Today it is just over ten weeks since my husband, Matthew, and I moved to Virginia. He was offered a great job with the Army Corps of Engineers, and we decided to make the move. Any move has major consequences. In this case, I've taken leave of my job at the University of Northern Iowa as an Associate Professor of Art. I'm still feeling the shockwaves--did I really leave a full-time, tenured position? Yes. Yes, I did.
Monday, my friends and colleagues headed back to the classroom, and I headed downstairs to my studio. I decided to start this blog to record my experience leaving academia. I haven't been out of school, so-to-speak, since I started at the age of 5. After finishing my Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at the University of Michigan in 2002, I went straight into graduate school at Miami University, finishing my Master of Fine Arts in 2005. From there, I moved to the lovely city of Cedar Falls, Iowa to teach art (jewelry design & metalsmithing, foundations, sculpture, and theory) at the University of Northern Iowa.
Anyone who teaches can tell you it is a tough job, but for six years my life basically revolved around my classes and my students. (More details on that later.) My husband, Matthew, who IS the most wonderful man in the world, was working as a scientific researcher at UNI. As many of you know, research is funded through grants, and job stability is fairly non-existent. Matthew was offered his dream job with the Army Corps, doing research that will result in real world applications and not just on the pages of a published article. Given the economy, the changing academic environment, and this opportunity, we made the tough decision to move.
As a professor (whether assistant, associate, or otherwise) I felt a certain sense of status and belonging. I am valued as a professional because someone else says I am of value. As an independent artist, that is lost. Aside from the obvious problems attaining your self-worth via how you think others perceive you, when I am not "the professor--" teacher, maker, researcher, worker, what am I doing here?
It is only made worse when I try to introduce myself to the new people I meet here in Virginia. The first several times I couldn't seem to help saying I was a "professor on leave." Finally, telling people I am an artist who works in a studio in my home, the first question I get (if I don't cut it off at the pass) is to ask if I paint (the classic artist stereotype). When I say I make jewelry and sculpture, people often light up and tell me how much they love jewelry. I also hear a lot about the great artist communities in Northern Virginia and how I'll meet so many other people like myself.
The rub is, coming from academia, I have spent the last nine years making conceptually based artwork, specifically reveling in the fact that I don't have to care if I sell anything. And when I visit some of the art centers that have artists' workshops, I am not excited by what I see. I see salable paintings, sculpture, jewelry, etc., but not challenging, edgy artwork. So how do I, an admitted art-snob, make the transition from Professor to artist? (I capitalize as such to emphasize the crux of the issue in my own mind.)
Please understand, I don't believe that college faculty are superior to or more forward-thinking than independent artists. However, it is easy to fall into a certain mindset when you have the advantage of being in the security of a faculty position.
So, this blog is going to be me slogging through the experience of figuring out what I'm all about outside of the academic context I've known for so long. I promise it'll be messy, and my honest thoughts may ocassionally offend. If nothing else, I'll look back on this blog in five years and know that leaving academia was worth it.
