Someone at work asked me, "So what do you want to be when you grow up?"

This question annoyed me. Was she passive-aggressively trying to insult my lowly job status? She knows that I have a website featuring my artwork. She knows that I am a serious artist. Maybe she's dense and thinks that I am one of those people who just talk about doing art but never REALLY doing it. Like herself. I don't know and I really don't care, but I do know that she's always bugging me with her social retardedness.

I've been asked this question before and I think that some people don't understand the creative life. It isn't a straight and narrow path. Our jobs don't always define us and many artists lead double (or triple, or more) lives. We have multiple jobs; some are more related to our art than others. We may juggle ways of making money by doing our creative thing, teaching, commercial work, or crap work. Sometimes we have to do something that we hate just to get by. We do whatever we can to support our passion.

Unfortunately, I've had to start at square one with the job situation here in LA since I have no contacts and I have only been here for 4 1/2 months. (It seems longer than that. Wow!) I miss my jobs in SF. They weren't lucrative, but they were flexible and gave me so much freedom. I even felt respected. On top of the regular jobs, I was beginning to photograph weddings which was another nice way to make money.

I miss having cheap darkroom access.

I know that with time, I'll make the right contacts and things will fall into place. I've been putting my feelers out and I'm beginning to feel things shift.

Patience.