EMBRACING MY DIVERSITY
Apr 22nd, 2009 by darlene_artist
by DARLENE
One would think otherwise, but artists who are multi-talented are at a disadvantage in the marketplace. Current hiring practices favor those who are proficient at specific tasks. To successfully compete in the marketplace and to obtain steady freelance work means I have to squeeze myself into some narrowly defined parameters. For me, this squeeze has never been easy.
For a multi-talented person to perform the same repetitive tasks–daily, weekly, monthly–translates as being creatively constricting and, for me, would border on oppressive. That’s why I’ve chosen not to concentrate exclusively on just one artistic expression. I’m apt to get bored.
I always excel at jobs which are fluid and can allow me to freely draw upon my diverse talents and inner resources. However, if I solely concentrated on logo/letter design, I’d miss illustration. If I only focused on painting, I’d miss graphics. If I focused primarily on marketing, I’d miss calligraphy. If I focused on writing alone, I’d miss cartography. I require a daily dose of variety to stimulate the totality of my creative being.
I shine whenever I find projects which can combine several disciples. I’ve produced one-of-a-kind books for the fine arts in which I mixed the inks, made the paper, hand-lettered the text, illuminated the page and bound the book. I’ve also combined some of my skill sets for commercial book projects–such as creating the cover art, lettering the book’s title, producing the interior illustrations, and designing the layout. The book’s text could also be set using typefaces of my own design! Too bad we don’t live in a “William Morris / Kelmscott Press” world which values the book-as-art. The closest we can come in today’s marketplace is the graphic novel and this is on my list of things to accomplish some day.
I’ve spent a life-time apologizing for my talents, my intellect, my gender and my extra-sensory abilities. But no longer. I’ve decided to embrace my diversity. Now I’m only seeking patrons who recognize my uniqueness and honor my unusual range of talents. And I seek projects which are as non-ordinary as I am.