The Dream

I thought it would be a good idea to talk about what it is I am trying to do here. Not just with the blog, but, like all deep and stuff. Like HERE here. Well, maybe not so deep as that, but deep enough to cover my goals outside of being a really good husband. I'm a creative type. I have interests in all things art related, but I seem to be coming back to this airbrush thing more and more. Something always comes up when I'm doing something else that leads me back here. There's no getting away from the compressors and blow outs for me. At least not for a while. But I also want to be a film maker and an educator and I seem to be filling those roles, at least on a small level, while still focusing on the airbrushing I wish to do.

But that isn't what I really want. Ideally, and I know I'm not the only one, I want to make a living doing what I enjoy. I don't have it in me to be that guy who works a manual labor job for the rest of his life and tells himself 'it's fulfilling work'. Everyone I met that has been doing that type of work counts the days down till retirement like a lifer in prison. Can't do it. Refuse to do it. I, and my growing family, deserve something better.

So I blog, and I forum post, and I make free videos that I post on YouTube, and I talk to people, and I social network with other artists, and I do little interviews with artists, and I... well I airbrush. And I do this so that I can, eventually, make a living at it. I know there are a lot of guys (girls too!!) that want to this sort of thing for a living. They have talent, or at the very least, know how to market themselves. I have some talent and I'm working on the marketing. I keep pushing out the paint and keep posting it wherever I can in the hopes people will see it. And to get people to see it, I talk about it.

But, now I'm noticing that I want to airbrush more than I actually do, and I end up doing more elbow work than I want to do so that I can airbrush. It's quite the conundrum. I need to find that balance if I am going to make it at all in this. I'm not looking for super star status. I don't want to be the best in the entire world. I just want to make enough at it that it's my job. Actually, what I have decided is that I am going to open an airbrush studio that is similar is style to a tattoo shop. Why can't a bunch of airbrushists get together and work out of the same shop? It works for the tattoo guys (and girls too!!!) just fine. I don't even want to be an over seer or some grand designer. I do want a TV show because I don't think we get the recognition that other similar fields do. Why not a Portland Airbrush? I want the whole industry to grow and expand and I want to bring people with me as I grow as an artist.

But ultimately, I just want to pay my bills. I really want to be able to make enough my wife can finish school or stay home with our future babies (if that's what we decide to do. Day care is for the crazy). So yeah, right now I can't make a ton of money doing it, so I'll keep putting my stuff out there. I'll keep teaching what I know. I'll keep at it.

Paint the Planet.

Video of the Post is brought to you by: XZOTICINK and is proof that there are kick ass girl airbrushists out there. Even if they are all the way in New York. Enjoy!