Can art turn into a career?

Today 2 months ago I started the mastery program of the Milan Art Institute. 8 out of 52 weeks finished. Best decision I made in a while! 

Having an academic background, the logical thing to do after a burnout is to go back to an office job. For a while, that gave me a lot of stress. The only thing that made me feel sane was to create art. Simple colourful drawings to lift up my mood, to quiet my thoughts. Couldn’t I do this full time? And get paid for it? Maybe not as much as I’m used to, but enough to pay the bills?

Unexpected encouragement
Crazy enough the response I got from people around me was ‘Go for it’, ‘Do what makes you happy!’ Definitely not what I expected. When I wanted to go into arts after high school (dance at the time), the response was quite different. So now, I looked into several possibilities, like the Royal Academy of Art. Visiting the academy on graduation day seeing all the projects of all the students, I felt really out of place. No idea why, but this wasn’t me.

I started doubting everything again. Maybe it just wasn’t for me. Let’s not get carried away with dreams and just do what I know I can, choose (financial) stability. It’s the smart thing to do with 2 small kids. And although that idea didn’t seem that stressful anymore, and I actually was getting motivated again, I came across the mastery program of the Milan Art Institute. I think I thought about it for about an hour and I enrolled myself. Not overthinking how I would combine that with starting the office job again. It just felt right.

Zero regrets
Now, 2 months in, I’m so glad I started. I learned so much already. I’m starting to feel more confident in my skills, in expressing myself. I just can’t wait to see where I’ll be in a year artistically. To answer the question if art can be turned into a career.. I have no idea. For now, I’m just enjoying the process. Who knows where it will lead to. 

On that matter, check out the paintings and drawings I made these last 2 months! I love them so much! A selection is available already in my webshop.

x Paulien