Journal entry for October 9, 2001

Today's summary: About my financial stability, and art, and scrubbing aquariums.

I guess I'm lucky... I've always been a person with a number of strong interests. Of course, that also means I never could POSSIBLY have the time to perfect or even develop every skill that interests me! D'ohhhh!

However, the biggest upshot is that I have interests that I find fulfilling enough to do as a 9 to 5 job, without it wearing me down too much. So as a result, I know I will always be an artist, but I will also be "safe" financially... and that safety is reassuring.

I know it's different for other artists, but if I ever felt like I was truly /depending/ on selling my artwork, I would find my creativity impaired because of the pressure! I would rather just support myself through my so-called "real" job, knowing that I will always have the money and the time to spend on what I love when I'm not at work.

My brother says I'm a "talent whore" when I sell my artwork, and a "wage slave" when I go to my regular job. Heheh, ain't he sweet and supportive? I just can't win! (Seriously though, he is VERY supportive, as are my parents, my husband, etc... It's great.)

I DO hope to ever-increase the professionalism of my work, market myself, and make money off of it. I'm eager enough to follow through, but not desperate enough to worry... I'm a very anxiety-prone person, and if I worried too much about it, I'd be miserable. So, the way things are now, I'm okay. I have my plan for how to get my artwork more widespread and well known, and it's working well so far, and I'm continuing with it, and that's good enough for me.

In case you're wondering what I am actually doing for my "real" job, I'm a web editor for the government. It's enjoyable, creative, and I get to do a lot of original web design. I also get to design graphics for the site, and do some digital biological illustration. So, it hasn't become boring so far.

Before that I was working as an "aquarium maintenance technician" -- in other words I cleaned fishtanks for a living. See, as you may already know, my other college degree is a B.S. in marine biology. The job was a lot of fun, in theory, but...

1. I was totally overeducated for the job. I mean... let's face it, I was spending most of my time on each visit just scrubbing algae!

2. It was a lot of driving all over the area, all weather, all traffic, etc. Keep in mind that Washington D.C. supposedly has the second-worst traffic in the country, or at least, it did at that time.

3. Long hours with no overtime pay.

4. No vacation at all for the first year.

5. No sick leave, and no health insurance.

6. Tangling with venomous fish, stinging corals, vicious mantis shrimp, etc. (See also: #5) Luckily only SOME of these were dangerous enough to land you in the hospital! I still have faint scars from the coral stings, though. Then again, what do I care about scars; I get scars all the time from making my razor-sharp artwork.

7. Tangling with PIRANHAS, huge aggressive cichlids, etc. (See also: #5) (Actually, most of them weren't too scary.)

8. Electricity and water are always a bad combination. (See also: #5)

9. Glass and slippery wet counters/floors are also a bad combination. (See also: #5)

10. Low salary! Sounds like an adventure, huh? I know that any on-the-job disasters would theoretically be covered by workman's comp, but, it was still painful every time something bad happened.

So although it was fun to see lots of beautiful tropical fish, lots of people, and talk to folks about their fish every day, it wore thin pretty fast. I finally realized I could be a pleasantly bored receptionist for more money than I was making there, and spend less time on the road... and get less stress, too. So, I left.

As it turned out I actually ended up with a new web-related job that I liked, so it all worked out in the end. Web design is a great field, and now I have been here for over 2 years. It's become increasingly stressful here of late, but it's still good, solid, career-building experience. Muaahahahahah.