What do you all do?

ams // what do you mean when you say you're not 'going into art' fella? I'd say that you're hardwired to think a certain way and it's such an intrinsic part of who you are that you're outlook and output will always be coloured by this.

create always dude,

'artist' is just a label...

Oh i'm not going to get an office job if that's what you mean. I might try and stay in some form of higher education for as long as humanly possible. Or until my debt equals that of sub-saharan africa, qualifying me to receive aid from the UN.

wayne_f14 ams // what do you mean when you say you're not 'going into art' fella? I'd say that you're hardwired to think a certain way and it's such an intrinsic part of who you are that you're outlook and output will always be coloured by this.

create always dude,

'artist' is just a label...

I think that is the beauty of art. No matter what job you do you can always find time to create.

eyebrows Biochem! Biochem! Biochem!

(to the chant of Toga! Toga! Toga!)

where are you studying?

I'm a co director at http://www.ocw.org.uk a bikle recycling coop.

This often means fixin really crappy bikes for little cash on the other hand I get to teach mechanics and build fixies and be bossy. Ha.

No really, I'm quite ok with what I do ..havin done rubbish/difficult stuff a while. My worst job was at Pizza Hut for 3 yrs on and off. Also Bodum sales assistant for a while with the worst boss ever. Waiter at Cafe Uno, Leeds; nice boss, shit customers. 1st job, garden centre skivvy on two fifty an hour. Also managed a wee park in Leeds, having to litter pick lots (condoms, syringes) whilst trying to engender a sense of 'community ownership' ...pah..hard! Deli assistant in poncy deli N. Oxford. Bartender. Lots of voluntary work which was mostly ace and useful.

Architect/designer.

I'm a chemistry student. That generally entails drinking, going to labs, writing lab reports, sleeping in lectures, trying to cycle with bloody huge textbooks in my bag, drinking some more and 5 hour afternoon naps.

eyebrows (to the chant of Toga! Toga! Toga!)

Ahhh reminds me of a toga party at the boat club (I don't row) with unlimited drinks. What a mess that was...

RPM u all work fo da' MAN
i cant wait to work for the man you know how well he pays?

I'm guessing it's more than I get.

but he takes your soul and self-respect

MrSmith Vinz is right.
i went to art school, you need to wake up and smell the capitalist coffee and stop living the dream (dreaming the life more like).
well,you have until 6 months after your graduation before reality bites, enjoy it while you can.

6 months?

Out of art college i got a job at a west end gallery, the first private view came along and some guys from the year below turned up. Midway through having a chat they asked me what i do now and i said i worked here to which one replied "so you've given up on being an Artist then?" That was my coffee moment. 3 years on and i'm still doing a similar thing, I know others who spend 3 days a week as a gallery tech and the rest in their studios, college doesn't prepare you for real life. I guess you just fit in somewhere and that's it for a while. Still. it's not all doom and gloom...

how do you give up being an artist?

you can work in Lidl and still be creating, I'd say you'd struggle harder to not think creatively -

is there a minimum requirement of studio hours, work sold etc you have to fulfil so you can label yourself an artist? For me there's more of a problem with the need to proclaim yourself as an 'artist'. who's trying to prove what and to whom?

just explore and create and don't worry bout the labels

you can't all be full time artists earning your living from your art, there just isn't enough paying public to support you, i think the colleges should make you a bit more aware of this before you graduate.

RPM I'm guessing it's more than I get.

but he takes your soul and self-respect
souls are over rated and my self respect will come back when i retire

RPM I'm guessing it's more than I get.
but he takes your soul and self-respect

I like to think of myself as a mosquito on the arm of 'the man'.. taking my fill and annoying him at the same time.

you are the boil on the bum of the corporate body

you're mistaken - hippy IS the bum of the corporate body

:)

how was ghent fella?

Great! winston and Caspar did an awesome job of sorting it all out and driving us there and back. Got in free to see the last 5 or so laps of the Koksijde Cross WC.. fkn mental with its sand dune climbs!
Plume bike shop was closed on arrival but we scored some choccies for the ladies back home and some Belgian beer at a restaurant before the track.
Ghent track was silly steep/short and we saw some good racing. They had Wiggans and Cavendish for the English crowd (quite a few) and even threw in Aussie Luke Roberts for me to yell at.
Definitely different to a 'normal' track meet! Air-horns going off all the time, drums, eurotrash playing.. more like a basketball game! :)
I'm a bit trashed now but might write more when I think about it again. I'll see if any of my pics turned out too..

wayne_f14 how do you give up being an artist?

you can work in Lidl and still be creating, I'd say you'd struggle harder to not think creatively -

is there a minimum requirement of studio hours, work sold etc you have to fulfil so you can label yourself an artist? For me there's more of a problem with the need to proclaim yourself as an 'artist'. who's trying to prove what and to whom?

Yep. Whether you're merchandising a display in a shop or solving a mathematical/scientific problem or writing an essay, you're still being creative. I remember being laughed at trying to tell some art friends that coming up synthesis methods to make particular chemicals is creative! (Which it certainly is, btw :P)

MrSmith you can't all be full time artists earning your living from your art, there just isn't enough paying public to support you, i think the colleges should make you a bit more aware of this before you graduate.

That's what I think my college should have done (it was a sixth form, but one separate from a secondary school). Loads of students did some form of art subject there, and loads had this dream of being an artist for a living, yet sadly in reality it just ain't going to happen for 99%.

It happens at uni level too. All my fine art friends left college with the same dream. Some do it, some sort of do it and some don't. I'm not sure what the point of my story was after all that.
I'm happy enough moving others art for the minute.

eeehhhh

That's what I think my college should have done (it was a sixth form, but one separate from a secondary school). Loads of students did some form of art subject there, and loads had this dream of being an artist for a living, yet sadly in reality it just ain't going to happen for 99%.

I think that's down the students. Some people will not be told. Me personally, I think people who go to university to improve their career prospects are completely and irrevocably insane. But they are absolutely nothing compared to art students who do it for the same reasons.

@wayne, I've made things for as long as i can remember, and will continue to while it makes me feel good. What gets me down is that I can't do that and only that for the rest of my life!

@hammo, which gallery do you work for? If you don't mind me asking.

eeehhhh I'm a chemistry student.

What is that like? - the work I mean...

piran [quote]eeehhhh I'm a chemistry student.

What is that like? - the work I mean...[/quote]

Usually a couple of hour long lectures in the morning. 6 hours of lab time a week (two 3 hour sessions), 3 hours of tutorials in which you get grilled on the lecture stuff, 1 hour philosophy lectures (I chose to do it), 1.5 hours maths lab a week.

Tomorrow I've got a 10am lecture on "chemical equilibria and thermodynamics" then 11am "atomic structure" which is basically quantum theory. Then I'll spend my afternoon writing a lab report from last friday....

I like it :) especially the labs. In my fourth year I'll be doing my own research. philosophy keeps me on my toes mentally as well, you have to think in a different way. I did it at A level so I've got an advantage over everyone else :)

Heh I get one lecture a week on a monday morning, and so far none have been worth getting up for. I miss philosophy, I guess the downside of going to an art-only university is the complete lack of academic lectures. I think i might just start turning up to lectures at UCL or something.