Thanks

Thanks to everyone for the comments and advice. I really do appreciate it. Like I said my wife is very supportive but even with that I sometimes get to feeling like like I'm flying blind out here. I came to blacksmithing kind of sideways and kind of late in life. Not that late really, I'm only 38, but I have to admit to being jealous of people like tom joyce or hoss haley who talk about knowing what they wanted to do when they were teenagers. I was a painter for a long time because that was supposed to be what "real" artists do,cadleholderscadleholdersdid the whole art school thing(there's a money pit I regret) but after transfering to different schools and spending some time in alaska I ended up taking a metalsmithing class here. That was the last year that I really painted. I made mostly jewelry, and some small sculptures for the first couple of years, had some luck selling jewelry. Always had to work another job of course, working in group homes. Taught some foundations classes at Bradley University, started grad school, learned it wasn't for me. somewhere in there I built a small forge so that I could make some hammers and other tools. well, that hot forging is addictive. I went from buying my coal by the 5 gallon bucket to 1500- 2000 lbs at a time w/in a year.
I guess I feel like I have spent the last couple of years really learning and experimenting and feel like I'm ready to make the next step. All of your advice has helped me to see a little better what that next step needs to be. So , thanks-M

Oh and here is an image of some of my candleholders. I like them because they are visually simple and that is very hard for me to do most of the time.


Frank Castiglione's picture

Nothing Wasted

Hi Matt,
I disagree with you concerning your education. Everything is a building block for the person and artist that you are, even the "bad" stuff... you can't sing the blues till.....
I remember taking a grad course for my continuing teaching certificate, it was called "teaching of reading". It was the best course I ever took.It should have been called learning. Since then I've been convinced that "school" should be read'n, write'n, rithmetic, and LEARNING.
Maybe one of the most important content areas of art education should be marketing.
Frank


matt m myers's picture

Hey Frank, I do agree with

Hey Frank, I do agree with you there. I'm not saying I regret the education. It is my choices as far as living on student loans, never thinking about the future, or when I would have to pay them back etc. that I regret. I also strongly agree that marketing should be part of an art education instead of the taboo that it actually is in all of the art departments I have dealt with.-m


NELSON's picture

Matt, not only do I agree

Matt, not only do I agree with Frank`s statement about marketing in art.In fact, probably it would be appropiate to say that marketing is vital to all production processes in this world today, unless the product is for self consumption, which is rearly the case...I`ve got a marketing problem too. At times I get depressed over that handicap, but only to realize I`ve got to go on and overcome it. So let`s do it Matt. Nelson.