Starving Artists

Majoring in art requires creativity. Apparently, trying to get a job with a degree in art can require even more.

"There are no rules in the art world," said Beth Grabowski, professor of art and assistant chairwoman in studio art at UNC. "There are as many ways to do it as there are people doing it."

Being a professor like Grabowski is one difficult way to apply an art degree into an occupation. "Overworked and underpaid," she said about the way she felt last Thursday afternoon.

But she emphasized that art, unlike many other majors, is not something people choose to study simply to prepare for a career. "Artists are usually driven to do it because it's necessary that art be a part of their lives," she said. "It certainly helps to have a job where I'm paid to produce and evaluated on my artistic production."

In this way Grabowski is fortunate. She said that for every job opening in her department, the department usually receives several hundred applications. The economic reality is few people support themselves strictly through art.

Michael Brown received a bachelor's degree in art from UNC in 1977 and received a two-year grant to produce his own works. He has since worked as a plumber, art teacher and soccer coach. Now he's a self-employed mural painter in Chapel Hill. "It's been a real hodge-podge, but most of it is related to my drawing ability," Brown said.

Brown set up an internship program for art majors, most of whom are from UNC. Former interns work in art-related occupations as varied as Brown's resume. "I had a three-year intern who went on to grad school in medical illustration, and he's making real good money," he said. "Another guy went into metalwork, and one started her own mural business."

Internships are one of the keys to a career in an art-related field, said Jaquelyn Gist, a University Career Services career counselor for nonprofits, the arts and social work. "The harder the field is (to work in), the more important internships are," Gist said. "We (at the UCS office) offer stipends, because internships are so important and so many arts internships are unpaid."

As well as valuable experience, art interns get a taste of the realities of working in the art world.

Kwong Li, a senior art major from Sunbury, said his internship in a gallery last summer showed him how artists can become conceptually trapped."(Painting for a gallery) calls on people to create objects that have to be sold," Li said. "Most clients are regular clients of artists who expect work similar to previous work.

"Sometimes that hinders progress, and most visual art tries to be progressive by nature."

Li's personal focuses are painting, and more recently, digital art. He has earned money painting sets at Playmakers Theatre, and plans to go to graduate school eventually, but not to sell his art for a living. Because of this he plans to get an art-related job and focus on his own work in his spare time. "You can find jobs with the skills you've learned, like in illustration, theater, movies," he said. "You don't have work in a museum or wash dishes."

But art-related jobs ranging from graphic art to advertising to education still are driven by the clients' concepts, as with some gallery art. "This large mural stuff -- it's debatable whether it's art," said Brown, who also paints his own work on the side.

Additionally, Li and Beth Huss, a senior art from Bath, both said distinguishing between "respectable" jobs and "selling out" was a major consideration in the search for an art-based career.

"(Selling out) is if you go too commercial, like doing commercials for MTV," Huss said. She plans to work in some type of advertising in Chapel Hill for a year or two before going to graduate school.

Of course, some people attempt to go out and sell their own work. UNC's Department of Art offers a one-hour course to students on marketing their work to galleries. Aside from selling their work on the open market, independent artists can also apply for grants and fellowships, which tend to be extremely competitive.

But many fellowships, like the N.C. Artists Fellowship that offers $8,000 over two years, don't pay enough to support someone, Grabowski said. "You have to be a little bit crazy to (try to support yourself through selling your own art)," she said. "In some ways you have to be a masochist and an optimist."

Local painter Monica Ferrell, who does not completely support herself through her art, emphasized that self-employed artists and artisans need to develop a business sense to survive and succeed. "You have to constantly be selling yourself," Ferrell said. "You have to know where to pursue shows and how to advertise, and you have to be as enthusiastic about doing it as you are about your painting."

At the same time, she said, she must paint in her own style, without catering toward a certain audience. "I can't do it any other way," she said. "You have to paint what you love."

But you can't paint without money, and being self-employed requires more discipline than doing something more traditional, Brown said. "There's constant pressure to produce," he said.

In the face of these potential difficulties, Huss said she was glad she eventually settled on art after starting as a chemistry major. "I'm so much happier being an art major," she said. "It's fun for me."

As well as being fun, Grabowski added that an art degree cultivates the ability "to really creatively redefine the answer to the problem." This includes, of course, managing to be an artist without starving.

The Arts & Entertainment Editor can be reached at artsdesk@unc.edu.