There Is Such Thing as a Good Day Job
The book I’m working on has a new, snappy title: ARTISTS DON’T HAVE TO STARVE, a manifesto I want to shout from the rooftops (or at least from my webpage and Instagram accounts).
Previously, I've written about how lots of creatives have Day Job Shame. They believe Real Artists Don’t Need Day Jobs, and worse, that if they need a day job to make ends meet, their art sucks and they’re a coward and a fraud.
Whew. Harsh. Especially because many, maybe most professional artists do something else to fund their art and prefer it that way. I wrote about one last week.
Since I began writing about day jobs, articles about artists, musicians, and other creative people talking about their day jobs and how they enjoy them have been jumping off the pages of my various online and hard copy subscriptions.
There are day jobs for artists that don't suck
What could you do to fund your art peacefully and fruitfully? One way is to help other creatives do things you do well, that they can’t do (or could, but cry like I do when they think about doing it).
The right day jobs for artists
The key is finding a day job that doesn't fizzle up all your creativity, and here's an example. My colleague, Willow Paule is doing this very thing. She is a talented and accomplished photographer.
Luckily for me, she is also a social media expert.
The interesting and maybe unintended consequence of Willow handling social media for me is that I’m getting two people for the price of one (don’t listen to this, Willow). She knows social media inside and out, but she’s also creative. She comes up with concepts for stories. She finds other photographers, painters and illustrators whose images she uses to go with our stories. She finds hashtags for Instagram I would never think of. Her creativity adds deep value to her social media work. (PS—she has room for a couple more clients. I highly recommend her).
Another example is Lori Johnson. She is a fine art photographer like Willow, but specializes in gardens. We’re working together to come up with a day job, where public gardens, nurseries, or home and garden publications hire her to handle their public-facing communications for both photography and writing. She makes beautiful photographs, AND has amassed over 6,000 Instagram followers herself. One of these day job possibilities would mesh perfectly with her art.
The best part of day jobs like these are two-fold.
- First, you can help people do things you’re already good at, while using your creativity.
- Second, and maybe more important, using your creativity this way is almost stress-free, compared to the pure creative practice itself. You can do a great job, experiment and make the inevitable mistakes, in a lower-stakes environment.
And here's a shameless plug for the next session of Peace with Money and Marketing. We work on creating logical, lucrative day jobs, as well as understanding pricing art, creating peace with money, and finding the people who want your work as well as where and how to talk to them, as part of the class.
Have you come up with ideas for a good day job for yourself? Write about it in the comments below; I'd love to know.