A Career in the Arts? Really? – Part III
What drives someone to desire a career as an artist?
What makes them say, I’m going to make “art” for a living?
In hindsight, making the decision in college to switch majors, essentially turning my back on the sciences as a career and focusing on the arts wasn’t that hard a decision to make for me. I realized I wasn’t happy, and when I asked myself what would make me happy – being an artist immediately filled my field of vision.
I remember sitting in my chemistry professor’s office discussing some banal aspect of the day’s task. As I was wont to do: I cracked a joke, and though I’m by no means a professional comedian I’d garnered my share of prior laughs. The professor didn’t laugh. In fact, he looked at me as though I’d insulted him, and then looked back to his notebook. You see… he didn’t have time for jokes. He was a scientist and he was serious!
That had been the final straw for me: I knew that I didn’t want to spend my life cooped up in a lab with folks who only wanted to understand the scientific underpinnings of laughter. I wanted to laugh.
(NOTE: with that said, I have since met many hysterical, life-loving scientists, and realize that everyone’s mileage may vary)
Once the decision was made, I never looked back.
my college studio
Of course, if you’ve read the first two parts of this short series you know that it hasn’t been all art, all the time – far from it in fact. I’d liken the process to something more akin to the lining up of planets: once in awhile Mars and Venus align so that you can see them both from the Earth.
Stay tuned for Part IV, the final installation of this ongoing look at the origins of an interest in the arts. Click here to view Part I and here for Part II.
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