Yeek! So I updated my webpage today to ideally streamline and also include all of the elements I seek on other sites. In doing so, I updated the 'about' section to 'artist.' To be clear, this is the section referring to ME.
Wait, what?
Did I really call myself an artist? I grew up in extremely practical communities. The types of people who say things like -- "I don't deal with artists."
Even when I transitioned from engineering and the corporate world to non-profit (a bold move indeed!), I worked at an organization in which most of the board recoiled at hints of shifting from STEM to STEAM -- even while knowing that it may be a way to recapture the hearts and minds of students who had written off STEM far too early.
I need to take responsibility as well. As I signed up for my third pottery class, I started choking over thinking I might be becoming an artist.
But why?
Back when computer science was new, musicians and artists were recruited because of the overlap of both creativity and precision required for the emerging field. I was drawn to pottery because of the physics in motion of throwing and chemistry required to pair clays with glazes and firings. Did you know that if they don't pair perfectly, your totally finished pieces may 'ping' -- a sign that the glaze has shrunk more than the clay? It has a fun, musical tone, even if it does mean that your item may now have a crack.
I was also drawn to the additional creativity. I spent years building creative expertise on software strategy and making budgets work; I would venture it's a similar part of the brain required for carving or creating a new shape -- except the latter outcome is seen with the heart rather than a balance sheet.
Maybe the biggest difference about art and engineering is that there is no RIGHT answer with art. But I can even pick on that. Business success is subject to societal shifts just as art is subject to emotional shifts. Or if you look at the flip side, art is certainly a skill in which one can grow expertise. For a quick example of that, check out my first pot. I may still be a budding potter, but that pot is objectively bad and I am now far more skilled (or if you will, 'right').
And I'm doing this. When people ask, 'what do you do?' I tell them I'm a potter. By the way, I used to dread that question and talking about work. Now I really enjoy it.
So I'm going there. I am an artist.
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