Hello,

I have a new blog about the fun of creating art. Please check it out as I won't be using this one anymore.

http://mjsuber.com/wordpress/

Enjoy!!

Freelancing: Living Outside the Comfort Zone

Recently the question I'm asked most often is if I have been affected by the bad economy.  My answer is...not really.  It's not that I'm arrogant, independently rich, or completely oblivious to reality, it's just that my way of finding work hasn't changed.  As a freelance artist, jobs are always temporary and you have to be creative in your methods of tracking down and securing the work that is out there.

I realized that the  people who ask me this question are refugees from the comfort zone.  The nine to fivers, work for thirty years, retire with a gold watch group.  They are in unknown territory.  You need a certain mindset to be in my world.  You need the ability to adapt quickly, be self-motivated, self-monitoring.  You have to be part salesman, part politician.  You need to have the arrogance to sell yourself and the modesty to bow to your clients' wishes.  There are no guarantees except that the job will end.  I feel for those from the comfort zone, I use to be one.

But I also see an amazing thing happening; people who have lived in the comfort zone for so long have begun to think differently.  They're finding creative ways to make ends meet.  Many have been brave enough to try something new or to follow up on a displaced dream.  There are opportunities that have sat quietly in the corner, too small to pursue until now when every little bit helps.  These little moneymakers are brought out into the light and investigated.  It may be a time to tighten budgets but it is also a great time for personal growth.  It is scary out there right now, even my jobs are scarce.  But we need to use that fear to push into new areas, pursue new ideas.  Embrace the freelance mindset, you new comers, and when you return to the comfort zone, if you choose to, you will be equipped with a secret weapon.  Your new mindset.  It will give you a certain confidence that will allow you a new found freedom in whatever you choose to do.

A New Drug

03/26/09

There is a growing concern in this country about drug use.  But from what I saw during the holidays, cocaine, pot, not even Meth can hold a candle to the modern American mall.  It was amazing to watch as normal, fully functioning humans walked into what is essentially a human maze and were transformed into dazed, non-attentive zombies.

It was an almost instant effect.  Their walking pace slowed down to less than a stroll.  Their focus was constantly obliterated as they stared into one colorful window display after another, often stopping dead in the middle of traffic completely oblivious of other shoppers who flowed around them like a sluggish river.  And if there was group of three or more they oozed out to fill the entire walkway.  The poor shoppers behind this impromptu roadblock wove back and forth trying to find an opening to pass the group before the human wall blocked the way again.  At one point a lady was walking towards me, head up, eyes open.  She wasn't on the phone, wasn't looking at a list, didn't have a child distracting her.  She was simply walking with her newly bought treasures, covering the distance between us, getting closer and closer.  The problem was that she was directly in line with me and it didn't look like she was going to give ground.  Was I really about to play chicken with a middle aged housewife?  She kept on coming.  I guess I was.  I had this funny thought that maybe she would shift to avoid me.  Of course, the absurdity of the situation threw me off so much that I didn't think of moving out of the way either and we collided.  She looked for a moment as if she had just woken from a dream, eyes wide she quickly assessed her surroundings.  Then she looked at me and angrily told me to watch where I was going before hurrying off in a huff.  She had every right to get mad at me.  I could've moved.  Wow, I had been effected by the mall myself.

What is it about the mall that seems to induce such a state?  Could it be that it is a closed course therefore safer than the outside world so you don't have to pay as much attention to what's going on?  Or maybe it's the overload of available options, too many choices overwhelming the mind creating an instant state of catatonia.  Perhaps, for those conspiracy theorists out there, the large corporations that own the mall pump sedatives into the air-conditioning system to lull shoppers into a money spending comfort zone.  Whatever it is, it is legal, easily accessible, creates massive cash flow, and can be highly addictive.  There is one group though, that is immune to its effects--the modern American teenager.  But that is for another time.