Update: I quit my day job
I’m moving on to being a full-time artist
I painted some ambitious murals, a bus and a lot of portraits
I quit my day job about a month ago. I wasn’t planning on it, but after a week of my boss transferring stress from his personal life to his employees, one of my long time coworker’s had a panic attack and decided it wasn’t worth working for the company anymore.
When I confronted the boss about it, he didn’t even acknowledge the panic attack so I felt like it wasn’t worth it to me to work for someone who just didn’t care about us. I wasn’t prepared to jump financially speaking, but I really felt like if I did spend a year working on my art and building up my business, I could really do this. I’ve heard so many stories on podcasts of people who weren’t necessarily prepared to carve their own way, but they made it work. I just really have this feeling it will work.
So a month in, I’ve have found that it’s a little bit like treading on a glass bridge, I can’t see the floor and it feels like I’m falling. Still, there’s been some very positive signs. I’ve been in the position to paint a mural for my father’s restaurant. I took a gig doing scenic painting for the Atlanta Opera through a local theatrical/film union and loved it. I’ve put in several proposals for grants and residencies. I’ve been talking to people right now interested in getting custom commissioned portraits of their loved ones for Christmas.
I have to believe that all this investment of time and energy will pay off. I’ve been drawing and painting fairly seriously for years, decades honestly. I have a bachelors degree in fine art. And yet, I’ve held down a day job that’s sometimes helped me but mostly held me back. Not now. I’m taking everything I’ve been learning, listening to podcasts, taking courses and all my years of working for small business and applying it to MY small business.
