to get into when you are actually seeing evidence that you should avoid it."
Here's a link to that great essay on survivorship bias. like your essay, well worth a read, I think :)
http://youarenotsosmart.com/2013/05/23/survivorship-bias/
Hi Carter, thanks for the link and your thoughts. I am familiar with the survivorship bias, and I enjoyed the article you sent. And you are right that what it really comes down to trying to figure out for ourselves. I always tell people, "Listen to everyone, and listen to no one." To me that means that you listen to what people have to say with an open mind, and glean what you can, but don't wait for instruction or permission.
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