If I Could Be Anything
I’m trying to actually keep up with this whole consistent blogging thing, so I just googled some prompts at midnight and picked one I really liked. Let’s dig in.
“If you could be anything besides an artist, what would you be, and why?”
I find this question to be ironic. I think the purpose of this prompt was to get artists to muse over the possibilities of what they might’ve been had they not chosen art and become successful at it. Interestingly, as I was bouncing back and forth between career choices growing up, being an artist was never at the top. At some point throughout my childhood I wanted to be a zoologist, a biologist, a sports trainer, a pilot, an Olympic athlete, a PALEONTOLOGIST, even a horse trainer for crying out loud. But being a bloody artist was never on the list, until now. It was not until college where amidst the confusion and heavy financial stress did my brilliant self foolishly hope that I could make a decent income off selling meager prints and stickers.
As much as I’d like to pray for the best and have faith in this path, I don’t even know if this Filali Studios business is going to work in the long-term. There’s so much uncertainty in this realm, so I’m forced to think of alternatives in case this dream collapses, as undesirable as that is. My back-up plan is to become a college professor and teach a course within the Communication discipline. I love what I’m studying in college now and it has certainly broadened my way of thinking about the world, and I think that’s the kind of material I’d want to teach. Thus, even if I thrive off my humble little art studio in the future, I still want to give back eventually and unload any wisdom I’ve gained onto a young crowd of eager students just waiting to absorb life lessons. So perhaps I’ll teach when I’m older. For now, though, I need this art thing to work. It has to, somehow. My sanity is hinging on this one.
Now that my morbid musing is over, allow me to actually entertain the question the way it was meant to be. If I wasn’t an artist, what would I desire to be? What’s my DREAM career? Well, I’d be a filmmaker/producer. I’d travel the world and create documentaries with a film crew. My films would be viewed on National Geographic, Animal Planet, and the Discovery Channel. I envision this as a second career because of how it inspired me when I was young. Since I was a kid I was mesmerized with not only the nature/people documentaries, but also with the idea that there were actual people who saw actual amazing things around the world in person, while I was only able to watch things from a screen. I like to think that the true purpose of filmmakers who show us the world through their lenses is to inspire us to go see things for ourselves; to be aware that there is more out there, and that the only way to really grow is to go see it. Perhaps that means that filmmakers are truly artists as well, so I guess my answer to the question doesn’t count. Then again, anything anyone does can somehow be interpreted as an art form. Doctors are artists who work with the human body as their medium. Lawyers spin tales and stories through words, a literary art form that cannot be dismissed. Teachers mold young minds into innovative thinkers.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that no matter what career I end up with in the next few years, I know that it will involve me creating. Whether I’m a painter or a filmmaker, or even a teacher, the action that brings me most joy involves creating and sharing. Filali Studios is simply a platform I’m trying to grow that enables me to accomplish this, but I know that with or without it I will still create for the rest of my life because that is what completes me.