From the Mad Articles archive · 2015-05-06
It is a very strange situation I find myself in — being a freelance artist... when it was the last line of work in the WORLD I wanted to be in! Don't get me wrong; I LOVE drawing, cartooning, designing, doodling, daydreaming — and everything ELSE Creative. And the term describing my fear — "starving artist" — is both trite and inaccurate. Yet — if you're not very good at art, and stick with it — you likely WILL personify that phrase. And — if you're not willing to continually make contacts and connects, the same is true. However, if you ARE great at designing, and have the mental prowess to continually reach out to those that likely need your services, you will likely succeed and flourish as a freelance.
That realization was a long time coming for me — since I was trying every conceivable kind of work to avoid it! Let's see if I can remember a fraction of the various positions I wormed my way into: factories, warehouse labor, city storm drain cleaner, department store clerk, dental lab trainee (was a teen — and it bored me witless, so I quit... and THAT was a dumb mistake!), door-to-door / in-house / business-to-business / telemarketing and in-store sales, residential electrical work, pest control, deliveryman, hotel clerk, carpet cleaning, pressure-washing, bottle plant labor, store produce department, and many more jobs I left for many reasons... ALWAYS going back to the drawing board — LITERALLY; for there were always people paying me to do art! But I didn't WANT to!
Much to my disgust, I found the art world like a fiend with way too many arms to dodge, as it pulled me into its dripping jaws. Ever so slowly, I began, much to my surprise, to actually ENJOY it. But like prisoners of old, I would STILL escape for awhile — until caught again. Over and over and over again.
Finally, the tiny, little brain I have realized that I WAS making a decent living as an artist, which greatly ADDED to my enjoyment. Also, I was tired (and getting a bit too old, dammit!) to keep finding and trying new jobs. Thus the Mad Artist was born.... and now, I can live ANYWHERE — as long as I have a decent 'puter and the net!