Short, But Worth It

For about a half a year, I worked at Dowdle Folk Art. The work is extremely detailed and time consuming to make, but lends itself well to the puzzles it’s printed on. The first painting I worked on took three and a half months, although I got the message pretty quick that ideally I should get one done in less than two. Although I didn’t work there for much more than six months, there were a couple important points that I took away from the experience:

• I am capable of working on a project (even an individual piece) for literally several hundred hours if absolutely necessary.

• I value being with other people and making connections. I appreciated my coworkers.

• If I work an intense, full-time art job like this, I don’t have the energy to work on my own portfolio.

• Just getting to paint isn’t enough to make a job fulfilling to me; I’m not one of those artists who is satisfied with just rendering things in incredible detail. I have to be deeply passionate about the meaning and purpose of the project, otherwise I loose steam and get burned out.

Glad I got to do this… And glad I moved on!