Bonnie Soltis

Holy Cow!  3 months have gone by since my last post!  What have I been doing?  Job searching my dear friends, job searching.  It is more of a pain in the rear end then I would have ever imagined!  There seems to be SO much that employers need you to know, I have to be this all-in-one package of awesomeness and it is a tad daunting.  All I keep hearing is “network, network, NETWORK” and I am almost convinced it will be a constant ring in my ears for quite a while.

I once told myself “Bon, networking does you no good if there aren’t any jobs in that area.”  Well…yea…but mostly no.  I wasn’t taking advantage of the networking capabilities I had at hand, shame on me!  So I decided to turn that around quickly and save as much time as I could get my hands on.  I told my supervisor the other day I was leaning more towards creating design with in higher education (doing design for any department within a university) and the next time we had a meeting he told me of all these people he knew that were looking for a designer within higher ed!  How cool is that?  I’ve gained a way better understanding of networking in the sense that I’m not trying to get other people to get me a job.  Networking is more of a “Hey, I’m going this direction with my career and if you could keep your ears peeled for any opportunities that’d be cool.”

I’ve also noticed that people that I am connected with in the professional setting are more willing to help with elements of my job search than I had expected.

Moral of the story is that networking isn’t as scary as some may think.  And while I’d love to not hear that word again for a while…I think it’s going to stick around for a while anyway.

Ever hear the sole stories of those scientists who are religious, which sparks the thinking that science and religion can actually get along?  I feel that I am in a similar situation with the art world and the business world.  It gets frustrating at times because I like to think of myself as both an artist and a graphic designer, but each realm has a different opinion about that.  I went to an internship interview for a graphic design position and half way through my interviewer says “Oh…so you’re an artist?”  I was ecstatic that they were able to see the artistic side of my portfolio.  BUT.  I go back into the art world at school, and I am no longer an artist.  I am a business/marketing girl who just wants to create “pretty things”.

Side note: I don’t think any designer likes to hear “Aw that’s pretty!” or “That’s cute.”  It gives me the shivers.

Back in the art world, “pretty” artwork doesn’t fly.  But, if my artwork isn’t pinned as “pretty” then it’s pinned as too literal.  Literal in the form of representational.  Example:  I made an intaglio print of a a lantern, which I thought turned out really well.  I loved the light it emitted at dusk.  Unfortunately, the response I received was that “It looks too much like a lantern.  I want to see the essence of a lantern.”  In retrospect I can understand what my professor was getting at, but at the same time…is making an intaglio print of a lantern really all that bad?  Is it no longer art because the print actually looks like a light?

I’m thinking that my issue is my mind isn’t as twisted as some artists.  Now, do not get offended, I don’t mean twisted as a bad thing.  All artists know artists are totally insane.  And insanity is a good place to be most of the time.  But, can insanity ever be used for practical means?  Or do you have to keep each in their own worlds?

Can there ever be a happy medium between the art world and the business world like science and religion?  Is it even feasible to compare the two comparisons?  How many other questions can I come up with?  Not sure…maybe I’ll sketch about it in my sketchbook in my half artist half not sense of being