We Graduated a Year Ago
now what?
It’s strange to look back on graduation, knowing it was only a year ago, but it feels so distant. After graduating, we both moved home. We took bullshit jobs we didn’t want, quit those bullshit jobs, and took new ones because it’s an endless cycle. The time we have for our personal practices and SIP ebbs and flows, and we think back on all the time we had to create in college. Our new routines aren’t exactly what we want, but everyone says you have to eat shit for at least a few years. We try to settle in and make do with the situation, but we still have the drive to create. It feels like there are these obstacles holding us back.
Time is the biggest factor. In art school, your whole experience is about creating. You spend your time making art; when you’re not making it, you’re looking at it or talking about it. All of your time goes to furthering your artistic knowledge and experience. It’s awesome and so easy to take advantage of. It’s taking an increased amount of energy not to let the outside job win and continue to devote time to your own practice. Easier said than done. In fact, it’s kind of a grueling process, and it’s easy to feel like you’ve lost sight of your creativity (but we have a whole post about this already).
I’m working on changing my perception of time. In college, everything is on a deadline. You have to finish this project by the end of the month and only have four years to experience everything you want at school. That has definitely stuck with me. I’ve started convincing myself that it'll never get done if I don’t do a project or task at the moment I think of it. Which just isn’t true. There is so much more time now. Changing your relationship with time is the only way through this. Exercise patience, remind yourself it will get done eventually, and remember that you have a lifetime to do all the creative things you want. We are only one year post-grad. It helps when I remember I’m young.
I recently attended an artist networking event (…I know). It had been almost a year since I had been around so many artists. I was the youngest one in the room, stuck on the fact that I graduated a year ago and surrounded by people who are still trying to make it happen for themselves. There is comfort in that. I had a very brief conversation with an energetic individual who looked at me and said, “Use this time to make as much art as possible. Do it all.” This advice did not make its way into my head until a week or two later, but now it seems to be stuck in there. Every artist just wants to create, but it’s important to establish that relationship with your art as soon as possible. Carry that positive perspective and creative urge into your adult life because everything will only get more complicated. However, the more I think about what she said, the more I realize it is not just about making as much as possible but also establishing habits.
Routine is important. It’s how you manage a lot of life and determine what will be done because managing your routine to fit in everything you want to do is impossible. This is especially true when you are an artist and have so many additional hopes for yourself. Since I’ve let this pearl of wisdom sink in, I remind myself that I am an artist and I will create. I want a routine that reflects that. For now, this looks like doing enough work to make some money but enough art to feel fulfilled. I hope to pivot this to enough art that I feel like I’m actively producing and working enough to make money to sustain my art and myself. It’s not like I decided to be an artist because it’s lucrative…
This difficult balance is definitely related to time, but I want to form habits that will carry me for a long time. I want to be proud of what I make and the type of artist I am. So, since graduating, the biggest change to my relationship with art has been that it takes more effort, but that doesn’t mean I want it any less.
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