How to Creatively Survive and Thrive Seven Days a Week
By Summer Pierre
By Summer Pierre
New York: Penguin Group, 2010
Are you an aspiring artist? If you're a musician/filmmaker/poet/painter/writer/chef -- freelance anything, really -- with serious dreams, you may well be confronted with daily reminders of what you’ve gotten yourself into, economics-wise. It’s called Supply and Demand. The Supply of would-be artists is always much bigger than the general population’s Demand for art and arty things.
Enter the Day Job. Artists bravely march out into the real world, dressing up for day jobs that pay the bills, “saving your ‘real’ self for the cracks and corners of your off time.” Off Time being the time when artists scribble down new songs and sketches and screenplays, hoping, always hoping, for a Big Break.
But Big Breaks don’t always come, or come right at first bat. This would be a terrible bummer if it weren’t for inspirational books for aspirational people, like this short-n-sweet little number from Summer Pierre, a Brooklyn, N.Y.-based artist/writer/musician (with a day job).
Artist in the Office shows wannabe art-folk that professional success is not so much about the Big Break. It’s more about the Small Step. A couple examples:
>> Can’t get that screenplay written? Use each lunch hour to type some dialogue; then try not to moan and groan that you “don’t have enough time” to pursue your Sundance dreams. (Because who can dream and complain at the same time?) After enough lunch hours, you’ll at least have a screenplay, which is step one if you ever want Robert Redford’s attention.
>> Bored with your day job? Move out of “Why-I-Hate-Where-I-Workville” by cutting back on the gossip (see previous paragraph). Instead, find ways to integrate your talents into your day job. Just keep it appropriate and make sure your actual work gets accomplished.
Done the right way, bringing your creative self to work is what bosses call “taking initiative.” Which brings us to a core message of this book: Initiative—motivation—gumption—chutzpah—call it what you will, you’ll need a lot of it to start a career in the arts. So don’t panic. Seize the day and start small.
This book is…
Great if you’re: Stuck in a quarterlife/midlife crisis and can’t afford to go all Eat Pray Love with yourself traveling to Bali.
Skip this: if you’re not interested in creativity or fun in any way.
Like this book? Love this one: The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron
Are you an aspiring artist? If you're a musician/filmmaker/poet/painter/writer/chef -- freelance anything, really -- with serious dreams, you may well be confronted with daily reminders of what you’ve gotten yourself into, economics-wise. It’s called Supply and Demand. The Supply of would-be artists is always much bigger than the general population’s Demand for art and arty things.
Enter the Day Job. Artists bravely march out into the real world, dressing up for day jobs that pay the bills, “saving your ‘real’ self for the cracks and corners of your off time.” Off Time being the time when artists scribble down new songs and sketches and screenplays, hoping, always hoping, for a Big Break.
But Big Breaks don’t always come, or come right at first bat. This would be a terrible bummer if it weren’t for inspirational books for aspirational people, like this short-n-sweet little number from Summer Pierre, a Brooklyn, N.Y.-based artist/writer/musician (with a day job).
Artist in the Office shows wannabe art-folk that professional success is not so much about the Big Break. It’s more about the Small Step. A couple examples:
>> Can’t get that screenplay written? Use each lunch hour to type some dialogue; then try not to moan and groan that you “don’t have enough time” to pursue your Sundance dreams. (Because who can dream and complain at the same time?) After enough lunch hours, you’ll at least have a screenplay, which is step one if you ever want Robert Redford’s attention.
>> Bored with your day job? Move out of “Why-I-Hate-Where-I-Workville” by cutting back on the gossip (see previous paragraph). Instead, find ways to integrate your talents into your day job. Just keep it appropriate and make sure your actual work gets accomplished.
Done the right way, bringing your creative self to work is what bosses call “taking initiative.” Which brings us to a core message of this book: Initiative—motivation—gumption—chutzpah—call it what you will, you’ll need a lot of it to start a career in the arts. So don’t panic. Seize the day and start small.
This book is…
Great if you’re: Stuck in a quarterlife/midlife crisis and can’t afford to go all Eat Pray Love with yourself traveling to Bali.
Skip this: if you’re not interested in creativity or fun in any way.
Like this book? Love this one: The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron
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