Before the Pandemic, I was still attending Fresno State University in Fresno, CA. I would leisurely walk into the sculpting studio on campus, sit down, and create whatever I wanted. Wax, clay, glue, plaster, etc., I could use the studio to my convenience without worrying about destroying carpets or dirtying up furniture. I enjoyed the freedom of creating on campus, but the pandemic forced me to convert a very small bedroom into a "home studio."
During the months of January to March of 2020, I was running around trying to get my pieces done for my Graduate show. My Show was supposed to be from March 9th - 17th, but the pandemic hit, and the school shut down the day after my reception on the 13th. I spent over a year creating my pieces and I only got to show them for them for four days. On top of that, I had to wait almost five months before I could go on campus and retrieve my artworks.
Since last year, I have continued to create art in my home studio. It has become a comfortable place to work, although a little bit small. Since the height of the pandemic, I have taken the time to learn ZBrush, a 3D modeling software. I am mostly sculpting digitally and 3D printing my works now rather than sculpt in traditional mediums. I haven't created something worthy of showing quite yet, but I will continue to practice. The convenience of digital art makes a big difference when working from home. I noticed many artists turning to the NFT marketplace where people buy and sell art digitally online during the pandemic.
I tend to hyper-focus on my tasks and lose hours out of the day. I can be making something in the afternoon, look up, and see that it is already morning the next day. I am the type of person who usually doesn't get motivated until I have a dooming deadline hanging over my head. Yes, I can float around and mess with clay in my spare time, but the real work doesn't happen until that dreaded deadline is right under my nose. The real magic happens when I need to get a piece done; I feel that is when my most creative pieces come to fruition. Of course, I can take my time to make art, I just do better under pressure.
I believe that the motivation I need to create are goals, realistic ones. So far, with both of my degrees, I have been what you would call a "professional student." I did have a job as an In-Home Care Provider, someone who cares for elderly or disabled people, but I became unemployed not long before the pandemic. So, I have been in EDD hell for over a year due to the pandemic. I no longer just want to be a student, but an active artist who is showing and selling my art and making a living. I have ambitions to become an art professor in the future and have my works in galleries. These ambitions are what I feel that I need to solidify my title of "professional artist."
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