This is article two in the Z Art Bog series about life as an artist, written for an adolescent audience.
So, you have an inkling that you are in fact an artist or at least hope to pursue life as an artist, but will you? Hopefully, your life will present you with a few choices.
What are some of the choices you are about to encounter if you haven’t already? For one, you may be able to decide for yourself how you spend your free time. This assumes you have free time. Actually, even though you believe yourself to be an artist, you may have competing responsibilities or interests. For example, you may be the oldest of several children and are expected to care for your younger siblings when a parent is at work. In this case, your free time may be non-existent depending upon the work hours of your parent. Without free time, when will you be creating artwork?
Even with responsibilities, you absolutely must make time for both your school work and at least eight hours of sleep (seven minimum) each night. Enough sleep is physically necessary for persons of any age. Sacrificing your school work (or sleep) for your artwork may cause you to later regret not having achieved a higher grade point average.
Are you struggling with a particular subject? Learn to be a good self-advocate by asking for teacher assistance when you need that second explanation. Are you too embarrassed to ask during class time? Hopefully, you can arrive a little early or stay a little late to find your teacher before or after school and arrange for some one-on-one or small group time with the lessons. Most teachers are truly there to help you succeed in school and in life. If the teacher is unavailable, find a study buddy or go online. There are some great websites for homework help. Look for them, take notes and make certain to study for all of your quizzes and tests.
Do the best you can in all of your subjects. The higher your grade point average the better you look to prospective employers, prospective trade schools or colleges and the more you will respect yourself for putting forth the most effort you can. You are going to need that strong work ethic to become successful at anything, art included. Employers who are looking for talent or solid help can spot those who live their lives by putting forth the least amount of effort possible. Realize that you may be competing with many others for the same job. Learn to put forth effort, thereby making yourself worthy of the best opportunities. Then when given an opportunity, make people aware you appreciate the opportunity. There is nothing more annoying than someone who puts forth the least amount of effort while expecting the best results in life.
If you worked hard during junior high and high school but for whatever reason you do not attend college, you may still need or want to use some of that good high school knowledge as an adult. Also, knowing a little about many subjects will make you a well rounded person. Have we strayed from the topic of the choices you may make to become a lifelong artist? Not at all. The point here is that no matter what path you choose, effort is more likely to be rewarded than is lack of effort.
What if the amount of time and effort you are putting into your studies is keeping you from your artwork? Even as a lifelong artist, there may be periods of several months or even several years during which your artwork must be put on hold. If you are in fact a lifelong artist, you will pick it up when you can. Maybe not until after college or after your children are raised and living successfully on their own, but it is never too late to resume your artwork. Are we looking too far ahead? Not really, but the main focus of this article is those choices you may be making during your teenage years and into your early twenties.
Another situation you may encounter is having more than one area of talent and wanting to experience both or all of them. There is nothing wrong with this if you can actually make time for all of them (and enough sleep). You may be an athlete and an artist. Your athletic skill may be at a high enough level to attract scholarship money. If not, depending upon the sport(s) you play, you may be gaining valuable experience in working as a member of a team. Knowing how to work as a member of a team is always useful in life. The job(s) you have may require you to work as a member of a team. Who doesn’t appreciate someone who is helpful and humble? No one wants to work with a slacker.
What about peer pressure? What about it? If you are an artist you are likely less affected by peer pressure than the average person—then again maybe not. Is your priority to do what everyone else does because everyone else does? Are you afraid to be a positive leader? If so, do what everyone else does and you may or may not be happy you did. On the other hand, you might prefer to focus on building yourself up with knowledge and skill for your own future benefit and the benefit of your offspring if you plan to do the best you can to support their well being.
The choices you make as a young person, will likely affect you for the rest of your life. Depending upon your situation, you may have one or two choices about how you spend your time. On the other hand, you may feel as though you have few or no choices at all. The aspiring artist who has familial (childcare) obligations during junior high and/or high school or who spends more time studying than does the average student may just have to wait for that “free time” to free up.
Look for the next article in this series, “Sitting on the Fencepost” about when and how your priorities may change.