WHEN DID YOU REALIZE THAT BEING AN ARTIST WAS A CALLING CARD?
When I was 8 I remember saying that I wanted to be an artist when I
was older and my older brother was like “Artists don’t make any
money unless they’re dead!”. Even though that happened at such a
young age, I feel like that comment stuck with me. All my high
school art teachers told me that I should go to art school, but I
resisted because I didn’t want to be stuck with an art degree and
no job. I ended up going to FIT in New York for marketing and
dropped out after a year. After that I tried a local school for
Fashion Design and dropped out after 2 years. Finally I enrolled in
Simon Fraser University for Communications, which I just finished
my degree in. Although I spent 3 years studying communications, I
think I always knew that it wasn’t what I wanted to do with my
life. Even though I refused to go to art school, I continued to
paint throughout the many years I spent studying different majors.
It wasn’t until my final semester at SFU that I finally decided to
try and sell my art. Everyone was asking me what I was going to do
after I graduate, and I realized that every possible job in
communications sounded like something I would hate to do. So I gave
myself three months, until the end of the semester, to try and make
something out of myself as an artist. I told myself that if I
gained enough attention within those three months, I would pursue
art after I graduated; if I didn’t gain any attention or sell any
art, then I would give in and get a job in communications. At that
point, I honestly had no idea what the outcome would be. I was busy
with school and could only work on my art like 10-20 hours a week.
I thought that a realistic goal would be doing a painting every 2-3
weeks and selling it for $400. At the end of the semester, I had
made like $10,000 from selling paintings and prints. At that point
I think I realized that 1. Artists do make money, even if they’re
not dead. and 2. I should probably pursue a career in art.