On Quitting my Day Job!
On Thursday June 14th, along with 32 eighth graders, I finally graduated from my long career as a teacher of English. It was an exciting and sobering moment. I have never lost the passion for teaching teenagers literature and creative writing and I was determined to quit on a high note, rather than waiting until I no longer enjoyed it. After all, I am not exactly retiring, merely changing my career - to full-time artist. When my last day of school dawned I could hardly believe that I would never again make the daily 20-mile commute across the bridge to the East Bay. I would never again have to grade an assignment, write a report card, read aloud from one of my favorite novels, wax lyrical about Shakespeare to a bemused group of squirmy adolescents, or explain the difference between ITS and IT'S! Even a week later, as I write this, it brings a lump to my throat.
But I am confident I've made the right decision. For several years I've been working 14-16 hour days trying to cope with my two jobs. My art has definitely suffered at times, especially when I had a solo show or an art festival coming up and I needed some more paintings in a hurry. I've also begun to take on more and more art teaching (once a teacher, always a teacher.) Fortunately I am able to manage on not much more than 6 hours sleep, I have an excellent memory, and I possess more than my fair share of energy (thanks to hormone replacement therapy!).
So here I am one week into my new career......and lots to do. This year I seem to have been offered one opportunity after another. I am now represented by no less than three galleries: AnamArt Gallery in Naperville, Illinois, just outside Chicago; The Gallery on Broadway in Fort Myers, Florida; and Imani Gallery in Napa, California. Such things don't happen purely by chance, however. The Naperville gallery found out about me when they saw two of my paintings in a juried exhibition at Woman Made Gallery, Chicago. They invited me to submit 20 slides, liked them, then asked to see the actual work. Rather than ship it, I decided to accompany my paintings on a plane to Chicago. I'd never been there before. What a wonderful city for art! In one week there I visited the Art Institute of Chicago 3 times, the Museum of Contemporary Art, and dozens of art galleries. Fortunately the AnamArt Gallery's owners liked my work and the contract was duly signed. As soon as I arrived back in San Francisco, the owner of the Florida gallery flew in and paid a visit to my studio. Her partner had 'discovered' me several months earlier when I sold her a painting over the internet. I then had to send in a sheet of slides to prove that I had a cohesive body of work to offer. The dealer and her husband picked out several pieces on canvas in a range of sizes and arranged for them to be shipped to Florida. Again contracts were exchanged and signed. The dealer in Napa knew of me because I kept bombarding her with announcements. Publicity pays off. I also know one of her other artists quite well.
Another great opportunity came up when the editor of Somerset Studio Magazine approached me with a request for an article about my collage method, along with a sheet of 20 slides. She had seen my work on this website and felt that it would fit well into her publication. The article was published last month and includes 9 beautiful reproductions of my paintings. See how important it is to have good slides! As a result of this article, I have been inundated with e-mails from all over the country and received several offers of representation and teaching. Not wanting to end up working 14-16 hour days again, I have only been able to accept a very few.
What of the future? I have recently joined the Northern California chapter of Women's Caucus for Art and participated in my first show with them. I look forward to becoming a more active member of this group of dedicated women artists. I am also returning to greater involvement with my local art organization, Indian Valley Artists, which has a brand new gallery and studio complex in Hamilton, near Novato, California. The Critique Group for Experimental Painters, which I began in early spring, has been enthusiastically supported so I plan to continue that, incorporating regular field trips to the San Francisco galleries and lectures at SFMOMA. In July I am taking a workshop in encaustics, something I have wanted to learn for a long time. Most importantly I have dozens of artist friends whom I have seriously neglected so far this year, so that will have to change before I lose them. Next year I plan to write a BOOK on mixed media collage, but first I have to put in the time on creating an outline and finding a publisher. At least I already know HOW to write!
Did I forget something? Oh yes, I shall PAINT, PAINT, PAINT!
©Ann Baldwin 2001