What Jobs Have You Had?

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Recently, Julian Jackson, painter and co-owner of Metaphor Contemporary Art in Brooklyn, came to my Senior Seminar class at Mass Art in Boston to talk about being an artist and gallerist. During the course of his rich and discursive talk, he mentioned some of the jobs he's had and how they all ultimately benefited his life as an artist/gallerist. For instance, he's been a gallery installer, house painter and cabinet maker--good training for designing a gallery and serving as its general contractor, and then running a successful exhibition space--to say nothing of making the stretchers he needs for his canvases.
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That started me thinking about the jobs I've held.

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Thirty years and as many pounds ago, I worked my way through art school in Boston's Combat Zone --the high-crime, low-life bar area-- as a go-go dancer. Then, after graduation, living on a hippie commune in upstate New York, I worked as a glaze maker in a pottery factory, a janitor in the same facility, and a dump-truck driver for an independent contractor. (Talk about role diversity.)

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During those four years I lived happily in a renovated grist mill with other long-haired folks, and we gardened, canned, cut wood for heat--I owned my own chain saw--and indulged in all the things 20-somethings indulge in. I maintained my own VW bus, even rebuilt the engine. Then, longing for a New York art life, I moved to Manhattan and supported my art and myself as a magazine editor for a big publishing company before taking the leap and working full time as a studio artist.

(Image caveat: All pictures pulled from the Internet. The go-go dancers are not me; the dump truck I drove was green; the VW bus I owned was a dull, faded matte red; and my chainsaw was yellow. But you get the picture . . .)
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I'm not sure how the go-go dancing enriched my art life, except to have provided exercise and a steady income, but everything else has helped me immeasurably. As a glazemaker, I learned to think about color in a different way. The janitorial and truck driving duties built up my strength; and splitting wood built muscles I didn't realize I had--all of these activities the macho version of go-go dancing, I suppose.

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While I now do nothing more thermostatically or automotively challenging than turning up the heat or listening to "Car Talk," I can tell you that splitting wood with a sledge-and-wedge and rebuilding an engine imbued me with a sense of independence and role-breaking machisma that is now part of the fabric of the artist that I am. The subsequent editorial experience allows me to bang out these posts. Along the way there have been teaching, lecturing, writing a book, all of which have made me better able to think and talk about art, my own and others'.

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But this is not a post about me, except insofar as to serve as a platform for these questions I pose to you:

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What jobs have you had to support yourself?

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How have they enriched your life and/or career as an artist?

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(And all you anonymi out there, give us your real name for this one. I've bared all in this post; I hope you'll do the same.)

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