I’ve been thinking about how to go about becoming a professional in a particular field. As a homeschooler (and once a homeschooler, always a homeschooler) I was raised with a rebellious feeling that if I want to learn something, I just learn it. It doesn’t take eight years of schooling to learn something. That bit of irreverence has served me very well, and I have learned a lot just because I wanted to know.
That said, I realized that I have a tendency to reinvent the wheel, spend too much time thinking about things trying to figure them out. That realization resulted in a library plunder and a heavy bag full of books on marketing, establishing a craft business, etc. There is quite a bit that I have already figured out through experience, trial and error and online research, but there is much to learn as well.
The book I’m working on right now is Craft, Inc. It has some great ideas and I have a long to-do list of things to improve in my own work.
This also applies to how much to study things alone and how much to do institutionally, i.e. go back to school. I’ve decided the answer is some of each. I have learned a lot in the art classes I’ve taken, and perhaps what’s more valuable than that is the fact that it can prod you forward and reshake the mind. It’s like those boggle boxes that you shake up to spell new words. I think the worst is the feeling of stagnation, where my mind goes in circles, not in new directions. I try to expose myself to new things to shake that up and get new thoughts going.
This is also resulting in an online history course, and rigorous study of Spanish, and researching art schools so I can start chipping away at some classes part time. I want my studious inclinations to complement and enhance my painting and business, not replace it.
No comments:
Post a Comment