Need advice

[dislexei]

I feel as if i am an artist. I always thought i'd be creating something. Thing is i have been lazy. Thing is I fear something. Maybe that my work will never be good enough, or that there will always be something topping me.

I need to motivate. I need to learn. I wanna know how you all do it. Have you all felt the way I do?

What can i do to get in an enviroment, that will help me become a refined artist? I feel as if nothing is happening here where i reside now. I am within an hour from Philly and NYC.

I also fear that noone will apreciate my work. That noone will buy it. I got ideas but still lack the education i need to use my tools. I got the glass, i got the kiln, i got a sand blaster, I got the ideas. But my skills are not there yet.

i need ideas and some help, maybe my mind is cloudy and i just cant think clearly on my own. But that is why i am asking you all.

I know making the work is one thing, but getting it out there is an other.

Should i go to school for art? Should i go and get a general degree in the arts? Should i go to SCC for the art glass program? Should i just take single classes at Urban Glass or tecnolux, or down at the one in Philly. Do i move to the NW?

There is a lot to learn and know. At this point it's over whelming, knowing that my lifes work has yet to truely begin.

Every day i light my torch i get better at what i do. But at the same point i fret because i realise how little i know.

I wonder if i will be able to support a family with my carreer choice. I want one as soon as i find the right girl.

I just know i need to be doing more, and that each day i should be dedicated to doing this. But i am still in the mix with working a job i don't like and not having enough time to pursue my true interests.

Do you have any words of wisdome for a poor soul that is stuck in a gumption trap?

:o:

[mer]

you shouldn't worry so much about what others will think of your work. being an artist is mainly a thing that you do for yourself. if you enjoy your work and put in the time to excell at your craft then there will be people that enjoy it. if you are having a hard time growing then you should expose yourself to more artists. take a class somewhere every few months. keep exposing yourself to communities like this one. before long you will find yourself overwhelmed with new info.

as for motivation/laziness just keep on truckin'. sometimes you progress quickly on lifes path, sometimes not so much. the main thing is that you just keep moving towards the light. and try to remember that being an artist is not so much about having people admire you or your work as it is about making the work and finding ways to succeed despite all of the obstacles. if you like problem solving then you will go far. in summary, the path is infinitely more important and satisfying than the destination, no matter how good the destination is.

you sound young. give yourself a minute...... you'll be fine. i felt the same way in my twenties. be kind to yourself.

peace, m

[newmexicomagma]

well heres my two bits. first i think u need to use the fact that u dont have the skill yet as a motivator, for example. when i started blowing glass the person that was supposed to teach me flipped out on me one day (i learned he does this often) so i told him thats fine ill go pay someone else to teach. he then proceeded to cut me down and told me i would never sell any glass in this town. hahaha for me that was a huge motivator i wanted my pipes to be sitting right next to his so i could have a lil giggle. i dont know exactly what u make but i just started making big marbles and such and am loving it. after making pipes and getting my skill level up over the past 2 years i feel like i can now attempt almost anything. if u want to sell your stuff u have to network network network. u have to spend whole days driving from shop to shop talking to the people and showing them ur new product. if they turn u down thats fine but still go back there the next time u have something new. just dont give up it sounds like u have a good set up i would love to have a lap wheel man what i could do with that. another thing to help u get motivated is maybe take a class or try out a new technique yove been wanting to try. This forum is great for any help. i was in a rut i felt like a machine just making my productions day in and day out, then itried a bunch of new stuff and i feel like i just started blowing glass again. ive said this before i would rather be broke and work for myself than have money in my pocket and work for the man. but thats me i guess do what u think is going to make u happy in the long run. i hope that motivates u now get off your ass and try something new! (that was just in case the nice way didnt work.)

[Gibsons Glassworks]

keep workin and builidn stock, make new things, go traveling, call up random shops and ask if they would like to place an order with you.

MOVE TO BC CANADA!

try taking a class you'll learn so much its totally worth a good class for a good boot of insperation

[Shatner]

Take a class. Technolux, Carlisle, AGI. All of those places are within hours of you

I'll be at Carlisle 4/20-4/22 :D

[dislexei]

yeah i was thinking that class is what i need!

thing is i have trouble keeping a even heat base when working on hollow forms. I wonder if i am qualified enough to take the class.

What is and where is AGI?

[gotglass?]

AGI is the Art Glass Invitational..... it's held in PA and there is a Whole room (is that what it is) devoted to AGI here on the forum.

[dislexei]

keep workin and builidn stock, make new things, go traveling, call up random shops and ask if they would like to place an order with you.

MOVE TO BC CANADA!

try taking a class you'll learn so much its totally worth a good class for a good boot of insperation


Sell me on why BC would be a good place please.

[nodice]

I said this before, but I'll say it again as I think it has something to do with this thread. I find it much harder to work, make nicer things(then my regular production), or even stay at work when people are not around. When people are there, I feel much more motivated to produce more/nicer things and to work more. Seeing what other people do and having them around to ask questions is also nice. Now comes the ad..... 2-3 open benches 10 minutes north of boston for $300 a piece including electicity and gas. Friendly/supportive environment in a building full of artists(painters, woodworkers, glassworkers, and others...). Course there are probably some studios in the nj/pa/ny area too(or bc, or wherever).

peace

[Meerkat]

Sell me on why BC would be a good place please.

Well I moved away from there and have been homesick for the last two years, and am going to return.

Its very beautiful, I loved being able to live in the city be easily be able to go to the ocean (including to Wreck Beach which is a beautiful nude beach where you can just lay out in the sun and people call out that they are selling food, beer, shrooms and weed, and you just wave them over and buy what you want). You can go into the forest for a beautiful experience, or stay in the city and go to Stanley Park which is a huge forest in the city, go to the mountains and go hiking or skiing.

Vancouver has a wonderfully diverse and rich culture of people, with many many incredible restaurants, if you love to eat, oh man... and so many ethnic restaurants, I miss being able to get ethiopian and there are lots of vegetarians in Vancouver so allmost all restaurants have a wide variety of choice for vegetarians.

I loved being able to walk around the city, especially Commercial Drive and be able to experince all the different little communities of people and there are people up and down the street playing live music.

Vancouver has a great music scene too, and if your into house, techno, rave, trance scene there is a lot of great artists making music there and having great parties.

Speaking of parties, Vancouver has a huge Burning Man community that is creative, happy, wonderfully and accepting and always throwing house parties and incredible events like Burn in the forest, which is the regional Burning Man for the area.

There is a big and vibrant art scene, with lots of galleries and many artists work spaces and lots of loft apartments that are zoned for artists so you can have your studio in your apartment and be as loud as you want and have any kind of machinery you want. Also there are artist collectives like The Arc, which is a big warehouse that was converted into artists studios and you have to have a portfolio to rent there, so its won't be rented out by trendy yuppies wanting to look like artists. If you go over to granville island there is a furnance glass blowing place with some really amazing work and there are probably a hundred or so little art shops all filled with local artists selling their work.

If your gay/bi there is a huge community and scene there, plus Vancouver is very progressive about gay rights and human rights and has gay marrage. There are lots of gay night clubs and several newspapers.

If your a toker, Vancouver is home to the famous BC bud and the BC Marijuana Party, which through its efforts has made it so the cops don't care about cannabis even though its illegal, you can smoke a glass pipe while sitting in the park, no one cares, no one does anything. I have been right next to a cop while taking a big hit, and every year on Canada Day is Cannabis Day where all the tokers gather on the art house steps and smoke up all day and people sell joints and pot cookies right in the open, cops don't care or do anything about it. Magic Mushroom kits are legal and you can buy them in many stores, and the Urban Shaman store even sells payote and mescaline (all legal). THere is also a number of cannabis cafes where you can have a seat, listen to some good music, drink some coffee, eat some cake and have a toke. The BCMP also has a vapour lounge wher you can use volcanos and other vaporizers.

Related to toking, glass pipes are leglal and there are lots of places that sell them and appreciate glass as an art form and are not just head shops looking to sell chineese prodo. Many stores carry expensive and heady pieces and they are most often done by local artists.

I don't know what americans will think of this, no disrespect intended, but I really am not into being patriotic, and Canada is pretty apathetic about being patriotic, no one really cares about it, there is not flags eveywhere and in your face patriotism. I am proud to be Canadian and love my country, but I don't go nuts about showing it and most Canadians are that way. Also I am really anti-military, especially insnane military budget spending and well Canada really donest have much of a militry or a military budget and I think thats great, its just not a huge priority, I like the pacificst mentality. We have socialized medicine and health care is great. I have never paid for a doctors visit and always got great care and my perscriptiosn are subsidized and cheap !

Being right above seattle, the coffee is great and you can always take an easy trip across the border to pick up some Krispy Kremes and go scavanging in the Boeing scrap yards (the stuff you will find there is amazing).

The weather there may not be everyone's cup of tea, but I love it and always found it perfect. It rains a lot, but that creates a very green area with lots of plants and keeps the trees growing huge (man there are some giant trees there). the rain is always a warm rain I find and the summer is not too hot and not too cold, just right, and winter it gets cold but it only snows a few days, maybe a couple weeks out of the year, and its a light snow that melts within a day or so.

I don't drive, which is a huge factor, and they way Vancouver is laid out that it is very easy to walk many places and Vancouver has an incredible public transit system with many buses, most of them electric) running everywhere so the places that are too far to walk are easy to get to, and there is Skytrain which is a monorail system that runs all around the city and to the outer suburbs taking you pretty much anywhere you would need to go, its very fast since it runs above the traffic on its own rails. Then you can take the ferries over to Vancouver Island if you want. Now I am living in an area with hardly any transit (5 buses for the enitre city) and everything is spread far apart making it not easy to walk most places, it really sucks.

There is so much more, I just cant think of it all right now, but those are some highlights.

And how could i forget, you can get poutine... gawd I miss poutine !

[mer]

damn, meerkat. slow day down under?

[Pilgrim]

Mermonkey's on drugs dont listen to him.....

[Meerkat]

nah, i type really fast (80 wpm) and i really miss vancouver :)

[dislexei]

What would an American need to do to move there? Just a pass port?
Is there a market for craftsmen and lamp workers?

[mer]

Mermonkey's on drugs dont listen to him.....

i learned it from you dad

[PortlandGlassBlowers]

I think its really hard for an american to move there. You need to hook up with a canadian .

[onion]

i live on vancouver island, its basicly everything meerkat just said about vancouver, but on a smaller scale. some people dont like cities, personally i think van is awesome and overwhelming being that i dont leave my island all that often

[Meerkat]

Yeah there are a lot of pipe blowers on the island, when I ran a store we got them coming over all the time with thier cases of pipes to sell. I remember one guy from the island I think he called himself Red Beard.

[Meerkat]

I think its really hard for an american to move there. You need to hook up with a canadian .

Well with gay marriage being legal, just marry a canadian lamp working buddy of the same sex (if you can't find one of the opposite sex) for the citizenship. Its a bit of work, but it can be done, its not like you have to have sex, just have to fill out all the right paperwork and pay some fees to get a marriage visa and then after the required legal amount of time for living togeather (usually 2-3 years) you get divorced and your a legal citizen.

Its how I got my australian citizenship, only I am in a het marriage and mine is legit

Of course that perverts and cheapens the union of marriage, but really is it a big deal, straight people have been able to get married just for the citizenship for years and have been doing so for many years, now you can do the same regardless of gender.

[onion]

ahaha thats hilarious, an amazing plan.

[slave]

so if you got married would that give you dual citizenship?

[Gibsons Glassworks]

man BC is the most amazing place ive been so far and i have traveled a fair bit( 10 countries) and its got the most layed back relaxed feeling out of anywhere

i love it here , i dont type 80 WPM so im not going to type a page, bust basically, there is a pretty dang good glass community here, and redbeard is a blower living north of whistler now, gonna see him this weekend at andrighetti glassworks in van, open house.

[mistahead]

yo aaron..dont be gettin no ideas now..i AINT gonna marry you!!!

[slave]

naw dude thats what the personals are for

[Meerkat]

so if you got married would that give you dual citizenship?

Yep, I actually have tripple citizenship (Canada, USA and Australia) and if I wanted to I could probably get New Zealand citizenship as Australia and New Zealand have an agreement that thier citizens can immigrate between countries.

[Meerkat]

man BC is the most amazing place ive been so far and i have traveled a fair bit( 10 countries) and its got the most layed back relaxed feeling out of anywhere

i love it here , i dont type 80 WPM so im not going to type a page, bust basically, there is a pretty dang good glass community here, and redbeard is a blower living north of whistler now, gonna see him this weekend at andrighetti glassworks in van, open house.

Andrighettis is great, I just picked up a bunch of colour and tools when I was there in September. It was so awesome living in Vancouver you could go there and buy a single tube or rod or just a stick of colour, so you could be a poor artist and only have to buy what you need and it was so close that you could easily carry your glass home on the bus or skytrain.

[ShepherdCreations]

Damn that sounds awesome... Anyway of getting in if you're already married??:D

[dislexei]

man BC is the most amazing place ive been so far and i have traveled a fair bit( 10 countries) and its got the most layed back relaxed feeling out of anywhere

i love it here , i dont type 80 WPM so im not going to type a page, bust basically, there is a pretty dang good glass community here, and redbeard is a blower living north of whistler now, gonna see him this weekend at andrighetti glassworks in van, open house.


Wanna get married?

[Meerkat]

Does anyone watch "Drawn Togeather" where the characters had a gay marrage for the health insurance ?

[ShepherdCreations]

That show's disgusting...but so funny... "the meat blimp crashed?"