In Defense Of The Part-Time Artist

I’ll never forget something that my college painting professor said that changed my entire perspective on art and dedication.

My professor was an accomplished artist in his own right and had studied at one of the premier art schools in the country, so I was surprised when he said that his favorite students were actually art minors. As an art major and someone who valued his perspective on painting over anyone else’s, I was initially put off by this.

At the time, I considered myself full-time in three different pursuits as I was a collegiate athlete and I worked a job at an ice cream store in addition to spending almost all of my spare time painting outside of classes (which were mostly art-focused anyway). So when he said that art minors were his preferred student, I thought that maybe I was doing something wrong.

It was only when I learned what he valued about these part-time artists that I understood what made them ideal in his eyes. To him, these students— business or pre-med majors, or something else— were able to bring those perspectives into the studio in a way that enriched the art they made. It’s not that my professor thought art majors were less than, just that he knew they would have to find a way to bring the outside world into their work in a way that students with other experiences could already be expected to. (For example, I had a classmate majoring in biology who made work related to cell structures which spoke to her interest in molecular biology.)

This was a perspective-altering moment for me and one that has informed the way I relate my day-to-day life to my art practice ever since. I also think it is a strong defense of the work created by part-time artists who sometimes are unfairly seen as less serious compared to their full-time counterparts.

Here is where I need to make it abundantly clear that I am very fortunate to make a living as a full-time artist. I have young children at home so working in my backyard studio everyday is a tremendous privilege; my career wouldn’t be nearly what it is today without the time and space to create artwork that I am granted without having another job to fill up my days. 

Even so, I consider myself a mother first and truthfully that role takes up much more time and energy each day than painting.

Having to balance the two is never easy and I’m lucky to have a great husband who splits the parenting duties with me. But I’d be lying if I said I don’t sometimes wonder if I’m missing opportunities in my career because of how much time I have to dedicate to watching kids, making meals and cleaning up around the house. We know the art world hasn’t always been kind or forgiving to women artists, especially those with the “mother” title attached to them. But with any frustration I feel around that unfortunate reality, I am reminded of my professor and the value he ascribed to a part-time art practice.

To people who are not parents, it may seem like a counterproductive pairing— a mother and artist— in a field that has a history of dismissing motherhood as antithetical to the conceptual process of art making. But I’ve found an enormous amount of inspiration from my kids and I would argue that getting to see the world through their eyes is a wonderful advantage; it’s made me a lot more intentional with the windows of time I have to paint. I have a strict cap on how much I can sit and stare into space in my precious studio time, so I’ve become a very efficient creator.

If you’re an artist reading this who works a full-time job and can only create art in a small window of time each week or intermittently, you may long for a situation where you can turn your part-time passion into a full-time pursuit. I’ve heard from many of you over the years who work a job and parent children alongside a dedicated art practice and I’m always inspired by your commitment. I also want to dispel the myth that a part-time artist is any less committed to their work than someone who does art as their lone gig.

Part-time artists have the ability to incorporate their professional expertise and experience to make work outside of the traditional confines of art commentary. To my college art professor, art was a lot more interesting when it responded to humanity in a way that wasn’t contrived or put on based on art world expectations.

This is what I see as the advantage for the part-time artist and why I don’t think their work should be discounted or seen as less serious. After all, there’s not a 40-hour per week threshold required to call yourself an artist. The art world could certainly benefit from not just gazing at itself, and pushing back against the stereotype that the best artists are workaholics who never leave the studio would go a long way towards that goal.

Some of you may know that I was a collegiate distance runner and when I think about how much time I’m able to allot for my art practice, I like to compare the hours I spent training to my studio schedule. I was a very dedicated athlete in college, and running everyday— and running very hard many of those days— felt like a full-time pursuit. And in truth it was. But an athlete can only train so much in a day and the actual time I spent running never eclipsed two hours and often didn’t exceed one hour. That’s just the reality of the body’s physical limitations and how much recovery is needed for athletes.

I like to think of my art in somewhat similar terms. I’m a full-time artist today much like I was a full-time athlete then, regardless of whether I reach the 40 hours per week we’ve decided constitutes full-time work. Just like athletic performance encompasses so much more than simply the time put into active training, so too does an art practice. Soaking in inspiration and existing in the mundane of the everyday is just as important to my paintings as time spent with brush in hand.

So even if your schedule, profession or finances dictates that you’re a “part-time” artist, know that that term isn’t indicative of the quality of work you create. Sometimes the amount of energy we’re able to dedicate to an art practice is exactly how much is needed to make our work impactful.