Making Art and Escaping the Tyranny of the Workplace

First Day As An Artist

I woke up feeling different this morning and spent the first part of the day wondering why.  The answers came to me during my morning run through Balboa Park, like they often do.  I realized that today was my first day as an artist.  I clearly understood what I wanted to be and why.

My job is as a writer, and my boss is me.  My job is to express myself as authentically as possible; no one can ever take that job away from me.  It’s the only job I want.  It’s the reason I had to leave the 9 to 5 world, and it’s the reason I won’t be going back.

Corporate society imposes a set of rules on you.  You can’t talk about certain things at work – race, religion, politics, drugs, sex.  All of the most interesting stuff.  How am I supposed to talk to people and establish REAL connections with people when I have to wear a muzzle all the time?  It couldn’t happen.  I couldn’t be myself and be a corporate guy at the same time.  It was a matter of survival.  For my freedom of expression to survive, I had to become an artist.  There was no other choice.

I understood those things generally before, but today they crystallized for me.  I decided to become an artist, and I’m not going back.  So here I am.  No one is paying me, but it’s my highest duty, and I will do it to the best of my ability.  I am no longer subject to the tyranny of the workplace.  I am my own man, and I vow to stay that way.  No one will ever fire me from being an artist because no one can.  People can fire me from other things, but they’ll never fire me from my real job.  I’ll keep speaking my truth as long as I’m here.  It’s the only thing for me to do.

*Note: I use the words “writer” and “artist” interchangeably to describe myself because I don’t ever want to be pigeonholed into just being a “writer” or any other kind of artist.  It’s all art to me.  Life is art.  The very act of going about your daily activities is art when done properly.  How could I ever just call myself a writer when I do so much more than write?  Of course, I read and write.  I also meditate, train, play guitar, cook, draw, and do business.  Those are arts too.  And I will add even more skills to my repertoire before I am done.