As I sit down to write notecards welcoming new Hornets to Sac State, I think back to my time as a student at Sac State, my volunteer career as a Sac State Alumna, and the span of My Art Career since graduation day...
It was orientation day at Sac State, my first day on campus as a new Hornet. I was a Psych major, full of excitement. I’d had art classes on my schedule along with all of my other classes since pre-school, but art was something that ran along side all of my other schooling. Art was not my main interest.
That orientation day at Sac State, I watched as a young art student strolled across campus holding a large artist portfolio on his way to class. ‘That’s going to be me,’ I thought, as I marched down to the admissions office and changed my major to Art (Two-Dimensional Art Studio, or Painting to be exact).
Art now taking a front seat instead of running alongside my other classes, I didn’t really know what a career in art would look like. I did know making the decision to be an artist professionally was a risky one. I took the leap anyway. One life!
As my life as an art student progressed, dreams and goals such as becoming known for my art, creating a city mural, exhibiting in galleries, selling my work, winning awards with my work, and generally living the life of an artist, formed.
After my B.A. in Two-Dimensional Art Studio was achieved, I felt very done with school, and made another risky decision to not continue on with school to achieve my Masters in Fine Art.
In the years after grad day, I , on-again-off-again, held part-time bookstore jobs, but always worked on my painting. I grew my fine art skills, and after the events of September 11, 2001, felt a need to push forward on my art life dreams.
Building a body of work, I began to exhibit in local galleries, sell my work, and consistently show up in the Sacramento art community as a fine artist and enthusiastic supporter of local art.
Though some of my first art dreams and goals were achieved, others were not. As my art career developed, those dreams and goals shifted along the way. There was a letting go of goals that no longer served me, and a focus on goals and activities that fulifilled, rather than sapped my creative energy.
I began to teach art, finding I had a natural gift for breaking down fine art technique from all I’d learned over my years of painting. Art friends were made all over the Sacramento art scene. I grew as a professional artist, and eventually established my own art studio out by Sac City College, next door to Two Rivers Brewing. I became a committee member for Verge Center for the Arts (Sac Open Studios), and Sacramento State (Visual & Performing Arts Alumni Chapter President). My yearly Open Studios were well attended and I did very well in terms of gaining new patrons or my work, and new students for my teaching.
My studio was a great refuge during the lockdown phase of the pandemic. I managed to keep my creative business afloat, teaching over Zoom and with a loan during the first round of funds being offered.
After a major life change, my focus became finding a job, and becoming financially independent. After I found work, it became obvious keeping the studio was not practical. I made the painful decision to let my studio go. At the same time I let go of the studio, I got a job teaching fine art for the City of Folsom at their Senior Art Center, 48 Natoma Street.
This brings us to the now. Decades of putting energy into becoming a professional artist has been rewarding in so many ways. My creative journey has taken turns I could have never have predicted, and has brought me so much connection, and joy!
My art career has been a fulfilling roller coaster ride! No matter what, I’ve kept going as an artist and art teacher. I am forever a part of the Sacramento Art Community, and I continue to transmit decades of painting experience on to hundreds of students of all ages.
My goals now are to teach as long as it makes me happy, to paint for the joy of painting, and to have a place, even if a small one, in Sacramento's Art History, alongside all of the other great artists in this region!
Thank you for reading!
Michelle
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