I'm trying to do a lot of things at once these days. I'm working at my day job about 25 hours a week. One of my co-workers in the sign design crew has just transferred to another Trader Joe's, and I am thus left with most of the work, at least until another signmaker can be hired. We (the crew) are finding that calligraphic and lettering skills are quite rare among prospective workers, even among art school graduates. Seems like the art and design schools nowadays stress Photoshop, Web design, and computer graphics rather than hand-lettering or draftsmanship. But we want hand-lettered signs, even if I use a computer to create the background, so we have to search for someone who can do that, or learn to do it.

After work, I continue trying to advance in my physics study by reading, reviewing, and solving lots of textbook problems. But my main non-day-job work is doing art in preparation for at least two shows I will be participating in this month and next. My current ambition is to produce at least twenty high quality art works, probably all geometric abstractions and space pictures, which might be worthy to show in a gallery. I have a slightly better chance at showing my art in a gallery than learning string theory. Both, however, are possible, given enough time and effort. I used to show my art exclusively at science fiction conventions, but I only do a couple of those a year now, and I hardly make any money at them. In years past I could make quite a lot. Things have changed for many different reasons, so I must produce a different kind of art and look for other markets and collectors. I am not a purist artist who produces only for motives of inspiration and inner calling. I expect to sell my work, not keep it.

I'm currently doing an artwork for a special occasion coming up in two weeks. I can't say too much about it yet, but I will say that it has two parts and the title of the whole work is "2K." Also, it has a vector calculation as part of its composition. I might as well put what I'm learning to use somehow. Faithful Electron readers will see it when it's done.

I also have been doing commercial signwork for a number of local Starbucks Coffee shops. I do the seasonal decorations for the "Daily Offerings" sign in removable opaque paint markers. Currently, I have decorated five different Starbuckses with spring-themed designs. Since I am not officially an employee at Starbucks, their rules say they can't pay me in cash. But I receive barter items, including "free" coffee at the ones that I decorate. The coffee helps me stay lively for all the things I do. Being busy and productive is good. Maybe someday I'll be as busy as a Real Scientist.

Posted at 2:26 am | link