Entering a new phase

I started this blog a while ago, with hopes of making it an artist blog, but I never kept up on it. Well, now I have some interesting changes in my life that I would like to share with friends and family, and I am going to try to keep up with the blog.

I have left all of my random part time art jobs at

-Stewart Gallery (where, as only employee at an art gallery downtown in Boise, I did everything from photographing artwork, designing and sending out announcements, to getting the coffee)

-Boise State University Art Department (front desk receptionist)

-for an Art Collector (building an inventory database and documenting hundreds of works of art)

-for an artist (help with random tasks)

(And, if you are thinking that sounds like a lot of various art jobs, ... that is not all of the random art jobs that I've had since graduating in 2007 from the College of Idaho either. I've also worked as security at the Boise Art Museum, taught family art classes at BAM, assisted Kirsten Furlong at the BSU Visual Arts Center, and independently curated a few shows at Rosenthal gallery.)

I think that I have worked almost every job available to someone with a B.A. in Art. What I have really discovered is that there isn't much available, and what there is does not pay full time or benefits. Also, none of the jobs has really had room for growth or further opportunities. If I really want to pursue this, then I need a graduate degree. But, do I really want to pursue this? Most of these jobs have taken away my creative energy for my own work. After looking at and thinking about art all day, the last thing that I want to do is go home and make art.

Anyway, the reason that I have quit all my art jobs is that I will soon be starting a new job, operating heavy machinery for Summit Excavation Inc. (Dad's excavation company) for 3-5 months. We are building a water treatment facility in Bliss, Idaho.

This is Obama stimulus money at work ... Basically we're digging a big hole in the ground for human excrement, and I am hauling out the dirt in a giant Moxy dump truck. Sound glamorous? Not really, but I will make more in 3 months driving truck than I did all last year at my little art jobs.

I'm excited as it will vastly improve our financial situation. However, I, not so excited about the hard, dusty work with 11 male construction workers. But I can endure almost anything for a few months and this amount of money. I'm going to move home to Twin Falls during the week so that I can commute to Bliss with my dad and come back to Boise on the weekends.

It is scary that I might come back to nothing when the construction job is done, but also very exciting, and I will be able to pay off some huge debts and make enough to take off a few months and enjoy the summer (I haven't had a summer off since High School). Also, I will be able to afford my own mezzotint rocker and some other printmaking supplies!