Days of Our Drudge Lives
Days of Our Drudge Lives
how to survive and prosper as an artist--backwards
Ben Sledsens, Shooting Apples, 2019-2020
I come to you on this green and gold late summer afternoon with a partially deflated grapefruit, nitro cold brew from a busted four pack, and expired tzatziki on quinoa crackers from a torn box. A sampling of the treasures we rescued this week includes: several pounds of venison, a box of radishes, mocha cupcakes, apple bundt cakes, sun-dried tomato pesto, an entire chicken, an entire handmade pepperoni pizza! My oven doesn’t work, so I told the Front End Manager it was the best day of his life and surrendered the pizza.
We’re eating like kings of greenwashing!
On my Friday, which is Thursday, my manager resigned, and his manager was promoted to a position in another store. “He ‘failed up!’” the old-timers guffawed. Everyone is delighted by these theatrics—the Merchandising Manager quit after two days! Nine Grocery Managers in four years! Twelve staff members in six weeks! “Be careful,” the bulk guy says, “it could be extraterrestrial.”
My coworkers amuse me greatly: a haughty blonde with DUMP HIM emblazoned across her breasts; the severe vitamin lady who spends mornings on an acupressure bed of nails; freegans, raw vegans, lapsed vegans; the young woman from Florida unable to comprehend what a raw vegan eats. C. suggests we run an extension cord from the main store to sell expired goods from a kiosk in the bushes, and I can’t stop laughing—it’s so cleverly evocative of ‘recession-core.’ I hope Workers United secures many more dollars for these spirited characters, but the expiration date of my patience approaches—so let’s get cracking.
I made use of a bit of bibliomancy, and God or chance directed me to the last chapter of How to Survive and Prosper as an Artist. I bought this book years ago to read with a friend, but we never started because we don’t like boring things. And that’s in fact the overarching theme of the book—a low tolerance for (administrative) boredom and other varieties of discomfort can cause you to defer your right livelihood indefinitely.
I was struck especially by the savage passages on rejection and excuses; they’re applicable to arts and letters broadly, as well as sales, entrepreneurship, non-profit work, even the search for a better job.
“It takes fifty presentation packages of the same body of work to generate one positive response. A number less than fifty does not even begin to approach an effective market penetration level that justifies any sense of defeat or rejection.
Each time you receive a letter of rejection, initiate a new contact, send out another presentation package, or pick up the phone. Replace feelings of rejection with a sense of anticipation. This process increases the odds of acceptance and keeps your psyche in good shape.
Stop putting all of your eggs in one basket. Submitting one grant application a year or submitting work to one gallery every six months is only a gesture; strong, affirmative results do not come from gestures. Create opportunities for things to happen. Think big and broad. Make inroads in many directions. What you want are lots of baskets filled with lots of eggs.”
I spend a good amount of time each day restocking eggs; just yesterday a woman collected a dozen loose eggs in an old bread bag. I’ve seen a man holding five in one hand. Not recommended, but, hey—reduce, reuse, recycle! What we want are lots of compostable egg cartons filled with lots of eggs. Or forego the eggs entirely and fill your fridge with blocks of tofu.
This may come as a relief or a call-out, but you aren’t too old, untalented, unpopular, cursed, socially inept, or a member of a presently reviled demographic. As the meme says, it’s a skill issue, and the skill is unwavering persistence.
As we saw with our friend the electrical engineer, all professional fields are competitive. The arts are no exception, however,
“The potential number of artists who can succeed is not limited. Achieving success has nothing to do with ‘beating out the competition’ through deception, lies, manipulation, and viciousness. Artists who succeed have beaten out the competition through exercising powers of perseverance and discipline, and by cultivating good marketing skills.”
Michels references the many letters she receives iterating all the reasons an artist cannot make work or cannot make the work public. “If you want to avoid fulfilling your potential as an artist, there are many ways of going about it. Excuses are easy to find.”
Some people are not ambitious, others are ambitious and taking action to realize their ambitions; then there are those of us who are ambitious and suppressing or rationalizing away our ambitions. This last position is dangerous, and you can assess the degree of your suppressed ambition by following your envy.
Strong, affirmative results do not come from gestures…what we want is lots of eggs in lots of baskets….I think if it feels good to you, interpret this as buckling down with greater discipline and organization, but if it feels better, you could interpret it as license to experiment, to work in different media, pursue strange exhibition opportunities, commit to an array of whimsical collaborations. You could allow the excuses to be irrelevant and see what grossly imperfect but delightfully weird objects, events, and applications you can lob into the world.
Thank you for your patronage—and may we all find our true vocations! Please like the post if you like it, and comment, share, subscribe, or upgrade your subscription as it suits you.
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