“13 dollars an hour isn’t enough?” she asked.
“It doesn’t pay as promised. The ad I saw said $119 for 6 hours,” I said.
“False advertising,” I added.
I further justified my decision in my own head with, “Plus it doesn’t pay set up or break down which is easily another hour, lowering the pay to $10 an hour.”
I didn’t want the job anyway. Just another dead end that’s going to get me absolutely nowhere and not help much with paying the bills. Another one bites the dust.
I Keep Saying No to Bullshit Employment, But What Am I saying Yes to?
Art.
Huh?
Art.
Do you mean painting? Like the Mona Lisa? Or like Andy Warhol?
Yes, but that’s not my art.
What do you mean?
Flash Back to Austin, Texas, 1987
Who remembers the Butthole Surfers?
Bob Schneider when he was in Brainiac?(He was Bobby back then).
Ed Hall?
The movie Slacker?
Even if you don’t it doesn’t matter. What does matter is that at that point of my life, from 1987 to about 1995, I was surrounded by people whose life was art.
And since you naturally morph into that with which you surround yourself, I became an artist too.
I danced.
I read Tarot cards.
I painted all the cabinet doors in my house bright, primary colors and painted the astrological glyphs around the window frames.
I made my own costumes, I did batik.
Next Up, Try the Conventional Life Path
In 1995, I went back to school, finished my degree and started a new one in something completely different. I thought I had found a career path, which I guess I did, except that it lead where I didn’t want to go. Common story.
Fast Forward to San Antonio, Texas, 2010
I return to Texas because I’ve run out of road in Arizona, where I’ve been living for the last 10 years. I get divorced and start over. Common story.
Now what.
I flounder around for 2 years until I get the call to return to Art.
It happened just 2 days ago. (Actually, this happened back in December, but I didn’t have the guts to post this until now.)
I was driving along, on my way to pick up a client for a part-time job I have…
A Deck of Tarot Cards
An idea hit me, not for the first time.
The idea was, “Make your own set of Tarot cards.”
What was different about the idea this time around was that it appeared in the form of a gift. The set of Tarot cards would be a gift to the world.
Upon completion, I will release the cards in to the Creative Commons, so that people can download them and print them out.
Tarot students and aficionados can use the images in any way they like.
I can use the images any way I like, because they are mine.
What I’m Willing to Give Up
- I’m willing to give up copyrighting the images.
- I’m willing to give up knowing exactly what will happen.
- I’m willing to give up worrying about how the cards will be received.
- I’m willing to give up that they will be a perfect work of art.
- I’m willing to give up a business plan, “stable employment”, and being a sane and logical person.
- I’m willing to give up my student loan payments to the patron saint of artists.
- I’m willing to give up the need for the patron saint of artists to do something about getting my student loan payments paid.
I’m Willing to Be an Artist