Yeah, kids programing has taken over the DVR.

And apparently this blog too….

1 – My son Matthew

2 – A steady paycheck (even though it’s not in my field)

The rest of the year can bite me

Remember that Christian radio broadcaster who predicted May 21 would be the end of the world?

That day came and went, just like any ordinary Saturday in the spring. But it was followed by another prediction: The world will end on Oct. 21 — today.

Maybe for the next time I should purchase a Holocaust Cloak

I hate that term.

It’s as if everyone who isn’t an artist thinks all of us that are just sit around on our ass and wait for someone to notice how wonderful our shit is.  The reason for this rant is a post I read over on The Warrior Class that made me shake my head.  Now, before you think I am attacking Six or the DO – I AM NOT – I am addressing a misconception about artists in general and since it was the DO’s post that made me shake my head in disbelief, that it who I am using as my example of the misconceptions.

OK, here’s the part of her post that I want to address, the rest of her post is spot on so no need for me to say anything else about it.

I have an associates degree in (gasp!) fine arts, yet I also held a job and paid for college without going into hock.  And I got a real job that had nothing to do with art.  I’m also not attempting to get a higher degree in art.  Know why?  THERE’S NO MONEY IN IT.  Didn’t want to be a starving artist.  I saw art for what it was: a fun degree to get while getting my GE credits, and I left behind when it was time for real work.  That these people are trying to say that they represent me because they were too stupid to be realistic is their own fault, and I’ll be damned if anyone else should take the fall for them.

I DO have a higher degree in art and I did work my way through college as well.  I did have to take out student loans because there was no way to hold a full time job while taking 15 credit hours with classes that required at least 10 hours on each homework project, if not more.  I’m not bitching about that, it’s just a fact.  My wife did the same thing but her loans are less than mine because she also got a scholarship and a grant.

Now, to the point of my rant “And I got a real job that had nothing to do with art.  I’m also not attempting to get a higher degree in art.  Know why?  THERE’S NO MONEY IN IT.”

Negative, there IS money in art, LOTS of money.  But as in anything, you have to be GOOD at it to get anywhere.  The starving artist meme is a load of bullshit that was started by Jackson Pollack so people would feel sorry for his drunk ass and every crappy artist since then who hasn’t sold one of their “I shit on a canvas” paintings has been using it as a crutch since then.

The last sale my wife and I did we cleared about $2600.  That was a one day art sale that was only on for six hours.  Her stuff brought in the most – oil paintings – but about $400 of it was mine from my ceramics work.  Now, it’s easy to say “Great, but what are you going to do next month for money?” and that is true, like any freelance work you have to scramble to keep the cash coming in. In our case, since we have now settled down, we have been scoping out galleries, she has been adding to her portfolio so she has about 25 paintings, and looking at what art sales will be coming up in the next year.

I recently went to Santa Fe to check out some galleries, and the word from them was that yes, sales were slower but the good stuff was still selling, and by ‘good stuff’ I mean paintings that had price tags from $9,000 – $50,000.  But again, you have to be good to get to that level, but it’s like that in almost any job, if you want to move up you better know your shit.

The point is that art is work, and very hard work indeed.  Those little fuckwads that want to sit around and listen to “The revolution will not be televised” or want to do shit like this are not artists at all.  They are overly indulged children who would not have survived through the first semester of my art school.  We lost more than half of my class by the time we graduated because it was too much for them.  They couldn’t handle the amount of work it required, the criticism, or the constant pushing from instructors to reach higher and work more.

To put in in a personal perspective, what do you consider art?  Is it just something that hangs on the wall to be looked at? OK, then take a look at this site and tell me that there isn’t something there you wouldn’t want hanging on your wall.  That is my wife’s work and it is selling.  She one time was working on a plein air painting when a person walking by offered her $400 for it – and it wasn’t finished yet.  So that’s the traditional stuff, gallery art, things to make your house look like more than four walls and a roof.  What about practical art?

That P226, that was designed by an artist.  The holster – that’s art too, and I think the amount of work that Micheal puts into his holsters would also count as a real job. Also, what is a “real job”?  What does that mean? That you work for someone other than yourself and they give you a paycheck?  Or that you put in a certain number of hours doing something that someone then will pay you for?  If so, then Micheal and my wife both have ‘real jobs’.

See, art is a lot more than some douche-nozzle hippie crying on a street corner about how his work isn’t understood.  It’s also a lot of hard working individuals who keep their nose to the grindstone and work their asses off making a living at art.

What art do I do? I’m trained as an animator but I also do sculpture, ceramics and drawing  My industry (like everyone) took a big hit and laid off a lot of people.  So right now I work in a call center while I am getting my own business model set up to make custom pistol grips.  I am also working on a portfolio of drawings to take into a gallery, I mostly do landscape drawings of old buildings and the like because they appeal to me that way.

Yes, there are the crybaby artists out there wanting everyone to feel sorry for them, they are the real 1%.  The rest of us work our asses off.

When I was living in the Bay area I saw this vehicle -

I think he must have all his work done here -

Not for defense or anything, just because it is so unusual looking

Course, if I can’t find one, I could always go with the next generation version – the Rino

In all honesty though, I like the Mateba Autorevolver better just based on aesthetics.

That would be nice.

The wife and I will be taking it easy this year in our new home, something about being pregnant and tired I guess.  Anyway, we will be watching movies and enjoying the antics of our new boy cats as well and the companionship of our older girl cats.

Tomorrow it is over to the parents to enjoy some Posole and if you have never had it, I suggest you try it some time.  It’s not a heavy dish, but if you make it the way my dad does it will carry a lot of heat as well as flavor, though you may have to put out the fire in your mouth to get to the flavor part.  Thankfully my mom make a batch for normal humans who don’t have tongues made of asbestos so I usually mix the two so I can hit the right level for me.

Anyway, Happy New Year and may 2011 treat us all much better than 2010 did!

I blow it off and climb back in (The wife was on the phone so I was waiting for her) and I watch the taxi guy walk away.  As he is moving I see something fall out of his pocket and recognize that it is money.  So, I get out walk over and pick it up.  It’s twenty bucks.   The guy still hasn’t noticed he lost it and I could just walk away $20 richer and he would never know.  He did slam the hell out of my car after all.

I hollered at him and when he turned around handed him the money he dropped.

That’s the difference between us and them.  We do what we do because it really is the right thing.  They do what they do to grab whatever they can while claiming it’s for the ‘greater good’.

I grew up reading the Spenser books.  Spenser reminded me of my dad; tough but sensitive in the right ways.  Thoughtful but never with the need to really explain his position because he knew the rightness of himself.  Spenser helped me actually learn about my dad in many ways.  My dad gave me the example of how to live and Spenser helped explain it.

My heart goes out to his wife Joan.  To have been with someone for so long and then to have them not there.  God bless and keep her at this time.

Strangely enough, I had just finished his Jessie Stone book “Night and Day” the same day he passed away.  I will miss the adventures of Jessie, Spenser and Sunny, but not as much as Joan will miss the man who loved her above all else.

God bless you Robert, and you as well Joan.