Friday, March 4, 2011

Into the Real World - Life after GRADUATION!


     After a short but intense weekend at the11th Annual SEA conference in Lisle, Illinois I was left with nothing but to think of what I can do as an artist  to make a leaving right out of college as I enter into the real world and particularly the art world.  With these taught of  life after graduation and then what?  still lingering in my mind, I somehow found inspiration from Kristin Boehm  an established young artist and an alumni class of  2009 from Lawrence University who has found her voice in the art world.

  Much was said at the  conference about having a web presence as an artist and presenting one's self as professional as possible. Speakers at this conference spent much time talking and discussing the need for a wed presence  and the role it plays in getting our work out there   and building a bigger audience, publicity and networking.  It was not until Kristin got on campus to share her experiences  that I realized the need for me not to take for granted all the resources i have now to make and keep my web presence alive.

  Kristin Boehm talked a lot about her  journey after Lawrence. As a young artist graduating right at the peak of the Recession, she took advantage of all possible means of getting her feet in the art world by concentrating more on her web presence as a means of getting her work recognized.  Her interest which started from right on the LU campus where she took her first Digital Processes class where she just like what am doing now was encourage to keep a blog, self design a project and also create a product which introduced her to the idea of selling online using online markets like Esty among others.

The inspiration and advice I took from listening to older professional artist at the Self Employment in the Art conference and lecture from Kristin Boehm, it is very important that as  young emerging artist we involve ourselves into the art community by collaborating with other artist in our own field of interest and sometimes volunteer time or donate some work to help build your resume for future job prospecting.

3 comments:

hillary.marie said...

I feel like Kristin could have done a better job of giving advice to students. She shared her struggle, yes, but I feel that we could have all benefited from constructive guidance rather than half of a cautionary tale.

G Dizzle said...

Don't you think it's kind of ridiculous how in one sense we have to do all of these things to get our artwork out into the world and become a working artist. But at the same time that everything we do is considered our art. and our own persona is even more important than conforming to mainstream art? What do I do?

johnie said...

Well, it's a lot easier to get your artwork out there now than it used to be. It's so great to hear all the voices instead of just the voices the bastions of the art establishment and media allow us to hear!