Twenty Reasons to Come Out of Your Artistic Closet

I am so grateful to everyone who commented on yesterday's post. I was so excited to read your reaction and felt so glad that the post encouraged you. It got me thinking though about what's happened to me since I took the step of claiming to be an artist. Yeah, it's easier to fill in the job title blank on a form but what else? 

Here's a list some of the unforeseen advantages I've found...

1. If you show up at 8 a.m. to drop off your child no one questions the gesso smear you  have on your forehead. Unfortunately, no one will even mention it and you'll not discover it until you look in the mirror later in the day. That's IF you look in the mirror later in the day.

2.You get to dress "expressively" and can wear mismatched clothes and pig tails and no one will suspect that it's just because you forgot to do laundry and hadn't taken a shower yet that day.

3. If you dress that way two days in a row, it's still ok.

4. Art supplies are now "tax deductible expenses" as are art conferences, and CONFERENCE WEAR!

5. Your husband will pause before throwing away some old canning jar lids and take them to you to see if you want them. When you say "yes" he'll say "i thought so, they're metal".

6. Your friends and family will give you  things like old carpenter's rulers, corks, old trays, and tins full of shell buttons because they know you're obsessed with these and will think they're the best gifts ever.

7. Now that you're openly an artist you feel the responsibility to openly support other artists (my justification for buying LOTS of cool jewelry).

8. You get to let your artistic personality in all it's quirkiness, forgetfulness, flakiness, and passion show through. People will understand that it's all because you're an artist.

9. If you're tired and staring blankly at the wall as someone's talking to you they assume you're envisioning a new work of art.

10. You can justify a subscription to that super cool art magazine as "market research".

11. You can wrap a present in kraft paper and yarn and people will know it's from you (handy when you forgot a tag).

12. Your husband is now eligible to join the "i married an artist" support group. You are now eligible for the "I'm an artist who married an engineer" support group. That's if you can get in. 

13. People at the post office, or grocery store, or anywhere you frequent will talk art to you as a matter of course because they know you'll understand them.

14. When asked to explain a design decision you can just say it "felt right" as way of an explanation and people will let it go at that.

15. You get business cards that say "artist" under your name

16. You get to make cool pairings like chicken wire and pearls.

17. If called upon to do a last minute school project on a Sunday night you don't sweat it because one trip to your studio and you'll have everything you need.

18. You can doodle on everything, put flowers in your macaroni dish, and do all kinds of little random things for the sake of beauty and it's understood and even appreciated.

19. When asked to volunteer you're usually given something artistic to do.

20. You and others like you will gravitate to each other and then you can do fun things like have coffee and talk for half an hour about the relative properties of different adhesives.

I could go on but I would LOVE to see what unforeseen advantages you may have found, once people know you're an artist. So please leave a comment and thank you!!!