BY ELEANOR WOOD
T.S. Eliot worked as a banker, then an editor, throughout his literary career. Philip Glass supported himself as a plumber while composing avant-garde operas. Charles Ives was an insurance agent. Bram Stoker worked as a theatre manager while penning novels.
There are countless examples of artists who maintained day jobs throughout their arts careers, often while experiencing major successes. But how practical is a day job for today’s artists?
The ways in which artists tend to support their artistic practice is often a secret. The words ‘day job’ are whispered in hushed tones in dark corners. While a day job can be looked down upon, it can also be quite useful and ultimately liberating for an artist. The right job can support and strengthen your artistic practice. It doesn’t need to be a source of shame or a signal that things ‘didn’t quite go as planned’. Whether it’s a job that’s related to the art you want to make, or a completely unrelated job that gives you the freedom to make your art in your own free time, many artists find that the security of a day job can facilitate their arts practice in a number of ways:
It can teach you super helpful skills
A regular schedule and set hours can provide a timeframe around which writing/music practice/pottery must be done. Also, it can teach you super useful skills that your arts practice may actual need. Your seemingly mundane call centre job can teach you pretty useful skills like problem solving and dealing with demanding clients. Your music teaching practice can teach you the basics of book keeping, invoicing and commercial skills.
You can enjoy your arts practice more
While it can take some serious time management skills, like sending emails on the train and giving up Friday nights out at the pub, balancing a day job and a successful arts practice can be done. Charles Bukowski tells us to ‘find what you love and let it kill you’, however I’m not sure I’m convinced. Some distance from our artistic practice may be a useful and ultimately beneficial tool to support our arts practice and enable us to pursue it with less financial worries.
It can open up new networks you might not have expected
You never know the secret life of your co-workers. Your office administrator might moonlight as a violinist in an Irish pub band on the weekends. Your co-worker may have just written their third play. Your marketing coordinator may be able to give you some tips in promoting your upcoming show. Having a day job outside of your creative practice can open up new networks and expose you to new collaborators that you might not otherwise be exposed to.
The more we can discuss the economic realities of being a young artist in Australia, the better chance there is of improving them. We do ourselves a disservice when we imagine that the ‘starving artist’ is the only way for young artists to be successful. You’re no less of an artist if your job enables you to buy the odd almond milk latte or allows you to pay your fortnightly rent without having to contemplate ‘do I really need that second kidney?’.
So to anyone slugging it in a job that is less than inspiring: take heart, dear friends. You’re no less dedicated to your practice if you have a day job. In fact, you might even be better off for it.
Image Nevalenx via Flickr CC2.0.
