I've done it. I've quit my paying job to become an artist.
And now I'm writing about the process here on Substack
I’ve gone full time – or perhaps I’ve just gone crazy. Which is to say, I’ve left my job – as arts editor of Eugene Weekly – and plunged into the utterly foreign and uncertain world of working full time at trying to make and sell enough art to generate something like a real income.
My plan, which I’ve been mulling for a year, was for all this to happen, nice and neat, in early January. Then reality served up a double whammy: in mid December, the Weekly was knocked off its feet by a catastrophic embezzlement, causing the paper to lay off its entire staff, including me, and stop printing.
Happily, the community pitched in with nearly $200,000 in donations, not to mention a box of donuts and a bottle of gin, and we were able to start publishing again on Feb. 8.
Meanwhile, in mid January, the toughest ice storm in most anyone’s memory knocked western Oregon to its knees. At our home in the woods, trees fell by the dozen; fortunately our house was unscathed. When the roads weren’t blocked by fallen branches, they were made impassible by ice. Power poles crashed down like so many dominoes. For 15 days we were without electricity at home, relying on a generator for running a few lights and pumping water from the well. We camped out around the wood stove, our sole source of heat, for two weeks straight.
Now, with the amazing community support, the Weekly is up and running once again. And, thanks to utility crews from around the Northwest who came to Lane County and worked day and night, Lisa and I have lights and power at home. So I’m at last able to launch into my new life as a full-time artist. Or, as a friend remarked, my new incarnation as a “starving artist.”
How’s my new life look? So far, so good. The Weekly has been generous enough to let me keep an office in the building in exchange for a bit of arts writing, so I’m putting in desk time a few days a week to write those arts stories and to take on such engaging art business-related chores as marketing, balancing the books and filling out tax forms. Meanwhile I’m heading out on a regular basis with camera in hand to make new photos, and spending a couple days a week in my home studio turning those digital photos into black and white images printed on watercolor paper, and finally sitting down and working on them with paint.
One of my ideas for this new beginning is to document the process by writing regularly about how it all goes. I’m not going to commit right off to a publication schedule, though I’m aiming at writing something every week or two, probably near the end of the week, until I’ve absorbed the rhythm of this new job.
Next time I’ll write about a project I’ve embarked on to document the look of the Oregon forest in the wake of the extreme weather that’s resulted from climate change. It’s called Fire & Ice, and will consist of hand-colored landscape photos of the broken and charred trees that surround us.
Thanks very much for reading. Do feel free to offer comments, suggestions, words of wisdom or complaints by using the messaging link below.
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Bob
Welcome to Substack - I look forward to reading your postings!
I've enjoyed your photos for some time now and wish you luck in your new artistic endeavor. I can imagine a book down the road, too. A nice, big, fat coffee table book.